Makassan trepangers in Australia
Long before the British, Aboriginal people traded with Asia
From the 1720s at the latest (perhaps much earlier) fleets of sailing boats from Makassar on Sulawesi came each season to Australia's northern coast for trepang, sea cucumbers for the Chinese market. The Yolngu and other Aboriginal peoples of Arnhem Land worked with the Makassans and adopted words, dugout canoes and tobacco. The trade ended in 1907, when the Australian authorities stopped issuing licences.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — 17 years earlier
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — 11 years earlier
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — 1 year later
Middle East
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — 2 years later
Alive at the time
- Isaac Newton (aged 77)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 66)
- Peter the Great (aged 48)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 35)
- Voltaire (aged 26)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 14)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 9)
- Ahmed III (aged 47)
- Vitus Bering (aged 39)
- Tokugawa Yoshimune (aged 36)