Democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors, who shall be governed?
- Massachusetts Puritan minister John Cotton (not a big fan of democracy)
When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory.
- Pierre Corneille, Le Cid
In the year AD 1636...
- The Thirty Years' War staggers on into its 18th year.
- With Sweden bogged down in a seemingly hopeless war on the Continent and running desperately low on cash, Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna turns to diplomacy, attempting to play off the Germans and the French to see who will give him a better deal to either get out of the War or pay him to stay in it. To this end, Oxenstierna fobs off the French by signing several treaties with the French, only to allow them to elapse without being ratified, all the while frantically negotiating with the Germans for a separate peace. The Germans however, refuse to budge in their demands for a Swedish surrender.
- Tired of waiting around for the diplomatic situation to be resolved, Swedish hot-shot general Johan Banér breaks camp and launches an offensive down the Elbe, towards Naumberg. A combined Imperial-Saxon army marches out to counter the thrust, but Banér crushes them at the Battle of Wittstock, despite being significantly outnumbered. Banér then pushes deep into Saxony, besieging Leipzig, but the siege fails and he withdraws to Torgau for the winter.
- Meanwhile, Pope Urban VIII tries to play peacemaker, calling for a peace conference of all the Catholic states in Cologne in order to end the chaos. But the Pope is well known for his hatred of Austria, so the Hapsburgs refuse to attend, and the French want to keep fighting so they refuse as well, and without the attendance of the two major powers, nobody else shows up either.
- Fearing that it might fall into Catholic hands, the Danish Navy attacks and destroys the newly built Polish Navy (insert "Polish Navy" joke here).
- Mughal forces led by Emperor Shah Jahan obliterate the rebellious Muslim kingdom of Ahmednagar.
- Massachusetts trader John Oldham is attacked and killed by unknown Native Americans while on a trading voyage to Block Island in what is now Rhode Island, setting of a series of violent incidents that will culminate in the Pequot War the following year.
- Japan's process of self-seclusion progresses with the proclamation of the Fourth "sakoku" edict by the Tokugawa shogunate, banning entry into Japan by all Portuguese and Spanish on pain of death.
- Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views. Taking his followers with him, he founds the town of Providence on the the tip of Narragansett Bay as a place of religious freedom, thus establishing what will become the colony of Rhode Island.
- Dutch forces conquer the Caribbean island of Aruba from the Spanish.
- Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the Americas, is founded by decree of the Massachusetts Legislature.
- Utrecht University is founded in The Netherlands.
- French playwright Pierre Corneille pens his masterpiece, Le Cid, based on the Spanish legend of El Cid.
These people were born in 1636...
These people died in 1636...
1635 - 1636 - 1637
17th century
How they were made
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