Early Modern
Maryland Toleration Act (1649): Early Religious Freedom Law
The act guaranteed free exercise of religion to Christians who accepted the Trinity; it was repealed in 1654, restored in 1658 and ended after the Protestant takeover of 1689.
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
Siege of Drogheda (1649): Cromwell's Conquest of Ireland Begins
Parliamentarian victory; the town was stormed and most of the garrison, along with an uncertain number of civilians, was killed.
Early Modern
Execution of Charles I (1649): The Trial and Death of a King
Charles I was beheaded; the monarchy and House of Lords were abolished and England became a republic until 1660.
Early Modern
Kunta Kinteh Island (James Island): Gambia River Fort Since 1651
The island fort became England's main base on the Gambia River and a centre of the slave trade; its ruins are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 2003.
Early Modern
Hobbes' Leviathan (1651): The Social Contract and Sovereign Power
Leviathan founded modern social contract theory, arguing that people must accept an all-powerful sovereign to escape a war of all against all.
Early Modern
Battle of Worcester (1651): Charles II's Defeat and Escape
Decisive Parliamentarian victory; the Scottish-Royalist army was destroyed and Charles II fled into exile.
Early Modern
Founding of the Cape Colony (1652): Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape
The Dutch East India Company founded a permanent station at the Cape that grew into a slave-holding settler colony, dispossessed the Khoikhoi and laid the foundations of Cape Town.
Early Modern
London Coffeehouses (1652): The Penny Universities
Coffeehouses spread across London as cheap meeting places for news, debate and business, surviving a royal attempt to suppress them in 1675–1676.
Early Modern
Cape Coast Castle: Slave Fort on Ghana's Gold Coast
The castle became the British headquarters on the Gold Coast and one of the largest slave-holding forts in West Africa; it is now a museum and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Early Modern
Cromwell's Protectorate (1653-1659): Britain Without a King
Five years of rule by a Lord Protector that ended with Richard Cromwell's resignation in May 1659 and paved the way for the Restoration of 1660.
Early Modern
Magdeburg Hemispheres (1654): Otto von Guericke's Vacuum
Guericke's vacuum experiments showed the enormous force of air pressure and inspired the air-pump research of Robert Boyle and others.
Early Modern
The Deluge (1655-1660): Swedish Invasion of Poland-Lithuania
The Commonwealth survived and expelled the Swedes, but lost Livonia at Oliva in 1660 and was left gravely weakened by war, plunder and population loss.