(Go straight down to the Bacon’s Rebellion section by clicking here.) Here we are at 1676 CE. A hundred years hence there will be a somewhat significant Unilateral Declaration of Independence by some European settlers in North America against their colonial metropole, but that is still far in the future. What we had in the … Continue reading 1676: A settler-extremist rampage in Virginia. The last months of Metacomet’s Uprising. Other world news. →

1675 CE feels like an emotional year for me to write about. As an English-origined settler living in North America I totally realize that I am here because of White privilege and as a beneficiary/participant in the continuing story of “White”, English land-grabbing, exploitation, and dispossession of these lands. I live in the traditional lands … Continue reading 1675: Indigenes and enslaved resist English colonists in New England, Caribbean →

In 1674 CE, the main development in world affairs was the crowning of the Maratha Hindu leader Shivaji as Chhatrapati (“paramount sovereign”)– potentially of all of India. The growth of Maratha power under Shivaji was starting to pose a challenge to the control the (Afghan-origined) Mughals had been exercising over much of the subcontinent over … Continue reading 1674: Marathas’ Shivaji curbs Mughal power in India. Franco-Dutch war. Etc. →

1673 CE was not a great year for England’s King Charles. The war against the Dutch United Provinces was (a) not going well and (b) leading to increasing political turmoil at home. By year’s end he was ready to make a (separate) peace with the Dutch– and in fact I’ll take today’s bulletin through the … Continue reading 1673: War with Dutch leads to political conflict in England. France does global exploring. Etc. →

Just two years earlier, in 1670 CE, France’s King Louis XIV had persuaded England’s King Charles II to conclude the “Secret Treaty of Dover”, that bound Charles to joining in an upcoming French attack against the Dutch, and in May 1672 the attack was launched. (Charles also committed to becoming a Catholic. It is unclear … Continue reading 1672: Anglo-French attack on Dutch UP’s →