Pre-RFD: soc.history.early-modern
Joe Bernstein
unmoderated group soc.history.early-modern
This is a preliminary Request For Discussion (pre-RFD) for the creation
of a worldwide unmoderated Usenet newsgroup, soc.history.early-modern.
This is purely intended to inform and gauge the opinions of readers of
these groups prior to the formal RFD, which will appear on
news.announce.newgroups and be discussed on news.groups, probably within
about two weeks. This is certainly not a Call For Votes (CFV); but you
can vote in a straw poll at this time, which concerns the starting date
for the group's period and the form of the group's charter, and which
will be posted as a followup to this post.
Please note that appropriate changes will be made throughout the
rationale and charter to reflect the starting date (if any) chosen.
The rationale and charter are presently written to reflect a starting
date of AD 1400.
Interested parties are invited to join either or both of two mailing
lists related to this proposal. early-modern is intended to serve
as a place to discuss the actual topics the group will discuss, until
the group's creation or defeat; to subscribe write to
early-mode...@postilion.org
with the word "subscribe" at the beginning of at least one line of
the message body. shemplanners is intended as a quasi-public place
to hash out details of the group's creation; posts about that, and
not about early modern history itself, belong on shemplanners not
early-modern. To subscribe write to
shemplanne...@postilion.org
with the word "subscribe" at the beginning of at least one line of
the message body. Please note that these are not listserv lists and
not all commands will work the same (also, shemplanners subscription
has to be acted on administratively so there may be a delay of a day
or two before your subscription starts). And please note that both
lists will be shut down as soon as the group is officially created
or defeated.
Newsgroup line:
soc.history.early-modern Early modern history worldwide, to 1800.
RATIONALE: soc.history.early-modern
Early modern history, as often defined, is an era of history in
various areas of the world which centres on roughly the 17th century
AD. There is much disagreement about when it begins and ends, but
for the purpose of this proposal the period runs from about 1400 to
about 1800 for all areas of the world.
There is much interest in early modern history on Usenet, but
currently there is no Usenet newsgroup specifically dedicated to the
topic, and discussion is often fragmented. Both soc.history and
soc.history.moderated are appropriate. In an eleven-day period in
May, there were 98 posts on early modern topics to soc.history, and
one or two to soc.history.moderated. However, during an overlapping
seven-day period, there were 154 such posts to soc.history.medieval,
where they are off-topic. Despite this fact, in soc.history.medieval,
DejaNews shows over 1700 posts just in 1998 whose subject lines contain
the keyword "SHEM", developed after planning for this newsgroup began
last year; of these, probably 300 or 400 concern the creation of the
group, but other recent discussions dealt with Martin Luther, the movie
"The Man with the Iron Mask", gunpowder weapons, the European voyages
of discovery, and early modern Southeast Asia. Discussion on
soc.history.medieval to date has shown near-unanimous support for the
creation of soc.history.early-modern.
In addition, at least one group (soc.war.us-revolutionary) covers a
subset of this period. Others cover topics which overlap with it
(soc.history.science, soc.history.war.misc), or deal with the topic
in a different way (soc.history.what-if, soc.history.living). Early
modern arts are discussed in humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare and
rec.music.early. None of this traffic is likely to move to
soc.history.early-modern (in fact, very little of it is more on-
topic for soc.history.early-modern than for its present location).
Still, it is clear that wherever possible, early modern history is
discussed on Usenet, in some cases heavily discussed. So it is
reasonable to expect a group dedicated specifically to that subject
to succeed.
The existing groups soc.history.medieval and soc.history.ancient
demonstrate that unmoderated groups for specific historical periods
are viable. Soc.history.early-modern fits naturally into this Usenet
sub-hierarchy and seems its natural culmination, given that
soc.history and soc.history.moderated are already dominated by
discussion of more recent history. The name for the period,
"early modern", while less intuitive than "ancient" or "medieval",
is the standard scholarly name, is reasonably clear, and is preferable
to several alternatives considered since discussion began last year
(e.g. "renaissance", "1400to1800", ...).
CHARTER: soc.history.early-modern
This is a newsgroup for discussion of the history of all peoples from
about 1400 to about 1800 - the era after widespread Mongol, and before
widespread European, domination of world history, from Timur the
Lame's death to Napoleon's rise.
MATERIAL FOR THE STRAW POLL FOLLOWS
OPTION 1
No topic list here.
OPTION 2
The following paragraph/short topic list here.
Some examples of appropriate topics include, among many other
possibilities:
- military (artillery, muskets, firearms trading...)
- political (absolutism, gunpowder empires, mercantilism...)
- economic (trading companies, African slave trade, crop exchange...)
- intellectual (Renaissance, scientific revolution, rationalism...)
- religious (Sikhism, the Reformation, Shi`ite Persia...)
- people (Akbar, Askia Muhammad, Cheng Ho, Galileo, Moctezuma,
Pocahontas, Suleyman, whoever interests you ...)
- ecological (disease exchange, deforestations...)
- whatever other early modern topic strikes your fancy.
(Pirates! The Taj Mahal! <Gulliver's Travels>! ... :-)
OPTION 3
The following numbered topic list here.
Early modern topics include, among others:
1. the long transition in the West from mediaeval to modern, which
began with the Renaissance and the age of exploration, and led,
through the scientific, agricultural and commercial revolutions,
to the Enlightenment and the age of political revolution;
2. the rise of land empires (e.g. the Spanish, Russian, Ottoman and
Mughal ones) based on new tools military (e.g. artillery) and
political (e.g. absolutism), and of alternatives to such empires
(e.g. New England, Dahomey, Tokugawa Japan);
3. the transformation of the Old World trading systems, established
earlier by Mongols and Muslims, into a worldwide system dominated
by Europeans;
4. the resulting effects of intercontinental exchanges of crops,
diseases, and weapons;
5. explorations by Europeans and others, and the encounters between
indigenous peoples and explorers, traders and settlers;
6. population movements, such as European settlement in, and
transport of African slaves to, the Americas;
7. religious changes such as the Reformation and Counter-Reformation,
the foundation of Sikhism, Muslim and Christian expansion, and
the rise of Shi`ite Persia;
8. people: Akbar, Askia Muhammad, Cheng Ho, Galileo, Moctezuma,
Pocahontas, Suleyman ... and of course Blackbeard the pirate;
9. anything other early modern topic.
END OF OPTIONS; ALL CHARTERS INCLUDE THE REST
The boundaries between this group and soc.history.medieval and any
possible modern history group, should one be formed, are intended to be
flexible. The roots of any period reach back to the one before, and
its fruits to the following one. It should be possible for discussion
pertaining to early-modern topics to extend both before and after the
time period defined here, in order to explore their causes and ends.
Appropriate postings include discussions of appropriate topics, FAQs,
booklists, personal insight essays, announcements of new publications
and research, analyses of historical patterns, reviews of current
research and media programs, etc.
Cross-posting should usually be avoided. Before starting a thread
posters should consider whether another group is more appropriate. If
a topic is near the beginning of the group's period, it might do
better in soc.history.medieval; if it's near the end, it might do
better in soc.history or soc.history.moderated. When posting about a
topic for which a more specialised group already exists - such as
Shakespeare (humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare), the American
Revolution (soc.history.war.us-revolution), music (rec.music.early),
or Mesoamerican archaeology (sci.archaeology.mesoamerican) - it is
usually best to use the specialised group. Topics for which an
alternative history group exists - such as war (soc.history.war.misc)
or science (soc.history.science) - may be posted either there or in
soc.history.early-modern, perhaps with a pointer to direct readers of
the other group to the discussion.
Inappropriate postings include:
- postings on "what-if" alternate history speculations (use
soc.history.what-if);
- postings about current events as rooted in the past (use
soc.history or a politics group);
- postings about re-enactment of history (use soc.history.living);
- postings about unverifiable events and fantasy cultures (unless the
fantasies were in fact written in the early modern period and are
being discussed in relation to that period).
*Totally* inappropriate postings include:
- advertisements and commercial posts, with the exception of short,
non-hype, and infrequent (less than one per month) announcements of
books and other media on the topic of early modern history;
- binary files (excluding short signatures such as PGP signatures),
which should be placed on the Web, or offered by e-mail, or posted
to alt.binaries.pictures.misc etc.;
- inappropriate cross-posts (usually, cross-posts to more than three
groups total, including soc.history.early-modern).
This group is unmoderated, allowing anyone with the proper access to
participate in discussions.
This charter is subject to modification to the extent that newsgroups
named in it may be renamed or removed, or other newsgroups relevant
to early modern history may be created.
END CHARTER.
PROCEDURE:
This is a preliminary request for discussion. The purpose of this
posting is to solicit votes in the straw polls on charter format and
starting date, and to inform interested readers that the real RFD
is coming soon, after nearly a year of preparations. You can vote
in the straw polls at this time, but the official newsgroup creation
process does not begin until the real RFD appears in
news.announce.newgroups. For now, it would help if discussion of
this proposal remains concentrated in soc.history.medieval and in
the shemplanners mailing list.
The regular procedure that then follows is explained in the
following standard text.
This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase
of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroup
should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue
for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this
proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For
Votes (CFV) will be posted by a neutral vote taker. Please do not
attempt to vote until this happens.
All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.
This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How
to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these
documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any
questions about the process.
DISTRIBUTION:
This RFD will be posted to the following newsgroups:
news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, soc.history,
soc.history.medieval, soc.history.moderated,
soc.history.war.us-revolution, humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare,
rec.music.early
and the following mailing lists, assuming permission is received
from the lists' owners:
EARLY-MODERN Early Modern History
(temporary list until this group is created or defeated)
early-mode...@postilion.org
SHEMPLANNERS Planning for soc.history.early-modern
(temporary list until this group is created or defeated)
shemplanne...@postilion.org
H-OIEAHC Colonial and Early American History
list...@h-net.msu.edu
HABSBURG Culture and History of the Central
European Habsburg Monarchy and
its successor states, 1500 - present
list...@vm.cc.purdue.edu
C18-L 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion
list...@lists.psu.edu
PIRATES
majo...@listbox.com ??
[[Information about the current location or status of this list
is requested. Thanks!]]
EARLYSCIENCE-L History of Science Society - Early Science Interest Group
list...@listserv.vt.edu
HISTARCH Historical Archaeology
list...@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
POST1492 History of Spanish American Contacts
RENAIS-L Early Modern History - Renaissance
list...@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
EARAM-L Society of Early Americanists
list...@listserv.kent.edu
GEMCS-L Early modern culture, both eastern and western
GEM...@vaxc.hofstra.edu
(Use a Subject: line of "informational question"
and expect an answer from Kevin LaGrandeur or
Jody DeRitter.)
FICINO Discussion of the Renaissance and Reformation
list...@listserv.utoronto.ca
MINGLIST The Society for Ming Studies
majo...@colby.edu
INDOLOGY Indology
list...@liverpool.ac.uk
SLAVERY The history of slavery, the slave trade,
abolition, and emancipation
list...@listserv.uh.edu
Following this RFD's appearance on news.groups, pointers to it
will be posted to the following newsgroups:
soc.history.what-if, soc.history.living, soc.history.science
and a full copy will be posted, with followups set to news.groups,
to soc.history.war.misc.
Proponent: Joe Bernstein <jos...@tezcat.com>
Proponent: Curt Emanuel <cema...@accs.net>
Proponent: Mark Swann <sw...@sanger.ac.uk>
Joe Bernstein
pre-RFD. Please reply as fully as you care to by adding text after
the individual questions, *not* at the top or bottom of the whole set
of questions. Please *do* copy this post in your reply so we don't
have to guess which answer goes with which question. Please make
sure your reply is mailed to <jos...@tezcat.com>; your newsreading
program is broken if that doesn't happen by default. Replies that
are posted to Usenet, but not mailed, will certainly not be counted,
and replies should not be posted to Usenet anyway.
There are two basic questions, one of which has some sub-questions.
For discussion of the issues, please refer to threads with the
keyword "SHEM" in soc.history.medieval over the past two or three
weeks.
ONE.
Three different options were outlined for the topic list in the
charter:
- no topic list
- a short topic list
- a long topic list (nine numbered points)
Which do you prefer?
Which do you like least?
TWO.
This question has to do with the starting date for the group's period.
Please note that any starting date (as also the ending date, 1800)
is only a guideline, not a rigid rule, as outlined in the proposed
charter.
Relevant facts include:
soc.history.medieval is chartered from roughly 500 to 1500.
soc.history.ancient is chartered up to 700.
Some people believe soc.history.medieval's charter confines it to
Europe and the Mediterranean, others do not; in practice discussion
of other areas is accepted on the group.
Please indicate the nature of your interest in this poll:
Are you interested in reading soc.history.early-modern?
Are you concerned about the creation of soc.history.early-modern having
an effect on another group you read?
(These are the two standard reasons to be interested in a group's
creation. The second reason ordinarily implies that the interested
party will not vote YES but may vote NO, unless that party is very
interested in getting rid of the traffic the proposed group would
include. Hence this question and the distinctions made below.)
Here are the six options for starting date:
about 1350 about 1400 about 1450 about 1500 about 1550 None
(Note. "None" means an RFD written to emphasise the topics central
to the group without naming a specific starting date. It would not
be easy to use no starting date and also no topic list in the charter.)
In the following questions, "vote" refers to the vote on the group's
creation, where a YES helps the group's creation and a NO means you
are acting to oppose it, while an ABSTAIN has no effect. "Vote" does
*not* refer to this straw poll.
If you are interested in reading the group, please list the starting
dates you could vote YES for, from your most favoured to your least
favoured.
If you are not interested in reading the group, please list the
starting dates you could ABSTAIN from the vote on, from your most
favoured to your least favoured.
In either case, please list any starting dates which could lead you to
vote NO.
Thank you for taking the time to help in creating soc.history.early-modern.
THE PROPONENTS
Donald Tucker
> REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
> unmoderated group soc.history.early-modern
>
> This is a preliminary Request For Discussion (pre-RFD) for the creation
> of a worldwide unmoderated Usenet newsgroup, soc.history.early-modern.
Here is a *very* rough draft of a timeline that might assist
posters to soc.history.early-modern, which according to the
proposed charter:
"...is a newsgroup for discussion of the history of all
peoples from about 1400 to about 1800 - the era after
widespread Mongol, and before widespread European, domination
of world history, from Timur the Lame's death to Napoleon's
rise,"
by providing a timeline to cover the period from about 1400 to
about 1800.
I have *excluded* European medieval events, except insofar as they
are needed to put SHEM topics into context.
The timeline is somewhat long for a post. I will cut future versions
into sections.
My draft is far too Eurocentric and needs considerable
revision to assist with discussion of the topics suggested
in the draft charter (long version), i.e.:
Early modern topics include, among others:
1. the long transition in the West from mediaeval to modern, which
began with the Renaissance and the age of exploration, and led,
through the scientific, agricultural and commercial revolutions,
to the Enlightenment and the age of political revolution;
2. the rise of land empires (e.g. the Spanish, Russian, Ottoman and
Mughal ones) based on new tools military (e.g. artillery) and
political (e.g. absolutism), and of alternatives to such empires
(e.g. New England, Dahomey, Tokugawa Japan);
3. the transformation of the Old World trading systems, established
earlier by Mongols and Muslims, into a worldwide system dominated
by Europeans;
4. the resulting effects of intercontinental exchanges of crops,
diseases, and weapons;
5. explorations by Europeans and others, and the encounters between
indigenous peoples and explorers, traders and settlers;
6. population movements, such as European settlement in, and
transport of African slaves to, the Americas;
7. religious changes such as the Reformation and Counter-Reformation,
the foundation of Sikhism, Muslim and Christian expansion, and
the rise of Shi`ite Persia;
8. people: Akbar, Askia Muhammad, Cheng Ho, Galileo, Moctezuma,
Pocahontas, Suleyman ... and of course Blackbeard the pirate;
9. any other early modern topic.
Here is the draft.
I welcome suggestions for improvement. It gets progressively
thinner year by year. My apologies to persons interested in the
18th century. I only reached as far as the mid 17th for this
version.
Needless to say there are factual errors. I would also
appreciate notes correcting the errors.
## Roots before 1400 ## :
17 Hippalus, a Greek mariner, used the monsoon wind to sail
between Arabia and India. The direct sea trade provided
the means for Rome to import large quantites of spice
and Eastern luxury goods.
595 Muhammed, founder of Islam, married a spice-rich widow.
Islam rapidly expands to West and East, where it gains
a monopoly of the spice trade from East to West.
900 Venice had developed into a commercial power, principally
in spices, and provided the initial impetus to changes
from early Western commerical methods.
1095 The Crusades began. They encouraged the Western elite to
improve their lifestyle by consuming Eastern luxury
products.
1165 A forged letter by the mythical Prester John was circulated
widely in Europe and tantalized readers with the possiblility
of a Christian kingdom in the East.
1298 Marco Polo returned to Venice from East Asia with tales
of the location of spices and awakened Europe to the
possibilites of direct European trade.
1304 Petrarch born.
1313 Boccachio born.
1328 John Wyclif born.
1366 Petrarch wrote "Canzoniere."
The Fuggers came as weavers to Augsburg.
1368 China replaced Mongol rule with domestic rule by
the Ming, which lasted until 1644. The half millenium of the
Ming dynasty and the follwoing Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
is sometimes called late traditional China.
Restoration of Great Wall begun.
1370 Steel crossbow used as weapon of war.
Van Eyck, Dutch painter, born.
1374 Petrarch died.
1375 Boccachio died.
1377 Filippo Brunelleschi born.
1378-81 War of the Chioggia between Venice and Genoa, which
began centuries of wars in Italy that prevented unification
on the French or English model.
1378 Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor, born.
1380 Timur began his campaigns. They lasted until his death in 1405.
1382 John Wyclif's doctrines condemed by London Synod and he
was expelled from Oxford.
1384 John Wyclif died.
1386 Donatello born.
1390 John Wyclif's doctrines reached Bohemia.
1392 The Asjikagas became shoguns of Muromachi.
1393 Bajazet subdued Bulgaria. Under Turkish control
for next half millennium.
1396 Manuel Chrysoloras opened Greek classes in Florence, which
began the Greek revival in Italy.
Bajazet defeated Christian army under Sigismund of Hungary
at Nicopolis.
1397 Gutenberg born.
Pisanello, Italian painter, born.
1398 Jan Hus lectured on theology at Prague University.
## 15th century ##:
1400 _The Travels of Sir John Mandeville_ was published by an
English knight describing real and fantastic experiences in
the East.
Rogier van der Weyden, Dutch painter, born
1401 Timur conquered Damascus and Baghdad.
Masaccio, Italian painter, born.
1402 Timur defeated Bajazet at Ankara and took him prisoner.
1402 Port of Malacca founded on Malay Penininsula by Prince
Paramesvara, a refugee from Sumatra.
1403-24 Yung Lo emperor. Established by violence against
his nephew.
1403-33 Chinese naval expeditions through the southern seas
to obtain commerce and military prestige, as well as to
reduce the calims of the deposed nephew of the emperor.
1405 Timur died.
1405-7 Cheng Ho brought back in chains the king of Ceylon.
1408 Donatello sculpted "David" and "St. John."
1408-11 Cheng Ho brought back in chains the prince of Palembang (Sumatra)
1410 Jan Hus and followers excommunicated by Archbishop of Prague.
1411 Jan Hus excommunicated by Pope John XXIII.
1412 Filippo Brunelleschi wrote "The Rules of perspective."
Donatello sculpted "St. Peter," St. George," "St. Mark."
1412-5 Cheng Ho travelled as far as Hormuz, 16 southern states
sent tribute.
1415 Jan Hus burnt at the stake for heresy.
1416-9 Cheng Ho travelled as far as Aden. Further missions in
1421-22 and 1424. Other eunuchs led additonal expeditions.
1418 Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator founds navigation
academy to expedite the quest for Eastern spices.
1419 Filippo Brunelleschi designed the Foundling Hospital, Florence.
1420 Filippo Brunelleschi designed the cupola of of Florence cathedral.
1421 Capital transferred to Beijing.
1423 Georg Purbach, Austrian mathematician and astronomer born.
1426 Van Eyck, Dutch painter, died.
1428 Masaccio, Italian painter, died.
Giovanni Bellini, Venetian painter, born.
1430 Large cast iron gun "Mad Marjorie."
1431 Andrea Mantegna, Italian painter, born.
1431-33 Cheng Ho led a seventh and final embassy to 20 states.
Mecca and ten others sent tribute.
1432 Gonzalo Cabral, Portuguese mariner, discovered the Azores.
1434 Cosimo Medici became ruler of Florence, until 1464.
Joao Diaz, Portuguese mariner, rounded Cape Bojador.
c.1436 Gutenberg invented printing from movable type.
1437 John Dunstable developed counterpoint in musical composition.
1438 Pachacutec founded Inca rule in Peru.
1440 Platonic academy founded in Florence.
1441 Portuguese mariners purchase slave traded Blacks
near Cape Blanc.
1444 Botticelli born.
1445 Portuguese mariner Diniz Diaz discovered Cape Verde.
1446 Filippo Brunelleschi died.
1423 Georg Purbach, Austrian mathematician and astronomer died.
1466 Masaccio, Italian painter, died.
1449 Chinese emperor captured in battle at Tumu by the chief
of a new Mongol federation (Oirat) of four tribes
1450 Pisanello, Italian painter, died.
1452 Leonardo da Vinci born.
1452-5 First printed Bible, attributed to Gutenberg. Other
early printed books included _The Travels of Sir John
Mandeville_, which gave the narrative a wide readership.
1455 Lorenzo Ghiberti, Italian sculptor, died.
1466 Donatello died.
1469 Machiavelli born.
1468 Gutenberg died.
1469 Pliny's _Historia naturalis_ published, the first printed
scientific work.
1473 Copernicus born.
1477 Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_ published.
Botticelli painted his _Primavera_.
1483 Luther and Guicciardini born.
1492 Leonardo da Vinci drew a flying machine.
Lorenzo de Medici, "the Magnificent," died.
The Inquistion gave Jews three months to accept
Christianity or leave Spain. Many fled to Holland.
Ferdinand and Isabella financed Columbus for a voyage
west to China.
1493 Borgia Pope Alexander VI divided the unexplored world
between Spain and Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
1498 Michaelangelo completed his _Pietà_ at St. Peter's in Rome.
Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Despair (now Cape of Good
Hope) to open a sea route to India.
## 16th century ## :
1504-6 Venice sent ambassadors to the sultan of Turkey and
proposed construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez.
Portuguese founded spice factories on India's east coast.
Francis Xavier, "the Apostle of the Indies," was born.
Columbus died.
1507 Luther was ordained.
America named after Amerigo Vespucci, and the Americas
were described as distinct from Asia.
1509 Henry VIII became English king at age 18 and married his
brothers widow, Catherine of Aragon.
Magellan and Serrão reached Malacca and were forced to
retreat to India.
Michaelangelo began to paint the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel, and completed the fresco in 1534.
1510 Botticelli died.
1510-2 American east coast explored as far as Charleston.
Leonardo da Vinci desgined the horizontal water wheel -- the
principle of the water turbine.
Portuguese led by Albuuerque conquered Malacca.
Three Portuguese ships sail to the Moluccas (The Spice
Islands that produced cloves and nutmeg) where Serrão remained
as Western advisor to Emir of Ternate.
1516 Charles I became King of Spain from 1516. He also becomes
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, as Charles V, in 1519. He
held both crowns and dominated Europe until his death in 1556.
Machiavelli published Il Principe.
Giovanni Bellini, Venetian painter, died.
1517 Luther posted the 95 theses, with the idea of justification
by faith and attacks on sale of indulgences and other papal
abuses.
1519 Leonardo da Vinci died.
Magellan, financed by Charles V, the 18 year old Holy Roman
Emperor, sailed westward from Spain to the Moluccas with
several ships.
Cortés brought Arabian horses from Spain to North America.
1521 Magellan killed in the Philippines.
Serrão poisoned by enemies in the Moluccas.
Cortés gained control of Mexico.
Luther was examined at the Diet of Worms.
1522-4 The single surviving ship of Magellan's expedition returned
to Spain after the first circumnavigation of the globe with
sufficent spices to cover all costs.
Vasco da Gama died.
Giovanni da Verrazano discovered the Hudson River.
1526 Habsburgs acquired Bohemia, located in the present day Czech
Republic.
1527 Paracelsus born.
Machiavelli died.
1531 Henry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church of
England.
1540 Guicciardini died. His _Istoria d'Italia_ was published
posthumously in 1561.
1541 Paracelsus died. He had crusaded for the use of chemicals
to treat disease. He introduced the system of of three
prime "elements" (salt, sulphur, and mercury) from which
all things are made.
1543 Copernicus published _De revolutionibus orbium coelestium_,
which argued that the planets, inculding the earth, circle
around a stationary sun.
Copernicus died.
1546 Francis Xavier sailed from Malacca for the Moluccas.
Martin Luther died.
1552 Xavier died off the coat of China.
Titian painted his life portrait.
1556 Charles V died, dividing the Habsburg possessions, with
his son Philip II in Spain, who ruled until 1598.
Spain under Philip II was still very powerful. The Treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) left Spain as the dominant European
colonial power. But Spain was about to begin the wasteful
practices that would lead to decline under later kings.
Ignatius Loyola died.
1564 Shakespeare and Galileo born.
John Calvin and Michaelangelo died.
Spanish began to occupy the Philippines and to build Manila.
1567 Revolt of the Netherlands northern provinces against
Spanish rule. The struggle would last for a century and
bleed Spain of much of its wealth.
1567 Oda Nobunaga deposed the shogunate and centralized government.
1571 Spain defeated the Turks at the great naval battle of Lepanto.
Kepler born.
1572 Paris, Massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day, Catholics murdered
Huguenots, including Admiral Colligny, triggered fourth war
of religion in France
1574 French King Charles IX died. Henri, Duke of Anjou, became
French king.
1575-80 Portugal surrendered its Moluccas colony at Ternate.
England's Sir Martin Gilbert attempted a northwest passage
to the Moluccas and discovered Labrador.
Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe.
1580 Spanish King Philip II suceeded to the Portuguese throne,
progressively uniting the two empires. The Portuguese
began a long struggle for independence.
1581 The Dutch declared independence and the Spanish expended vast
amounts during the next century to stop their independence
and crush their Protestantism.
1584 Henri III recognized the Protestant Henri of Navarre
as heir presumptive in 1584, which led to civil war.
Sir Walter Ralegh discovered and claimed Virginia.
1588 The Great Armada sent by Spanish King Philip II to
destroy England met with complete disaster. Spain's
war with England continued in a desultory way until 1603.
After the defeat of the Armanda England and Holland began
to attack the Portuguese possessions and conquered many of
them before 1640.
1589-1610 Henri of Navarre, French king as Henri IV1589 to 1610
(ruled Navarre 1572-1610) escaped death in the Massacre of
Saint Bartholomew ruled, but had to abjure Protestantism in
1593 to secure the throne. During his reign France recovered
from the civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. The
Edict of Nantes of 1598 gave Huguenots equal rights with
Catholics, but by no means secured them entire freedom of
worship. It gave legal status to a kind of toleration not
yet formally recognized elsewhere. Trade and industry prospered
under his chief advisor, the duc du Sully (1560-1641). Henri of
Navarre was assassinated at age 57 by a religious fanatic.
1591-92 England's James Lancaster sailed to the Malay Peninsula.
1595 Dutch began to colonize the East Indies.
Shakespeare wrote _A Midsummer's Nights Dream_.
1596 Descartes born.
1597 Holland's Willem Barentsz attempted a northeast passage
to the Moluccas. He reached Nova Zembla and died on
his return.
## 17th century ## :
1600 Shakespeare wrote _Hamlet_.
The English East India Company was founded.
1602 The Dutch East India Company was founded.
1603 Queen Elizabeth died.
Parliament asked James of Scotland to become king.
James ordered arrest and imprisonment of Ralegh.
England founded its first colony on the tiny island
of Run in the Banda Islands, located in the southern
Moluccas.
1608? Fermat born.
1609 Hugo Grotius wrote _Mare Librium_. It advocted freedom of
the seas.
Rubens painted his self portrait with his wife.
The Dutch founded the Bank of Amsterdam.
The Dutch East India Company shipped tea from China
to Europe.
The Banda Islanders ambushed the Dutch settlers in a
"vile treachery."
Kepler published _Astronomia nova_, with his first two
laws of planetary motion. Planets move in ellipses with
the sun in once focus and the radius vector from the sun
to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
1610 Henry of Navarre died (1610) when he was in the midst of
great preparations for war in support of the claims of
Brandenberg. His son Louis XIII was only 9 years old and
ruled under the regency of his mother Marie de'Medici, who
removed Sully from office and placed the Italian Concini in
charge.
Galileo in _siderus nuncius_, revealed the results of the
first telescopic observations of celestial phenomena. He
used these observations to destroy the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
cosmology and to argue for the plausibility of the Copernican
system.
1611-2 The King James Bible was published.
Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay and died there.
John Donne composed the elegy "An Anatomy of the
World."
The Dutch used Manhattan as a fur-trading center.
El Greco painted the _Bptism of Christ_.
1612-9 Protestantism continued to spread. Actions in Bohemia,
ruled by the Habsburgs since 1529, led to a revolt which
opened a general conflict between Catholic and Protestant
Europe that was the most destructive war in Western society
before the World Wars of the 20th Century -- the Thirty
Years war.
Bohemia had generally converted to Protestantism. The issue
came to a head when the Bohemian king began to close Protestant
churches and transfered the administration to Catholic
governors.
The Hapsburg Mattias was Holy Roman Emperor. He
had been elected to the Bohemian throne by a strong
Protestant party in Bohemia. But he was old and feeble.
In 1617 he chose his cousin the Archduke Ferdinand to
succeed him as king of Bohemia. Ferdinand had been
educated by the Jesuits in strict Catholicism.
Protestants revolted in Prague. This included the famous
Defenstration of Prague in which the rebels marched into
the castle and threw some of the governors out the window
on May 23, 1618.
In 1619 Matthias died, childless, but having secured the
renunciation of his brothers in favor of Ferdinand.
He went to Frankfurt where the electors elected
him emperor Ferdinand II, in spite of the objections
of the Protestant states.
Meanwhile, the Bohemians deposed Ferdinand from the throne of
Bohemia and elected Frederick V, Elector Palatine, the Head
of the Union and of the German Calvinists, son-in-law of
James I, King of England.
Holland (The United Provinces), Denmark, Sweden, and the
Venetian Republic recognized Frederick as king. Catholic France
did not. Nor did Protestant England, which was suffering under
James I (r. 1603-25) who was hostile to Purtianism and
subservient to Catholic Spain ruled by Philip III (r.
1598-1621), a Hapsburg relative of Ferdinand II.
(contd. at 1619)
1614 Louis was declared of age, but he never escaped from
the guidance of others, culminating in Catholic Cardinal
Richelieu from 1624 to 1642. Richelieu was a poor financial
administrator but furthered the power of the royal
bureaucracy at the expense of the nobles, the Huguenots, and
the parliaments. He laid the basis for the centralized power
of Louis XIV and the excesses that led to the French Revolution.
1614 Ralegh wrote _The History of the World_ while imprisoned.
Pocahontas, an aboriginal American, married John
Rolfe, an Englishman.
1616 Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died.
Ralegh was freed from the tower of London to lead his
expedition to Guiana in search of El dorado.
The Catholic Church prohibited Galileo from doing
further scientific work.
The Banda islands of Run and Ali ask for protection
by England, thereby provoking the Dutch.
1618 Ralegh was executed after his return from a disasterous
expedition.
Francis Bacon became lord chancellor.
The Dutch promote Jan Pieterzoon to governor-general
of the Dutch East Indies. He institutes a reign of
terror in the islands.
1619 Thirty Years War (contd from 1612-9)
When conflict started the only serious military forces
nearby were Spanish, with their militant Catholicism and
family ties to the Austrian Habsburgs. Ferdinand did not have
a separate army, nor did neighboring Saxony have major
military forces. It took some time for the Catholic Princes
to invite Tilly to assist them and to create an army of their
own.
Kepler published _Harmonica mundi_ with his third law. The
squares of the periods of revolution of all planets are
proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.
1619 In France, the struggles between Protestants and Catholics
renewed with a new civil war in 1619.
1620 Thirty Years War (contd)
The Catholics defeated the Protestants at the Battle of White
Mountain on Novemeber 8, 1620. This led to total subjugation
of the Bohemians, destruction of the royal charter, execution
of the leading rebels and extirpation of Protestantism. This
was followed by violent counter-reformation in Austria.
this was the "Wallenstein period" of the war. Wallenstein
gained a fortune raised from lands confiscated in
Bohemia and raised an army.
Wallenstein operated as commander of an imperial army recruited
by himself and provisioned by a system of robbery.
1623-6 Ambon Massacre in the Molucca Islands.
James I died and was succeeded by his son Charles I.
Dutch founded a colony on the Hudson River.
1625-9 Thirty Years War (contd)
Danes intervened to defend the Protestants.
1625 In France, the struggles between Protestants and Catholics
produced a revolt of the Huguenots. This led to the siege of
La Rochelle in 1627-28 and defeat and complete subjugation
of the Huguenots.
1630-48 Thirty Years War (contd)
Swedes intervened to defend the Protestants.
1630 Kepler died.
1632 Galileo published _Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del
mondo Tolemaico e Copernico_, a polemic masterpiece that
demonstrated the superiority of the Copernican system over
the Church approved Potemaic system.
1633 Galileo forced by Inquistion to recant support of
Copernican theory.
1637 Descartes published _Discours de la méthode_, an introduction
to his philosophy and _La géometrie_, an analytic geometry
of representing geometric figures by algebraic equations,
and algebraic equations by geometric figures.
Pierre de Fermat simultaneously and independently developed
an analytic geometry.
1638 Galileo in _Discoursi e demonstrazione matematiche
intorno à due nuove science_ rstablished the basic
principles of a mathematical description of falling
bodies and projectile motion.
1648 Thirty Years War ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
Foundation of international relations.
1642 Galileo died.
1644 Descartes published _Principia philosophiae_ with
mechanistic explanations using matter and motion for
a wide range of phystical, chemical, and biological
phenomena.
1649-51 Charles I was executed and parliament declared
England a commonwealth.
Cromwell invaded Ireland.
The English began to drink tea.
The English passed the _English Navigation Act_ against the
Dutch.
The Dutch settled the Cape of Good Hope.
1650 Descartes died.
1652-64 First Anglo-Dutch War, a direct consequence of the
_English Navigation Act_ and the growing competition of the
English and Dutch, particularly in the East.
1658 The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from Celon, and thereby
seized control of the cinnamon trade.
1660 Declaration of Breda. Charles II of England promised religious
toleration, liberty of conscience and a general amnesty.
Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.
1661 Daniel Defoe born.
1665 Fermat died.
1665-67 Second Anglo-Dutch War, France and Denmark supported
the Dutch who maintained the upper hand at sea.
1666 Great Fire of London, recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary.
He also records the Great Plague of 1667.
1667 England, Holland and France made peace with the Treaty of
Breda. The Dutch ceded Manhattan in exchange for Surinam,
as well as English abandonment of their claims to Run in
the Moluccas.
Milton published _Paradise Lost_.
To be revised and continued....
sources include:
Charles Corn, _The Scents of Eden; A Narrative of the
Spice Trade_, (New York, Tokyo, London: Kodansha International,
1998) ISBN 1-56836-202-1 DS646.67.C67 959.8'5-dc21
Bernard Gunn, _The Timetables of History_ (Simon & Shuster,
Third edition, 1991)
William L. Langer, _An Encyclopedia of World History_ (Houghton
Mifflin, 4th edition, 1968).
Donald ___,__<@~__,___ Pteranodon Visioneering:
/^/^/^[#]^\^\^\ Views on the past, present and future.
logo _/|\_ World history; Alternate history FAQs; Maps
copyright 1996 " " © http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4123/
Joe Bernstein
In article <6t8rep$j4s$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu>, a little over one
week ago, I wrote:
> This post contains the straw polls for the soc.history.early-modern
> pre-RFD. Please reply as fully as you care to by adding text after
> the individual questions, *not* at the top or bottom of the whole set
> of questions. Please *do* copy this post in your reply so we don't
> have to guess which answer goes with which question. Please make
> sure your reply is mailed to <jos...@tezcat.com>; your newsreading
> program is broken if that doesn't happen by default. Replies that
> are posted to Usenet, but not mailed, will certainly not be counted,
> and replies should not be posted to Usenet anyway.
Nor should they be mailed any longer, since the straw poll was meant
to run for one week. My apologies for not mentioning this in the
original post.
Etc. My thanks go to those who replied, even though I didn't get
Everything I Wanted ;-). I *did* get votes from most of the people
I expected votes from (one surprising absence), and from enough others
to make me *very* optimistic about this proposal's chances in a vote.
Of the people who voted fewer than one in ten seems likely to be so
unhappy with the results as to vote NO on the group; this is in line
with what I expected even in the midst of the flamewar, and it's
wonderful to be able to say "I told you so" to folks who thought we'd
just get bogged down in flames forever more. (I look forward to seeing
y'all on the group anyway though! ;-)
The usual rule of thumb is that there *is* no rule of thumb regarding
straw poll votes versus CFV votes, but if you *demand* a rule it should
be 1:10. By that shaky standard we're looking at the usual soc.history*
300 or so votes. (Does the history of soc.history* votes make this a
"historical" enough post to get into soc.history.moderated? Hope so...)
Several mailing lists have already given approval for the RFD's posting
and we'll see about the rest. The pre-RFD needs to be turned into an
RFD, and one that acknowledges the straw poll results. I expect to be
able to post about that this weekend to soc.history.medieval, and to be
able to submit the real RFD early next week.
People are reminded that there's a mailing list meanwhile for early
modern topics - to subscribe, write to <early-mode...@postilion.org>
and say "subscribe" in the body of the message. There's actual
discussion happening there now. As for discussion of the proposal,
it's happening in soc.history.medieval until the RFD appears, at which
time it should happen in news.groups (cross-posting allowed but is it
really needed?).
Thanks
Joe Bernstein
--
Joe Bernstein, writer http://www.tezcat.com/~josephb/
Speaking for myself alone j...@sfbooks.com jos...@tezcat.com
Joe Bernstein
The results of the straw poll on the charter for soc.history.early-modern
have now been posted. I have posted them only to soc.history.medieval,
in part to ensure minimal delay due to moderation, in part to ensure
as few sites as possible drop the posts due to cross-posting, and in part
because they're derned long and I'd rather not take up that much space
in so many groups.
My apologies to soc.history.what-if readers; I did not post the straw polls
to that group because I did not have traffic statistics indicating strong
interest in the early modern period on that group. I've since been
corrected. I hope y'all saw a pointer, but if not, well, I'm sorry.
You will see a copy of the RFD.
The results are in three posts. The first includes the introduction and
the voter list - *please* be sure to check the voter list to make sure your
vote was counted, as I quite possibly did lose one or more votes. It
also includes the results of the poll on topic lists in the charter;
the "short topic list" won that poll easily. The post is three back in
this thread, if the references line is intact; or you can use this URL,
if you care to: <news:6u9jmj$6...@xochi.tezcat.com>
The second includes the results of the poll on the group's starting date.
This one is really long because I'd like still to be speaking to a few
of its readers in the morning. Anyway, 1500 won this poll, although
not so conclusively, a fact which I've dealt with by changing the charter.
The post is two back in this thread, I hope, or at this URL:
<news:6u9jsl$6...@xochi.tezcat.com>
The third includes the actual changes planned for the posting of the
first RFD. That RFD is coming hopefully this week and certainly no
later than Monday, as far as moderation delay can be avoided. The
changes include a caution against HTML, incorporating the 1500 date in
the charter, and some weasel wording to make it clear that Johannes
Gutenberg et al nevertheless remain clearly on-topic. Comments are
welcome. The post should be one back in this thread, or at this URL:
<news:6u9k2h$6...@xochi.tezcat.com>
This thread should finish up in soc.history.medieval, but we'll be in
news.groups quite soon. Thanks to all who voted, and I look forward
to lots more people voting when it comes time to create the group ;-)!!