Early Modern
Siege of Baghdad (1638): Murad IV Retakes the City from Persia
Ottoman victory; Baghdad returned to Ottoman rule, where it remained until the First World 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
Treaty of Zuhab (1639): The Ottoman-Persian Frontier Fixed
Peace between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran: Iraq went to the Ottomans, Yerevan and the eastern Caucasus to Iran.
Early Modern
Red Fort of Delhi: Shah Jahan's Palace in Shahjahanabad
The fort became the seat of the Mughal emperors for two centuries and later a national symbol of independent India.
Early Modern
Evliya Çelebi: The Ottoman Traveller and His Seyahatname
Evliya produced the Seyahatname, the longest and most detailed travel account of the Ottoman world.
Early Modern
Dejima (1641): The Dutch Trading Post in Nagasaki Harbour
For over two centuries Dejima was Japan's only direct link with Western Europe and the channel for rangaku, Dutch learning.
Early Modern
Irish Rebellion of 1641: Uprising in Ulster and Its Aftermath
The plot on Dublin failed, but the Ulster rising spread across Ireland, killed thousands of settlers and helped push England into civil war.
Early Modern
Abel Tasman's Voyage (1642-1643): Tasmania and New Zealand
Tasman became the first European known to reach Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji, and showed that Australia was not joined to a great southern continent, but found no trade for the VOC.
Early Modern
Pascaline (1642): Blaise Pascal's Mechanical Calculator
Pascal built one of the first working mechanical calculators; about 20 were made, but high cost and fragility kept it from commercial success.
Early Modern
Battle of Edgehill (1642): First Pitched Battle of the Civil War
Indecisive; both armies held the field, but the king kept the road to London open and the war continued.
Early Modern
English Civil War (1642-1651): King Charles I versus Parliament
Parliament won; Charles I was executed in 1649, the monarchy was abolished and England became a republic until 1660.
Early Modern
Battle of Rocroi (1643): France Breaks the Spanish Tercios
Decisive French victory; the Spanish siege of Rocroi was broken and the Army of Flanders suffered heavy losses, though the war continued until 1659.
Early Modern
Torricelli's Barometer (1643): The Discovery of Air Pressure
The mercury tube produced the first sustained vacuum and showed that the weight of the atmosphere supports the column, leading to the barometer.