Region

Asia

Battle of Shanhai Pass (1644): Wu Sangui Lets the Qing In

Decisive victory for Wu Sangui and the Qing; Li Zicheng abandoned Beijing and the Manchus took the capital.

27 May 1644 · 6 min read

Li Zicheng's Shun regime captured Beijing and the last Ming emperor died by suicide; six weeks later the Manchu Qing took the city.

25 April 1644 · 9 min read

The Manchu queue became compulsory for Han Chinese men; resistance was crushed, and the hairstyle lasted until the fall of the Qing in 1912.

July 1645 · 5 min read

Qing forces took Yangzhou, killed Shi Kefa and massacred much of the population; Nanjing surrendered weeks later.

May 1645 · 5 min read

Much of Edo, including the keep of Edo Castle, was destroyed; the shogunate rebuilt the city with firebreaks, wider streets and new districts.

March 1657 · 6 min read

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.

1658-1707 · 8 min read

The Dutch East India Company surrendered Fort Zeelandia and left Taiwan; Koxinga's family ruled the island until 1683.

1661–1662 · 7 min read

Kangxi consolidated Qing rule over China, added Taiwan and Outer Mongolia to the empire and left a stable, prosperous state to his successors.

1661–1722 · 8 min read

Qing victory; the three feudatories were abolished and southern China came under direct imperial rule.

1673–1681 · 6 min read

Shivaji was proclaimed Chhatrapati, giving the Maratha state a sovereign king and a formal government independent of the Mughals and Bijapur.

6 June 1674 · 6 min read

Decisive Qing victory; the Kingdom of Tungning surrendered and Taiwan was annexed to the Qing empire in 1684.

July 1683 · 4 min read

Russia gave up the Amur valley and Albazin in return for regulated trade, and a border was fixed along the Argun River and the Stanovoy mountains.

1689 · 6 min read