History
1615
General
Population: 542 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Cervantes Don Quixote part II, George Chapman (translation of Homer's Odyssey, Samuel Coster (farce),
George Ruggle (farce about Cambridge), William Camden (Elizabeth I), Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne (Huguenot-inspired history) - banned in Paris,
Antoine de Montchretien (mercantilism)
Art includes Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini "Amalthea", Domenichino "Scenes from the Life of St. Cecilia", Reubens "The Battle of the Amazons"
- Religion: Jesuits count 13,112 members
Pope Clement VIII gives papal approval of coffee
- Science: Galileo Galilei faces Inquisition for first time
- Deaths: Novelist Mateo Aleman, Marguerie de Valois, Lady Arabella Suart (in Tower of London), Scientist Giambattista della Porta
Americas
- Brazil: French attempt to colonize Maranhai thwarted by Portugese
Asia
- General: Manchus unite under Nurhachi and begin the conquest of then ailing Ming empire in China
- China: Tribes in Northern China form military organizations called Manchus to 1620
- India: English fleet defeate Portuguese off coast of Bombay
- Japan: Start of persecution of Christians
- Moluccas: (Spice Islands off Japan) Dutch seize Moluccas from Portuguese
Europe
- General: Exchange of Bourbon and Hapsburg brides at Burgos – Louis XIII marries Anna of Austria and Philip of the Asturias marries Elizabeth of Bourbon
- England: Inigo Jones becomes England's chief architect
Merchant Adventurers granted monopoly for export of English cloth
George Villiers becomes James' favorite
Burning Fever (Hot Ague?) outbreak
Construction of the Bodleian Library at Oxford begins
- France: French States General dismissed with promises of reforms
Salomon de Brosse works on Palais de Luxembourg in Paris
- German States: Frankfurter OberpostamtsZeitung founded by Egenolph Emmel
- Holland: By now Dutch have reclaimed over 70,000 acres of farmland from the sea
- Holy Roman Empire: Peace of Tyranu – emperor Matthias recognizes Bethlen Gabor as Prince of Transylvania – confirms treaty with Turks
- Italian States: Adriano Banchieri founds Accademia dei Filomusi in Bologna