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.
Region
Europe
Early Modern
Battle of Marston Moor (1644): Royalist Defeat in the North
Decisive victory for the allied Parliamentarian and Scottish armies; York surrendered and the Royalists lost the north of England.
Early Modern
New Model Army (1645): Parliament's Professional Fighting Force
The army won the First and Second Civil Wars, purged Parliament, brought the king to trial and dominated government until the Restoration of 1660.
Early Modern
Battle of Naseby (1645): The New Model Army Breaks the King
Decisive Parliamentarian victory; the king's main army was destroyed and the Royalist cause never recovered.
Early Modern
Putney Debates (1647): Levellers, Soldiers and the Right to Vote
No agreement was reached; the debates ended when Charles I escaped from Hampton Court, and the army leadership suppressed Leveller unrest.
Early Modern
Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1657): The Cossack Revolt in Ukraine
The revolt created a Cossack state, the Hetmanate, in central Ukraine, which in 1654 accepted the protection of the Russian tsar, setting off a long war that divided Ukraine between Russia and Poland.
Early Modern
The Fronde (1648–1653): France's Civil Wars Against Mazarin
The revolts collapsed; Louis XIV returned to Paris in 1652 and Mazarin in 1653, and royal authority emerged stronger.
Early Modern
Peace of Westphalia (1648): Treaties That Ended Two Wars
The Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War ended; Dutch independence was recognised and France and Sweden gained territory, but the Franco-Spanish war continued until 1659.
Early Modern
Siege of Candia (1648-1669): Crete's 21-Year Ottoman Siege
Ottoman victory; Venice surrendered Candia in September 1669 and the Ottomans held Crete until the nineteenth century.
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
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.