During the first century of Protestant history, the Roman Catholic countries Spain and Portugal dominated the commercial and imperial expansion of European peoples. The great missionary names were Xavier, Las Casas, and Ricci. Only after the English defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) and the emergence of the British and Dutch as colonial powers did new continents and peoples open to Protestant missionaries.
After the monarchy was restored in 1660, King Charles II gave a charter to a company that took three thousand slaves a year to the West Indies. From that time the trade grew to enormous proportions. In 1770, out of a total of one hundred thousand slaves a year from West Africa, British ships transported more than half.
After eighty hours flying, pilots are inclined to think they know enough. After a hundred hours, they are sure they don't. Between the two, the accident rate is at its peak.
After Pascal’s death, the combined opposition of the Catholic Church and King Louis XIV succeeded in forcing Jansenism out of France. Port-Royal was destroyed and the movement forced to take refuge in Holland.