Early Modern
Koprulu Era (1656-1703): Grand Viziers Revive the Ottomans
The Ottoman state recovered from a deep crisis and reached its greatest extent in Europe, before the defeat at Vienna in 1683 opened a long war of losses.
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
Huygens' Pendulum Clock (1656): The Revolution in Timekeeping
The pendulum clock cut timekeeping errors from roughly a quarter of an hour a day to seconds, and became the standard precision clock for almost three centuries.
Early Modern
Great Fire of Meireki (1657): The Blaze That Destroyed Edo
Much of Edo, including the keep of Edo Castle, was destroyed; the shogunate rebuilt the city with firebreaks, wider streets and new districts.
Early Modern
Aurangzeb: The Last Great Mughal Emperor and His Legacy
Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal Empire to its greatest size, but decades of war in the Deccan and rising revolts left it weakened at his death in 1707.
Early Modern
First Khoikhoi-Dutch War (1659-1660): Conflict at the Cape
The war ended without a clear military victory, but the Dutch kept the disputed grazing land and the Khoikhoi of the Peninsula lost access to it.
Early Modern
Royal African Company: England's Monopoly Slave-Trading Company
The company built England's slave-trading network in West Africa and shipped more enslaved Africans than any other single English institution, but lost its monopoly in 1698 and was dissolved in 1752.
Early Modern
Founding of the Royal Society (1660): Science in London
A society for experimental learning was founded and chartered by Charles II in 1662, becoming the world's oldest continuously existing national academy of sciences.
Early Modern
Restoration of Charles II (1660): The Monarchy Returns
The monarchy was restored without bloodshed; Charles II entered London on 29 May 1660 and most of the republican era was legally erased.
Early Modern
Louis XIV: The Sun King's Personal Rule in France (1661–1715)
France became the leading power in Europe with a strong, centralised monarchy, but repeated wars and heavy spending left the state deeply in debt and the population exhausted.
Early Modern
Siege of Fort Zeelandia (1661): Koxinga Takes Dutch Taiwan
The Dutch East India Company surrendered Fort Zeelandia and left Taiwan; Koxinga's family ruled the island until 1683.
Early Modern
Kangxi Emperor (1661-1722): China's Longest-Reigning Ruler
Kangxi consolidated Qing rule over China, added Taiwan and Outer Mongolia to the empire and left a stable, prosperous state to his successors.
Early Modern
John Graunt's Bills of Mortality (1662): Birth of Demography
Graunt's Natural and Political Observations turned parish death records into numerical evidence, founding demography and early epidemiology.