1717
1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720
Contents: political eventscommerce technology education art theater, film architecture, real estate population |
The triple alliance formed January 4 by Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic forces the Old Pretender James III to leave France. James has intrigued with the Swedish king Karl (Charles) XII and the Spanish prime minister Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, 53.
Cardinal Alberoni sends a secret Spanish expeditionary force to seize Sardinia and raid Sicily while Eugene of Savoy is away fighting the Ottoman Turks (see 1718).
An Austrian army commanded by Eugene of Savoy takes Belgrade from the Turks (see Peace of Passarowitz, 1718).
Spain creates the viceroyalty of New Granada with its seat of power at Bogotá to reduce the viceroyalty of Peru to more manageable size (see 1529; 1539; 1776).
France nationalizes the private bank opened last year by Scottish monetary reformer John Law, which becomes the Banque Royale. It pays the debts of the regent Philippe d'Orléans, and it issues notes that the government accepts for taxes and other royal revenue. These notes are backed in principle by bullion in its vaults, but their value is in fact based largely on the gold alleged to exist in France's Louisiana territory. The regent and Parlement give Law a 25-year monopoly on trade in Louisiana and exploitation of the riches of the Mississippi Valley and New France (Canada) on condition that he send out at least 6,000 whites and 3,000 blacks to settle a vast territory that includes the Illinois country, which is rich in furs, as is New France. Law establishes the Compagnie d'Occident to encourage emigration to Louisiana and agrees to pay down some of France's huge national debt out of the company's profits, but investors are initially reluctant to buy shares in the new venture (see 1718).
Ironmaster Abraham Darby dies at Madeley Court in his native Worcestershire March 8 at age 38 (approximate), having laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution with his coke ovens and cast iron. His 6-year-old son and namesake will take over his business, and by 1758 will have cast more than 100 Newcomen steam-engine cylinders at Coalbrookdale (see transportation [iron bridge], 1781).
Prussia makes school attendance compulsory, but few families send their daughters to school.
Painting: Embarkation for the Isle of Cythera by Antoine Watteau, who is admitted at last to the French Academy at age 32.
Theater: Actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, 25, gives her first performance at the Comédie-Française, appearing in the 1708 play Electra (Elèctre) by Prosper Jolyot, sieur de Crébillon. She attracts admirers who will soon include the author François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 23, (Hermann-) Maurice, comte de Saxe, 21, and Charles Mordaunt, 3rd earl of Peterborough, 59 (see 1730).
London's St. Mary-Le-Strand is completed by Scottish architect James Gibbs, 35, after 3 years of construction.
A great emigration to the Pennsylvania colony begins among German Dunkers, Mennonites, and Moravians (see Schwenkfelders, 1734).
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