A volcanic eruption from an unknown location…
February 1808 CE
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Simon Fraser, convinced that the dangerous river that will later bear his name is the Columbia, explores to its mouth, proving in 1808 through his long and harrowing journey that the river is unsuitable for transporting goods and furs.
Hongi Hika, born at Kaikohe into one of the chiefly families of the Ngāpuhi, being a son of rangatira Te Hotete, once said he was born in the year explorer Marion du Fresne was killed by Māori—in 1772—though other sources place his birth around 1780.
His name can mean fish smell (this does not have an offensive connotation in Māori).
Hongi Hika had risen to prominence as a military leader in the Ngāpuhi campaign, led by Pokaia, against the Te Roroa hapu of Ngāti Whātua iwi in 1806–1808.
In over one hundred and fifty years since the Maori had first begun sporadic contact with Europeans, firearms had not entered into widespread use.
Ngāpuhi fights with small numbers of them in 1808, and Hongi Hika is present later this same year on the first occasion that muskets are used in action by Māori.
This is at the battle of Moremonui, at which the Ngāpuhi are defeated; the Ngāpuhi are overrun by the opposing Ngāti Whātua while reloading.
Those killed included two of Hongi Hika's brothers and Pokaia, and Hongi Hika and other survivors only escape by hiding in a swamp until Ngāti Whātua calls off the pursuit as an act of mercy.
Sofronii, who has cultivated links with the court at St. Petersburg, oversees the emigration of thousands of Bulgarian families to Russian-occupied Bessarabia in 1808. (The descendants of these Bessarabian Bulgarians still live here, occupying a coastal strip west of the Ukrainian city of Odessa.)
The Russians, allied with the French this time around, annex Finland in 1808.
Munich's Academy of Fine Arts, which had been founded before 1770 by Elector Maximilian III Joseph as a so-called "drawing school", already bears the name "academy" in its name ("Zeichnungs Schule respective Maler und Bildhauer academie") when King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria enhances the school in 1808 as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
On regaining his liberty, he had proceeded to Dresden, where, in conjunction with Adam Heinrich Müller (1779–1829), he publishes the journal Phöbus in 1808.
The material for Kleist's second tragedy, second, Penthesilea (1808), queen of the Amazons, is taken from a Greek source and presents a picture of wild passion.
More successful than either of these was is romantic play, Käthchen of Heilbronn (Das Käthchen von Heilbronn) (1808), a poetic drama full of medieval bustle and mystery, which will retained its popularity for many years.
In comedy, Kleist makes a name with The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochne Krug) (1808), while Amphitryon (1808), an adaptation of Molière's comedy, will receive critical acclaim long after his death.
Russian influence in Serbia threatens to become paramount in 1808, when the State Council gives Serbia its first constitution and declares Karadjordje the “first and supreme Serbian hereditary leader”, with whom Milos Teodorivic quarrels.
The squadron's task is to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa.
With a home base at Portsmouth, it begins with two small ships, the thirty-two-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Derwent.
At the height of its operations, the squadron will employ a sixth of the Royal Navy fleet and marines.
Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron will capture sixteen hundred slave ships and free one hundred and fifty thousand enslaved Africans.
Charles Fourier, a philosopher and social theorist born in Besançon, France on April 7, 1772, as the son of a small businessman, had been more interested in architecture than he was in his father's trade.
He had wanted to become an engineer, but the local Military Engineering School only accepted sons of noblemen.
Fourier will later say he was grateful that he did not pursue engineering, because it would have consumed too much of his time and taken away from his true desire to help humanity.
When his father died in 1781, Fourier had received two-fifths of his father's estate, valued at more than two hundred thousand francs, enabling Fourier to travel throughout Europe at his leisure.
He had moved in 1791 from Besançon to Lyon, where he was employed by the merchant M. Bousquet.
Fourier's travels had also brought him to Paris, where he had worked as the head of the Office of Statistics for a few months.
From 1791 to 1816 Fourier will be employed in Paris, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille, and Bordeaux.
As a traveling salesman and correspondence clerk, his research and thought is time-limited: he complains of "serving the knavery of merchants" and the stupefaction of "deceitful and degrading duties".
He takes up writing, and his first book is published as Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales (Theory of the four movements and the general destinies), appearing anonymously in Lyon in 1808.
Declaring that concern and cooperation are the secrets of social success, Fourier believes that a society that cooperates will see an immense improvement in its productivity levels when workers are recompensed for their labors according to their contribution.
He envisions such cooperation occurring in communities he calls "phalanxes", based around structures called Phalanstères or "grand hotels": four level apartment complexes where the richest have the uppermost apartments and the poorest enjoy a ground floor residence.
Wealth is determined by one's job; jobs are assigned based on the interests and desires of the individual.
There are incentives: jobs people might not enjoy doing would receive higher pay.
Fourier considers trade, which he associates with Jews, to be the "source of all evil" and advocates that Jews be forced to perform farm work in the phalansteries (Roberts, Richard H. 1995. Religion and the Transformations of Capitalism: Comparative Approaches. Routledge. pp 90)
Fourier characterizes poverty (not inequality) as the principal cause of disorder in society, and he proposes to eradicate it by sufficiently high wages and by a "decent minimum" for those who are not able to work.
He believes that there are twelve common passions, grouped around three branches of a "passional tree": "
The sum of all these passions Fourier calls "unityism," characterized as a universal feeling of benevolence and fraternity.
Although fettered and mutated by Civilization, the free development of these passions will be allowed in the bright future world, Fourier believes.
The passion result in eight hundred and ten types of character, so the ideal phalanx will have exactly sixteen hundred and twenty people.
One day, there will be six million of these, loosely ruled by a world "omniarch", or (later) a World Congress of Phalanxes.
He exhibits a touching concern for the sexually rejected; jilted suitors will be led away by a corps of fairies who will soon cure them of their lovesickness, and visitors will consult the card-index of personality types for suitable partners for casual sex.
He also defends homosexuality as a personal preference for some people.
Fourier is also a supporter of women's rights in a time when such influences as Jean-Jacques Rousseau prevail.
Fourier believes that all important jobs should be open to women on the basis of skill and aptitude rather than closed on account of gender.
He speaks of women as individuals, not as half the human couple.
Fourier sees that "traditional" marriage can potentially hurt woman's rights as human beings and thus never marries.
His concern is to liberate every human individual, man, woman, and child, in two senses: Education and the liberation of human passion.
Deeply disturbed by the disorder of his time, and seeing his fellow human beings living in a world full of strife, chaos, and disorder, Fourier wants to stabilize the course of events that surrounds him.
Fourier will only sell few copies but, surprisingly, after six years the book will fall into the hands of Monsieur Just Muiron, who will eventually become Fourier's patron.
Fourier will produce most of his writings between 1816 and 1821.
He will try in 1822 to sell his books again but with no success.
Jews are freed from the ghetto of Florence in 1808, under Napoleon's rule.