Era · c. 1500 – 1800

Early Modern

Voyages of exploration, the Reformation and the age of revolutions that reshaped Europe and the wider world.

Relation (1605): The World's First Printed Newspaper, Strasbourg

A printed weekly of foreign news appeared in Strasbourg, the model for the newspapers that spread across Europe in the following decades.

1605 · 5 min read

Early Modern

Quilombo dos Palmares (c. 1605–1694): Zumbi's Free Settlement

Palmares resisted Dutch and Portuguese attacks for most of the 17th century before its main settlement fell to Portuguese colonial forces in February 1694; Zumbi was killed in November 1695.

c. 1605-1694 · 6 min read

Early Modern

Duyfken Voyage (1606): First European Landing in Australia

The Duyfken charted about 300 km of the Cape York coast, making the first recorded European landfall in Australia, but the Dutch judged the land of no commercial value.

Early 1606 · 6 min read

Early Modern

Flight of the Earls (1607): Ulster's Gaelic Lords Leave Ireland

The earls never returned; their lands were declared forfeit to the crown, leading directly to the Plantation of Ulster.

1607 · 5 min read

Early Modern

Jamestown Settlement (1607): First Permanent English Colony

Despite famine, disease and war with the Powhatan, Jamestown survived to become the first permanent English settlement in North America and the capital of Virginia until 1699.

14 May 1607 · 8 min read

Early Modern

Founding of Quebec City (1608): Champlain and New France

Quebec became the first permanent French settlement in the St. Lawrence valley and the capital of New France until the British conquest of 1759-1763.

3 July 1608 · 6 min read

Early Modern

Henry Hudson's Half Moon Voyage (1609) up the Hudson River

No passage to Asia was found, but Hudson's reports of a rich fur country led to Dutch trade on the river and the colony of New Netherland.

1609 · 8 min read

Early Modern

Expulsion of the Moriscos (1609–1614): Spain's Last Muslims

Around 300,000 Moriscos were deported, mostly to North Africa; Valencia and Aragon suffered severe population and economic losses.

1609–1614 · 6 min read

Early Modern

Plantation of Ulster (1609): English and Scottish Colonists

A large Protestant settler population was established in Ulster, reshaping its landownership, towns and religion and creating divisions that lasted into modern times.

1609 · 6 min read