1611-20 1621-30 1631-40 1641-50
1651-60 1661-70 1671-80 1681-90 1691-1700
1601 Dutch defeat the Portuguese in a naval battle in the Indonesian Archipelago (the Spice Islands).
1602 Shah Abbas of Iran drives the Portuguese from Bahrain.
1602 The Dutch government (United Netherlands) grants the Dutch East India Company a monopoly to pursue trade in Asia.
1602 William Shakespeare has written: "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven. (From All's Well that Ends Well, first performed in 1602.)
1603 Japan's royal court recognizes the military dominance of Tokugawa Ieyasu and grants him the title of shogun. His military government is based at Edo (Tokyo).
1603 A frail Queen Elizabeth dies at age 69. She is succeeded by a Calvinist and devout Presbyterian, King James VI of Scotland, eldest son of Elizabeth's cousin, Mary I, Queen of Scots. James becomes James I, King of England, Ireland and Scotland. Scotland is no longer independent.
1604 James dislikes England's Puritans but he agrees to their request for an official translation of the Bible – to be known as the Authorized King James Bible – in place of three other versions: the Geneva Bible, the Great Bible (an English language translation authorized by Henry VIII) and the (Anglican) Bishop's Bible.
1605 A plot by extremist Catholics to blow up the Britain's Parliament fails. The perpetrators are hanged.
1605 With the help of British advisors, an Iranian army defeats an Ottoman army of greater size.
1606 The Dutch "discover" northern Australia – at what today is called Cape York Peninsula.
1607 A London company has sent three ships and a small group to what today is the state of Virginia, and there, in the spring, on an island in a river, a settlement is founded, the river to be named after King James, as is the town – James Towne.
1607 The Dutch defeat a Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
1608 Frenchmen interested in trading with the Indians and in animal furs build a settlement at Quebec. Only 8 of the 28 settlers are to survive the first winter. More settlers are to arrive in the spring.
1609 Henry Hudson, employed by the Dutch East India Company, anchors off Manhattan Island and trades with local Indians. He then sails up the river to be named after him, to look for but not find a water way to the Far East.
1609 The Dutch have ended Portugal's domination of the Indian Ocean, and they establish a trading outpost on the western coast of India.
1609 The Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci, is surprised to find in China an attitude toward homosexuality different from that in Christendom. He finds homosexuality not illegal and people not reluctant to speak of it in public.
1609 Johann Kepler has discovered that Mars is moving about the sun not in a perfect circle but in an ellipse – contradicting Plato's belief about perfection and the heavens.
1610 Henry IV of France, a progressive king who is religiously tolerant, is assassinated by François Ravaillac, who is unbalanced and highly religious.
Copyright © 1998-2018 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.