Early Modern
Battle of White Mountain (1620): Defeat of Protestant Bohemia
Decisive Catholic victory; the Bohemian revolt collapsed, Frederick V fled and Bohemia was brought firmly under Habsburg and Catholic rule.
Region
Europe
Early Modern
Francis Bacon's Novum Organum (1620): The Scientific Method
Bacon's programme of systematic observation and experiment became a guiding ideal for the Royal Society and the experimental science of the later seventeenth century.
Early Modern
Mayflower Voyage and Plymouth Colony (1620): The Pilgrims
The Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony, the second lasting English settlement in North America; about half died in the first winter.
Early Modern
Dutch Conquest of the Banda Islands (1621): The Nutmeg Massacre
The VOC seized the Banda Islands, destroyed most of the Bandanese population and created a slave-worked nutmeg monopoly.
Early Modern
Cardinal Richelieu: Louis XIII's Chief Minister (1624–1642)
Richelieu strengthened royal authority, ended Huguenot military power and brought France into the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs.
Early Modern
Siege of Breda (1624–1625): Spínola and Velázquez's Painting
The Dutch garrison surrendered on honourable terms after about nine months; Spain held Breda until the Dutch retook it in 1637.
Early Modern
New Amsterdam (1625–1664): Dutch Manhattan Before New York
The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to an English fleet in 1664, and it was renamed New York.
Early Modern
Siege of La Rochelle (1627–1628): Richelieu Crushes the Huguenots
La Rochelle surrendered after about fourteen months; the Peace of Alès (1629) ended the Huguenots' political and military privileges.
Early Modern
Vasa Warship (1628): Sweden's Great Ship Sinks on Maiden Voyage
The Vasa capsized and sank after sailing about 1,300 metres, killing an estimated 30 people; she was raised almost intact in 1961 and is now a museum ship.
Early Modern
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (1628)
Harvey overturned the Galenic model of the blood and established that the heart drives a continuous circulation, a foundation of modern physiology.
Early Modern
Batavia Shipwreck and Mutiny (1629): Massacre on the Abrolhos
The Batavia was lost and about 110 to 125 survivors were murdered by mutineers; Pelsaert's rescue ship captured the mutineers, and Cornelisz and six others were hanged on 2 October 1629.
Early Modern
Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630): Winthrop and the Puritans
The Winthrop Fleet founded Boston and began the Great Migration that made Massachusetts the leading English colony in New England.