What if Spain's Charles II Died Sooner?

[Michelle R. Wood]

1695

In Amsterdam, the bank Wed. Jean Deutz & Sn. floats the first sovereign bonds on the local market. The scheme is designed to fund a 1.5 million guilder loan to the Holy Roman Emperor. From this date on, European leaders commonly take advantage of the low interest rates available in the Dutch Republic and borrow several hundred millions on the Dutch capital market.


1695: April

The Yankee Parliament of England decides not to renew the Licensing Order of 1643 requiring press censorship. A Cambridge newspaper is immediately started, The Cambridge News-Letter.


1695: July

The Bank of Scotland is founded by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1696: March

The Five Years War ends with the marriage of King Philip VI (Phillipe Juan) and Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor and heir to the Austrian Netherlands. France loses all territory south of Maryland but keeps Maine.


1696: November

The electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia becomes the Kingdom of Prussia as Elector Frederick III is proclaimed King Frederick I; his wife Anne is now queen, their son heir to the Prussian throne. Prussia remains part of the Holy Roman Empire. It consists of Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Berlin is the capital.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1697: May

On May 6, King Henry VIX marries 16-year-old Princess Luise Dorothea of Prussia, daughter of King Frederick I by his first wife and close ally to William III. She becomes known as Queen Louisa.


1697: October

Princess Ana Luisita of Spain, full sister to King Philip VI, marries Leopold, Duke of Lorraine on October 13.


1697: December

St Paul's Cathedral is opened in London.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1698

Since the establishment of its presidencies in 1689, the British East India Company has been under constant pressure from traders who are not members of the company and are not licensed by the Crown to trade. Under a parliamentary ruling in favor of free trade, these private newcomers are able to set up a new company, called the New Company or English Company. This company is full of radical Yankees who take to doing most of their shipping in Cambridge, past Boston. They also invent the first paper money used in the New World as a way of avoiding the official Orange money exchanges, creating a shadow economy.


1698: January
The Palace of Whitehall in London is destroyed by fire on January 23.


1698: October

With southern Louisiana taken in war, explorers Iberville and Bienville sail for Maine and head down the Mississippi River to stake out new territory for France. In later years, they will found important cities on this route: Fort Cascade du St Antoine (eventually the city Saint Anthony¹), Fort Maurepas (also called Eau du Sac, later Dusac²), and a revived Fort Saint Louis, renamed New Orleans³.

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¹ OTL Saint Paul, Minnesota
² OTL Davenport, Iowa
3 OTL St. Louis, Missouri

[Michelle R. Wood]

1699

The Tories return to Parliament and soon draw down the size of the military that had grown under the Yankees, which also limits the forces in Massachusetts. The governor's power gradually wanes back to Boston, his stronghold, with Cambridge becoming a major player in the "realpolitik" of the colony.

In Elizabeton, members of the lower House of Burgesses take to meeting separately in, ironically enough, the area known as "Dutchtown," an area of "loose morals" frequented by Henrico College students. They become known as “Dutchmen,” while the Governor and the upper house are called "William's Men." Cambridge Pilgreem traders take to doing business in the Carolinas and are accused of piracy.


1699: June

Captain William Kidd, a former privateer against the French, is arrested in New Orange City on June 1; he was trying to get to Charlotte but forced to drop anchor due to the navy's order for inspection. He stands trial for piracy, enraging Pilgreems.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1700: May

William Penn begins monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation.


1700: November

On November 7, Queen Louisa gives birth to Prince William Henry James Stuart, Duke of York, and dies in childbirth. William III of Orange names the child his heir.


1701: August

The Great Peace of Montreal is signed between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France and its Huron and Algonquian allies. The treaty guarantees a state of mutual protection¹ between native tribes and the New France forts should England ever resume hostilities against either.


1701: October

The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on October 9. Students immediately start a newspaper, and regularly coordinate with associates at Harvard.

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¹ OTL The treaty only assured the that the Iroquois, former English allies, would remain neutral if France and England resumed hostilities. In my timeline, the Iroquois and English haven't been so close due to the standing army, and France is far more desperate for native allies with the loss of southern Louisiana. This changed mission will, obviously, have serious consequences.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1702: January

Supplies arrive to build Fort Cascade du St Antoine; it becomes the capital of western Louisiana, a bridge between New France territory along the coast and western settlements along the Mississippi River.


1702: March

On March 9, William III of Orange dies. A majority of the Dutch states refuse to recognize England's Prince William (age 2) as heir.


1702: June

The Act of Settlement 1702 is passed by the Parliament of England on June 24 to prevent Prince William from becoming monarch of the Netherlands. Under its terms, Prince William may accept territory but not any foreign crown. He is to be succeeded by males apparent who must honor the same agreement; if he dies childless, he would be succeeded by his aunt's offspring John George V of Saxony. The Dutch give Prince William New Orange, which is combined with the New York colony to form the first duchy in the Americas. William becomes the Duke of New Orange, with its capital New Orange City.

In this rearrangement the area of Pennsylvania is granted more territory, including the city of Charlotte and the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from New York¹. The coastal city becomes a main port of call for traders who want to avoid Boston and New Orange, enriching the local population.

On June 30, the Dutch make William III's cousin John William Frisco the new Prince of Orange. He is 11 years younger than Henry XIX; they were not close as children but John was a guest in England several times, and remains on close ties with the King. However, the Anglo-Dutch alliance shows signs of strain as England takes dominance in the partnership.


1702: July

The first regular English language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in Fleet Street in the City of London. It covers only foreign news, notably the matter of the new Duchy and the Massachusetts colony.


1702: September

Anthony Aston, a well-known English actor-adventurer, gives a special performance at a New Orange City theatre to mark the city's new status as capital of the united Province.

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¹ OTL William Penn leased Delaware from James Duke of York, who got it from the Dutch in 1664; the territory gained its on legislature in 1704 while still keeping the same governor as Pennsylvania. In this timeline, the Treaty of the Channel made Delaware part of the New York (our New Jersey) colony; it now goes to Pennsylvania thanks to the Queen Mother, who is still a friendly and regular correspondent with Penn.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1703

Pilgreem traders begin intruding on Dutch and Spanish trading farther and farther south of Charleston, leading to complaints from the former allies.


1703: May

Daniel Defoe¹ becomes a Tory darling and regular party pamphleteer after his work The Shortest-Way with the Colonists; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Kingdom is printed. It satirizes Yankee political maneuvers at home and in North America. The section in which colonists continue to shoot cannons at William III's ghost despite his already being dead becomes especially popular; an accompanying illustration is used in many future debates out of context, taking on a life of its own.


1703: November

The Great Storm of 1703, an Atlantic hurricane, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing nearly 8,000, mostly at sea. Henry XIV oversees a huge relief effort, increasing his popularity at home.

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¹ OTL Daniel Defore was imprisoned for critiquing treatment of dissenters under Queen Anne. By this point dissenters have been hiding in the Anglican Church for some time.  As Henry XIV was raised mostly by his egalitarian mother and brother-in-law William III, I don't see him cracking down on religious dissenters like the Stuarts of old. He's much more concerned with pesky political subversives, many of whom are staunch hard-line Anglicans.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1704: January

The Apalachee massacre occurs on January 25, when English colonists from the Province of Carolina with some native allies stage a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida.


1704: April

To counter Yankee publications, the Boston governor's office begins printing The Boston News-Letter¹. It regularly features work from Tory works back in England, including a serialized form of Defoe's The Storm based on the 1703 Great Storm. The continued high praise for Henry XIV make it a tough sell; the editor is forced expand coverage to more juicy stories of piracy and Indian slaughters to compete.

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¹ OTL This newspaper was actually the first in British North America, and founded by an independent colonist. New England in this are more authoritative; instead of the governor approving copy, he's printing it himself as a mouthpiece (taking a page from William III's playbook).

[Michelle R. Wood]

1705

The city of Norfolk, Virginia is incorporated (from the "Towne of Lower Norfolk County" formed by the House of Burgesses in 1680).


1705: March

To curb piracy King Henry VIX divides the Province of Carolina in half: the northern side remains Carolina, and the town of Bath is incorporated as its capital. The south is rechristened "Henricusa" and a new governor is sent to Charleston. The plan backfires, though: Bath's location makes it ideal for those seeking to get to Charlotte and Cambridge quicker. When armed forces and ships are sent to patrol Charleston, most Pilgreem traders simply move up to Bath. Due to its location it becomes known as a "Middle Dutch Haven," eventually shortened to "Midutch," a term that becomes synonymous with pirate.


1705: May

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, dies on May 7. His son Joseph succeeds him.

[Michelle R. Wood]

1707: May

The new sovereign state of Great Britain comes into being as a result of the Acts of Union which combine the Kingdoms of Scotland and England into a single united Kingdom of Great Britain and merge the Parliaments of England and Scotland to form the Parliament of Great Britain.


1708

Merger (with consent of the Parliament of Great Britain) of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company. Royalist supporters point the company to North America, hoping to curb Pilgreem illicit trade.


1708: August

A native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts, killing 16 settlers on August 29. Fears of French influence are bandied about in Yankee circles.


1709: February

The annual Masque de la Cascade for Mardi Gras has become a quasi-municipal event, as it's the one time all New French citizens within traveling distance come together. The festivities include a trade fair for trappers and farmers, French and native, and develop town meetings for the setting of prices, land disputes, and other negotiations.


1710: April

The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute of Louisa, becomes effective. It is welcomed in England and the new Ductchies, but college printing presses and colonial newspapers fear it as a return to censorship. A loophole is found because, while it specifically mentions territories held by "His Majesty and his subjects," it does not state "colony" or "assembly." Cambridge, Elizabeton, Bath, and even Charleston (where it is illegal) become hotbeds for illicit publications, introducing the world to print piracy.