Early Modern
Sakoku (1633-1853): How Japan Closed Itself to the World
Japan limited foreign contact to a few controlled channels for over two centuries until American pressure forced it open in 1853–1854.
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
Trial of Galileo (1633): The Inquisition and Heliocentrism
Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy, forced to abjure, his Dialogue was banned and he spent his last years under house arrest.
Early Modern
Sankin-kotai (1635): Japan's System of Alternate Attendance
Daimyo had to alternate residence between Edo and their domains, which drained their wealth and bound them to the shogunate until 1862.
Early Modern
Hong Taiji Founds the Qing Dynasty (1636): From Later Jin to Qing
The Later Jin khanate became the Qing empire, with Hong Taiji as emperor of a multi-ethnic Manchu, Mongol and Han Chinese state.
Early Modern
Qing Invasion of Joseon (1636): Siege of Namhansanseong
King Injo surrendered at Samjeondo; Joseon broke with the Ming and became a tributary of the Qing, sending royal hostages to Shenyang.
Early Modern
Fasil Ghebbi: The Royal Castles of Gondar, Ethiopia
Gondar became the permanent capital of the Ethiopian Solomonic emperors for about two centuries, and its fortified royal enclosure was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
Early Modern
Roger Williams and the Founding of Providence (1636)
Williams founded Providence as a refuge for liberty of conscience; it became the core of the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Early Modern
Pequot War (1636–1638): The Mystic Massacre and Its Aftermath
The Pequot were defeated and their nation formally dissolved by the Treaty of Hartford in 1638, opening their lands to English settlement.
Early Modern
Shimabara Rebellion (1637-1638): Japan's Christian Revolt
The rebels were wiped out at Hara Castle; the shogunate tightened its ban on Christianity and expelled the Portuguese in 1639.
Early Modern
Dutch Capture of Elmina Castle (1637): Gold Coast Changes Hands
The Portuguese garrison surrendered and Elmina became the Dutch headquarters on the Gold Coast until 1872.
Early Modern
Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637): Dissent in Puritan Boston
Hutchinson was convicted and sentenced to banishment from the colony; after a church trial in March 1638 she was excommunicated and left for Rhode Island.
Early Modern
Descartes' Discourse on the Method (1637): Cogito, Ergo Sum
Descartes' method of doubt and his 'I think, therefore I am' became a founding text of modern philosophy, and the attached Géométrie launched analytic geometry.