Centuries

My historical work spans the Atlantic in the 3 Centuries outlined below.  This is the timeline I created for my students use in situating the reading assigned in my seminars on the provenance of the US Constitution.

1492 Columbus sails the ocean blue

• Desiderius Erasmus ordained

1494 Spain and Portugal divide ‘New World’ with Treaty of Tordesilla

1498 Vasco da Gama lands in India

1502 Pope Alexander VI’s son, Cesare Borgia with Machiavelli and da Vinci

1508 Maximillian I (Austrian/Habsburg) 1st elected Holy Roman Emperor

1509 Henry VIII assumes English throne

1516 Thomas More’s Utopia

1517 Luther’s 95 Theses

1518 Erasmus’ Colloquies

1519 Charles V (Spanish/Habsburg) elected Holy Roman Emperor

1520 Luther’s To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation

1521 Cortes’ conquistadors complete Spanish conquest of Aztec Empire

1524 Outbreak of German Peasants’ War

1525 Luther’s Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants

1529 Ottoman Siege of Vienna

1534 Act of Supremacy make Henry VIII head of the Church of England

●  Jacques Cartier explores and claims ‘New France’/Canada

1536 First Suppression Act begins dissolution of English monasteries

1542 Laws in Wales Acts concludes union with England

●  Crown of Ireland Act makes Henry VIII King of Ireland

1553 Catholic Queen (Bloody) Mary I assumes English throne

1555 Peace of Augsburg

●  Marian persecutions begin in England

1556 Ferdinand I (Spanish/Habsburg) elected Holy Roman Emperor

• Mughal Emperor Akbar begins rule

1558 Queen Elizabeth assumes throne

1562 Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

1587 Virginia Dare born in Roanoke, “The Lost Colony”

1588 English defeat Spanish Armada

1598 Edict of Nantes

1600 East India Company forms in England

1601 Bacon’s Essays

1603 James VI of Scotland become King James I of England and Ireland

1605 Mughal Emperor Akbar dies

1607 Settlement at Jamestown

1616 Smith’s Description of New England

1618 Outbreak of 30 Years War

1620 Mayflower Compact

1630 Winthrops’ Model of Christian Charity

1636 Pequot War

1642 English Civil War

1648 Treaty of Westphalia ends 30 Years War

1649 Charles I gets chopped

1650 Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation

●    Anne Bradstreet’s Poems

1651 Hobbes’ Leviathan

1654 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

1656 Harrington’s Oceana

1660 First Navigation Act

●    Restoration of Charles II

1663 Second Navigation Act

1667 New Netherland becomes New York

1669 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

1676 Bacon’s Rebellion in VA

1682 PA Frame of Government

1683 Ottomans defeated by Habsburgs in Battle of Vienna

1685 James II assumes English throne

●  Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France

1686 Dominion of New England

1688 Glorious Revolution replaces James II with William III and Mary II

1689 Leisler’s Rebellion in NY

1690 Locke’s Two Treatises

1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials

1702 Queen Anne assumes throne

1707 Articles of Union with Scotland

1709 William Byrd begins Secret Diary

1711 The Spectator

1714 German-born, George I assumes throne

1715 Yamasee War in SC

1720 Trenchard and Gordon begin Cato’s Letters

1727 George II assumes throne

1732 Charter of Georgia

1733 Molasses Act

1739 George Whitfield begins American sermons

●  War of Jenkins Ear/War of Austrian Seccession

1741 Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

1752 Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws

1754 Hume’s Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth

1756 Outbreak of 7 Years War

1760 George III assumes throne

1763 Proclamation Line

●  Pontiac’s Rebellion

1764 Sugar Act

1765 Stamp Act

1767 Townshend Acts

1773 Tea Act & Boston Tea Party

1775 Lexington and Concord

1776 Smith’s Wealth of Nations

●  Paine’s Common Sense

●  Declaration of Independence

1781 Articles of Confederation

●  British surrender at Yorktown

1786 Jefferson’s Bill for Religious Freedom becomes VA law

1787 Constitutional Convention

1788 US Federal Constitution takes effect

1789 The Federalist

●  Storming of Bastille

●  French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

●  George Washington becomes first US President

1790 Thirteenth State (RI) Ratifies Constitution

1791 Bill of Rights Ratified

1792 Louis XVI of France arrested

• George Washington re-elected

• First celebration of Columbus Day