Early Modern
Battle of Noryang (1598): The Last Battle of Admiral Yi Sun-sin
Korean and Ming victory; the Japanese relief fleet suffered heavy losses, but Konishi Yukinaga escaped and Yi Sun-sin was killed.
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
Si-o-se-pol: The Allahverdi Khan Bridge in Safavid Isfahan
Isfahan gained a monumental bridge linking the Chahar Bagh avenue to the south bank, still one of the city's landmarks.
Early Modern
English East India Company Founded (1600) and Its First Voyage
London merchants received a 15-year royal monopoly of English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, and the first voyage returned in 1603 with a large cargo of pepper.
Early Modern
Battle of Sekigahara (1600): The Battle That Decided Japan
Decisive victory for Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Army, which made Ieyasu the master of Japan and led to the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603.
Early Modern
Execution of Giordano Bruno (1600): Infinite Worlds and Heresy
Bruno was condemned as an impenitent heretic and burned alive; his works were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1603.
Early Modern
Himeji Castle (1601): The White Heron Castle of Japan
Ikeda Terumasa's rebuilding created the castle complex that survives today, a National Treasure and one of Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Sites (1993).
Early Modern
Dutch East India Company (1602): The VOC and the Spice Islands
The States General merged rival Dutch trading companies into one chartered company with a monopoly on Asian trade, which dominated the spice trade for much of the seventeenth century.
Early Modern
Union of the Crowns (1603): James VI Becomes King of England
James VI of Scotland became James I of England and Ireland; the two kingdoms shared a monarch but kept separate parliaments, laws and churches until 1707.
Early Modern
Tokugawa Shogunate (1603): Ieyasu Founds the Edo Period
Ieyasu's appointment as shogun in 1603 began a military government that ruled Japan for about 265 years, until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Early Modern
Hampton Court Conference (1604): James I Meets the Puritans
Most Puritan demands were rejected, minor changes were made to the Prayer Book, and a new English translation of the Bible was authorised.
Early Modern
New Julfa: Shah Abbas and the Armenians of Isfahan (1605)
Deported Armenians built a prosperous merchant suburb in Isfahan that became the hub of a worldwide trading network.
Early Modern
Gunpowder Plot (1605): Guy Fawkes and the Plan to Kill James I
The plot failed; its leaders were killed or executed, anti-Catholic laws were tightened, and 5 November became a national day of thanksgiving.