The Early Modern Period
1776 Adam Smith Champions Free Market Economics
these years he not only created some of the most admired plays in Western literature (histories, comedies, tragedies), but he transformed English theater by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization, plot, language, and genre. Through soliloquies Shakespeare showed how a writer could explore a character’s motivations, fears, and disappointments. By mixing tragedy and comedy, he created an entirely new dramatic genre. Prior to Shakespeare’s time, the texture and rules of the English language were in constant flux. As his plays became popular, they contributed to the standardization of the language, enlargement of its vocabulary, and development of new grammatical structures. SEE FIGURE 11
1588 England Defeats Spanish Armada Philip II, king of Spain, Naples, and the Low Countries, was co-monarch of England until the death of his wife Mary in 1558. A devout Catholic, Philip considered Mary’s successor and half-sister Elizabeth a heretic and illegitimate, and he was deeply aggravated by Elizabeth’s support of Dutch Protestants in their revolt against Spain. After Elizabeth executed Philip’s ally Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, he became determined to overthrow her regime, organizing an armada of 151 ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers which left Spain in May 1588, bound for the Spanish Netherlands, where it was to be reinforced. The armada ultimately anchored off Dunkirk but was attacked and dispersed. Retreating northward, it was continually harassed by smaller, more maneuverable English ships. Armada commanders decided to withdraw by sailing around Scotland and Ireland, but storms drove more than 24 Spanish vessels onto Irish coasts. Of the original fleet, almost 50 vessels did not return. 1592–1616 William Shakespeare Redefines Dramatic Literature An extraordinary playwright of the late Renaissance, William Shakespeare profoundly influenced both English theater and the English language. Born in Warwickshire in 1564 and appearing in London as an actor, poet and dramatist in 1592, he remained central to the literary scene until his death in 1616. During
1776 Franciscans Found Mission San Juan Capistrano
1761–1763 Britain Achieves Supremacy in India and Canada
1703 Peter the Great Establishes St. Petersburg
1687 Isaac Newton Promulgates Laws of Gravity
1643–1715 Louis XIV creates Centralized Absolutist Monarchy
1610 Galileo Galilei Invents Telescope
Figure 12. The look and feel of an early colony “Forte” was recreated for a history festival in Jamestown, Virginia circa 1957. Image courtesy of Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
1607 Jamestown Founded in Virginia
1607 Jamestown Founded in Virginia Defeat of the Spanish Armada emboldened the English to establish colonies in North America. As early as 1585–87 Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorites, had unsuccessfully attempted to found a settlement at Roanoke in what he called “Virginia” (actually North Carolina). Twenty years later, in April 1607, the first permanent English colony in the New World was established by the Virginia Company of London at Jamestown, Virginia. The small peninsula that the colonists chose to occupy was uninhabited and defensible, but it was also plagued by mosquitoes. The settlers arrived too late in the year to plant crops, and many were
1592–1616 William Shakespeare Redefines Dramatic Literature
1588 England Defeats Spanish Armada
THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Figure 11. William Shakespeare’s Old Globe Theatre was a London landmark where rich and poor alike gathered to enjoy comedies, tragedies and historical dramas. Image courtesy of Wenceslaus Hollar.
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