new world germanic foundations

In 1603, following the death of Elizabeth I, her nephew, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England and an uneasy union took place between the two nations; and in 1613 the Houses of Stuart and Lorraine were united with the marriage of Fredrick of the German Palatinate and Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I, but this union sparked the Thirty Years' War 1613-1645 (otherwise known as the Catholic Reformation) which ravaged Germany, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of young men in battle, widespread starvation of peasants and massive migrations of Germans to the new American colonies.

The founding by the English of the first American colony of Jamestown in 1607 along non-sectarian lines provided a safety valve for the insanity of the old world, and over time more German than English new settlers arrived because following the Thirty Years' War Germany went through further turmoil leaving the plight of the impoverished and war-weary Germans so terrible that Catherine the Great of Russia and many of the Austro-Hungarian kings sent envoys into the German countryside offering the starving farmers who were unable to emigrate to the new world a new home in their lands.

Finally, William Penn came to the rescue with a vision of harmony in the new world. He was granted the Charter of Pennsylvania in 1681 and founded Philadelphia in 1682 with migrants he had previously attracted during his travels through Europe actively promoting religious freedom in the new land. Germans -- both Catholics and Protestants -- constituted the largest group of emigrants to Pennsylvania and they founded Germantown in the same year, 1683, that the Moslem Ottoman Turks had advanced through southern Austria and were besieging its capital, Vienna.

Read the full story The Stuart Lorraine Marriage

1710-1729 Succession Issues in England and Spain

This twenty year period covers the reign of Queen Anne who died in 1714 and was replaced by George I, the Hanoverian son of Sophia (the niece of Charles I) who, in turn, died in 1727 and was succeeded by his son George II. In this period there was constant warfare in the world, as usual.

This twenty year period covers the 1702–1713 Queen Anne's War in North America, which was part of the War of Spanish Succession. Then came the 1711 Tuscarora War, the 1712–1714 First Fox War, the 1714–1718 Turko-Venetian War, the 1715 Yamasee War, the 1715–1716 Jacobite Rising, the 1715–1717 Polish revolt against King Augustus II, the 1716–1718 Austro-Turkish War, the 1718–1720 War of the Quadruple Alliance, the 1722 Dummer's War in Maine, the 1722–1723 Russo-Persian War, the 1722–1727 Turco-Persian War, the 1727–1729 Spanish war between England and France, and the 1728–1737 Second Fox War.

There were no inventions, discoveries or great ideas during this 20 year period which was totally overshadowed by succession issues in both England and Spain. 

The Jacobites had good reason to fight for the restoration of James II after Queen Anne died. Nobody liked a German who could not even speak English becoming King of England -- but George I was Protestant, not Catholic like James II and that's all that mattered. 

1670-1689 Ottoman Siege of Vienna, Two Williams

This twenty year period covers the reign of Charles II who died in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother James II who was deposed in 1688 and replaced in 1689 by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch Orange husband William III in what was known as the 'glorious revolution'. In this period there was constant warfare in the world, and Europe risked becoming Muslim when the Ottoman Turks lay siege to Vienna in 1683.

There was the Polish-Turkish War in 1671–1676, followed by the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, the 1672–1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War, the 1672–1679 War between Brandenburg and Sweden, the 1675–1677 King Philip's War, the 1676–1681 Russo-Turkish War, the 1682–1699 War of the Holy League, the 1683 Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks, Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685, the 1685-1689 Sino-Russian War, the 1686–1700 Russo-Turkish War, the 1687–1689 Crimean campaigns, the 1689–1697 King William's War in North America (part of the War of the Grand Alliance), the 1689–1691 Williamite war in Ireland and the 1689–1691 Jacobite Rising in Scotland.

The Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks in 1683 was of particular concern because if the Holy League had not joined together to fight the Turks it is likely that the whole of Europe would have become Islamic.

The deposing of the Catholic James II by the Protestant William of Orange in 1688 and a sad event in our history. It started the Jacobite movement in Scotland and Europe and James II never abandoned hopes for a Stuart restoration. His son, Charles Edward Stuart, born in Rome in 1720, carried on the struggle as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Because of constant warfare there were no great inventions or discoveries during this twenty year period, but William Penn did stand out for presenting a vision of harmony in the new world. He was granted the Charter of Pennsylvania in 1681 and founded Philadelphia in 1682 with migrants he had previously attracted during his travels through war-ravaged Europe.