Early Modern
Defenestration of Prague (1618): Spark of the Thirty Years' War
All three victims survived, but the act launched the Bohemian revolt against the Habsburgs and began the Thirty Years' War.
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
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648): Europe's Most Destructive War
The Peace of Westphalia ended the war in the Empire, recognised Calvinism, strengthened the German princes and gave territory to Sweden and France.
Early Modern
Founding of Batavia (1619): Jan Pieterszoon Coen Takes Jayakarta
The VOC seized and razed Jayakarta and built Batavia on its site, which became the headquarters of Dutch power in Asia for more than three centuries.
Early Modern
Battle of Sarhu (1619): Nurhaci Crushes the Ming Army
Decisive Later Jin victory; three of the four Ming columns were destroyed, and the Ming lost the initiative in the north-east.
Early Modern
Battle of White Mountain (1620): Defeat of Protestant Bohemia
Decisive Catholic victory; the Bohemian revolt collapsed, Frederick V fled and Bohemia was brought firmly under Habsburg and Catholic rule.
Early Modern
Francis Bacon's Novum Organum (1620): The Scientific Method
Bacon's programme of systematic observation and experiment became a guiding ideal for the Royal Society and the experimental science of the later seventeenth century.
Early Modern
Mayflower Voyage and Plymouth Colony (1620): The Pilgrims
The Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony, the second lasting English settlement in North America; about half died in the first winter.
Early Modern
Dutch Conquest of the Banda Islands (1621): The Nutmeg Massacre
The VOC seized the Banda Islands, destroyed most of the Bandanese population and created a slave-worked nutmeg monopoly.
Early Modern
First Thanksgiving (1621): Pilgrims and Wampanoag at Plymouth
A three-day harvest gathering of about 50 colonists and some 90 Wampanoag men that was later reimagined as the origin of a national holiday.
Early Modern
Capture of Ormuz (1622): Persia and England Oust Portugal
The Portuguese garrison surrendered Hormuz; Safavid Iran took the island and the English East India Company gained trading privileges at Bandar Abbas.
Early Modern
Kösem Sultan: The Ottoman Valide Who Ruled for Decades
Kösem governed as regent for two child sultans and dominated Ottoman court politics until she was killed in a palace coup in 1651.
Early Modern
Cardinal Richelieu: Louis XIII's Chief Minister (1624–1642)
Richelieu strengthened royal authority, ended Huguenot military power and brought France into the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs.