1681 In London a woman is flogged for the crime of having become involved in politics.
1682 Robert Cavalier LaSalle claims the Mississippi River valley for France.
1682 Tsar Theodor III dies without a son. Peter, age 10, is made tsar, with his mother as regent. A war within the royal family ensues, with Peter witnessing the murder of his mother's family. A council of nobles, trying to settle matters, makes Peter a co-tsar with his unhealthy sixteen-year-old brother, Ivan.
1683 Japan is benefiting from an era of peace, order and prosperity. Food production has risen. The use of money has spread to Japan's farmers. Merchant values such as thrift and prudence in all things mixes with Confucianism's regard for order.
1683 Taiwan submits to Manchu authority.
1683 Tenant farming continues to dominate Korea's agriculture, with slaves laboring for some landowners. Except for small peddlers and rural crafts, commerce is government controlled. Law keeps people bound to their place of work. Confucianism inhibits economic growth, the Confucianists believing that exchange should be that of gift-giving rather inspired by gain.
1683 The Ottoman Empire is trying to resume its conquests of centuries before. An Ottoman army penetrates the outer fortifications of Vienna – during what is to be known as the Second Siege of Vienna. An army of 70,000 Habsburg and Polish troops are on their way to rescue the city.
1684 Around what today is Zimbabwe, following the breakdown of other African empires, cattle owners have been competing for power, and the cattle owner who emerges supreme has been Changamire Dombo, who controls gold mining and, backed by warriors, collects tributes. He is building an empire and begins expelling the Portuguese.
1686 Isaac Newton presents his Principia, Book I, to the Royal Society. He is changing how people see the world, replacing the magic of the gods with an understanding of gravity, inertia and physical force and counter force. A contemporary poet, Alexander Pope, is to write his epitaph as "nature's laws hid by night, God said Let Newton be! and All was light!"
1687 The Ottomans are falling back. The Austrians push them from Hungary and the city of Budapest.
1688 Hostility to Catholicism and to King James II results in a rebellion against his rule. Parliament has invited a European royal, William of Orange, to rule. William lands with an army and defeats the army of James II – whose overthrow is called the Glorious Revolution.
1689 Parliament creates a Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act. Freedom of speech is guaranteed. People have the right to petition government. They are to be free from cruel and unusual punishments. They are not to be compelled to become members of the Church of England.
1689 The philosopher John Locke returns to England from Holland. He gives conscious ideology to Whig liberalism. He rejects church authority in matters of philosophy and science. He has advocated that churches be voluntary societies rather than appendages of higher authority associated with the state, as has been the Anglican Church. He rejects political power derived from the authority of God, as in rule by divine right of the old monarchies. He is afraid of the passions of the masses and advocates religious tolerance. Not quite a century later his ideas would be a part of the constitution created by the American Revolution.
1690 At a village 60 miles upriver in the Ganges delta, The British East India Company founds a trading post – Calcutta.
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