Early Modern
Battle of Ivry (1590): Henry IV Defeats the Catholic League
Decisive royalist victory; the League field army was broken, but Henry IV still could not take Paris until 1594.
Era · c. 1500 – 1800
Early Modern
Voyages of exploration, the Reformation and the age of revolutions that reshaped Europe and the wider world.
Early Modern
North Berwick Witch Trials (1590): James VI Hunts Witches
Dozens were accused and several executed; the trials shaped James VI's Daemonologie and later Scottish witch hunts.
Early Modern
Siege of Odawara (1590): Hideyoshi Completes Japan's Unification
The Hōjō surrendered, Ujimasa was ordered to commit suicide, and their Kantō lands passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu, completing Hideyoshi's unification of Japan.
Early Modern
Battle of Tondibi (1591): Morocco Destroys the Songhai Empire
Decisive Moroccan victory; the Songhai empire collapsed and Gao, Timbuktu and Djenne came under Moroccan rule.
Early Modern
Imjin War (1592–1598): Japan's Invasions of Korea
Japan withdrew after Hideyoshi's death without gaining territory, leaving Korea devastated and Ming China financially weakened.
Early Modern
Long Turkish War (1593-1606): Habsburgs Versus Ottomans
A costly stalemate ended by the Peace of Zsitvatorok (1606), which kept the frontier largely unchanged but ended Habsburg tribute to the sultan.
Early Modern
First Dutch Voyage to the East Indies (1595-1597): de Houtman
Three of four ships and fewer than 90 of about 249 men returned with a modest cargo of pepper, but the voyage proved the Dutch could reach the Indies and sparked a rush of expeditions that led to the VOC.
Early Modern
Willem Barentsz's Voyage (1596-1597): Winter on Novaya Zemlya
No Northeast Passage was found, but Bear Island and Spitsbergen were discovered and 12 of the 17 men who wintered on Novaya Zemlya returned home.
Early Modern
Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (1597): The Nagasaki Crucifixions
Twenty-six Christians were crucified, marking the first large-scale execution of Christians in Japan; they were canonised as saints in 1862.
Early Modern
Battle of Myeongnyang (1597): Yi Sun-sin's 13 Ships Against 133
Korean victory; the Japanese fleet withdrew after losing around thirty ships, and its advance along the west coast of Korea was halted.
Early Modern
Edict of Nantes (1598): Henry IV Grants Toleration in France
The French Wars of Religion ended with limited legal toleration for Protestants in a Catholic kingdom; the edict was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.
Early Modern
Naqsh-e Jahan Square: Shah Abbas's Royal Square in Isfahan
Isfahan gained one of the largest and most celebrated urban squares in the world, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.