1650-1669 London Burns, Bombay & New York Gain

This twenty year period covers the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, a year after Charles I had been executed and ten years before Charles II became king in 1660 and acquired Bombay in 1664. The longest period of relative world peace and safety in this period was at the end of the 1667–1668 War of Devolution - 2 years

This twenty year period covers the Northern Wars of 1648–1660 -- a series of wars involving Poland, Sweden, Brandenburg, Russia and Transylvania and Denmark-Norway -- followed by the 1652–1654 First Anglo-Dutch War, the 1654–1659 Anglo-Spanish War, the 1657–1662 Turkish-Transylvanian War, the 1662–1664 Austro-Turkish War, the 1665–1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War and the 1667–1668 War of Devolution.

The restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660 was a wonderful event, particularly when in 1661 Great Britain acquired Bombay and in 1664 acquired New York from the Dutch. Bombay was a crown jewel because it was an established and important city in an ancient civilization. New York was a barely a settlement in the New World.

In 1661 Virginia legalized slavery and the tobacco industry was at its height. Pipe smoking was common across Europe and one wonders whether it -- or something else -- was responsible for the 1666 Great Fire of London.