- — Europe:
Fur and yasak pull the Russians across Siberia
Cossacks, traders and trappers rush east in search of furs, above all sable, and the indigenous peoples of Siberia are made to pay yasak, a tribute in furs.
Era: Muscovy and the Tsardom of Russia
Sources: Russian Explorations in the 17th Century · EBSCO Research Starters
- — Asia:
Founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
The Dutch Republic charters the VOC with sweeping powers to trade, wage war and govern, launching nearly two centuries of company rule in the Indies.
Era: Portuguese and Dutch Colonialism and the VOC
Sources: Dutch East India Company · Wikipedia
- — Oceania:
Quirós reaches Espiritu Santo
Pedro Fernández de Quirós, leading a Spanish expedition, landed on the largest island, named it La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo and claimed it for Spain before his short-lived colony failed.
Era: European Contact and Naming
Sources: Espiritu Santo — Vanuatu, Map, & Facts · Encyclopædia Britannica, The Spanish quest for Terra Australis · State Library of New South Wales
- — North America:
Founding of Jamestown
English settlers established Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, financed by the Virginia Company of London.
Era: European colonisation and the Thirteen Colonies
Sources: Jamestown Colony · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Flight of the Earls and the Plantation of Ulster
After the Gaelic earls sailed from Rathmullan in September 1607, King James I planted English and Scottish Protestant settlers on confiscated lands in six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone) from 1609, embedding a lasting religious and political division.
Era: Anglo-Norman Invasion, Plantation and Conquest
Sources: The Ulster Plantation · Ulster Historical Foundation, The Plantation: When? · Ulster-Scots Agency (Discover Ulster-Scots), Ireland Converts to Christianity · EBSCO Research Starters
- — Africa:
First recorded landing by the Ascension
Crew of the English East India Company ship Ascension landed and found the islands fertile and uninhabited, but the Company chose not to settle.
Era: Empty Islands and Pirates
Sources: History of Seychelles · Wikipedia, History of Seychelles · Holidify
- — South America:
Founding of Essequibo
The Dutch establish the colony of Essequibo, the oldest of the three, followed by Berbice (1627) and Demerara (split from Essequibo in 1745).
Era: The Dutch Colonies and the Engineered Coast
Sources: Guyana — History (Colonialism, Independence, Culture) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, A Guide to the History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations: Guyana · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- — Africa:
Founding of Benguela
The Portuguese established the port of Benguela to the south, which would become a second major outlet for the export of enslaved Africans to the Americas.
Era: Luanda, Queen Njinga and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Portuguese Angola · Wikipedia, Slavery in Angola · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Founding of Batavia
Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen storms Jayakarta and builds Batavia (modern Jakarta) as the VOC's Asian headquarters.
Era: Portuguese and Dutch Colonialism and the VOC
Sources: Dutch East India Company · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
Founding of the Dutch West India Company
The WIC is chartered for trade and conquest in the Americas and West Africa, becoming central to Dutch participation in the transatlantic slave trade.
Era: The Golden Age: Trade, the VOC, Art and Empire
Sources: Netherlands · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Slavery: the Rijksmuseum exhibition and Dutch colonial slavery · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- — Asia:
Dutch found Fort Zeelandia
The Dutch East India Company establishes a fortified trading base, Fort Zeelandia, on the southwestern coast near present-day Tainan, beginning roughly four decades of Dutch commercial rule over parts of the island.
Era: Austronesian Island and the European Outposts
Sources: Taiwan · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress Country Studies · U.S. Library of Congress
- — Asia:
- — Africa:
The Dutch seize Elmina
Dutch forces captured Elmina from Portugal and, by 1642, took over the Portuguese Gold Coast, joining a competition among European powers that lined the coast with slave-trading forts.
Era: European forts, gold, and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Elmina Castle · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Elmina Castle · Wikipedia
- — North America:
British woodcutters settle the coast
English and Scottish buccaneers and logwood cutters began settling the coast of present-day Belize, beyond effective Spanish control; calling themselves the Baymen, they cut logwood for the European dye trade.
Era: The Baymen, the forest and the slaves
Sources: History of Belize · Encyclopædia Britannica, Guyana and Belize: Country Studies (Federal Research Division) · Library of Congress, A Guide to the History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country: Belize · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- — Africa:
- — Europe:
Russian explorers reach the Pacific
Cossacks and fur traders crossing Siberia reach the Pacific coast, extending the Russian state across northern Asia and giving it a vast Eurasian dominion within a single century of expansion. In 1639 Ivan Moskvitin, with about thirty Cossacks, leaves Yakutsk and by the end of the year reaches the Sea of Okhotsk by way of the Ulya River; the port of Okhotsk is founded in 1647.
Era: Muscovy and the Tsardom of Russia
Sources: Russia · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Russian Explorations in the 17th Century · EBSCO Research Starters, Ivan Moskvitin · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Dutch conquest of Malacca
The Dutch East India Company, allied with the Sultanate of Johor, takes Malacca from the Portuguese, holding it as a lesser outpost while focusing power on Batavia.
Era: European Powers and the Making of British Malaya
Sources: Portuguese Malacca · World History Encyclopedia
- — Oceania:
Abel Tasman sights New Zealand
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, charting a fragment of the west coast but leaving without landing after a deadly clash with Māori in Golden Bay.
Era: European contact, missionaries, and the musket wars
Sources: European voyaging and discovery · NZ History (Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage), European discovery of New Zealand · Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Zealand (country) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Oceania:
Abel Tasman sights Fiji
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European to sight the Fijian islands, without landing among them.
Era: European Contact & the Rise of Cakobau
Sources: Fiji — History (Melanesian, Colonialism, Independence) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Europe:
Cayenne settled
A Rouen company's expedition under Charles Poncet de Brétigny buys the hill at the mouth of the Cayenne river from a local leader, Cépérou, and builds a fort. Dutch and English forces take the town several times before France regains it for good in 1664.
Era: The Medieval & Early-Modern Kingdom
Sources: Histoire des chefs-lieux d’Outre-mer: Cayenne · Outremers 360
- — South America:
English settlement under Willoughby
Lord Francis Willoughby of Barbados plants an English sugar colony on the Suriname River, with the first enslaved Africans set to work.
Era: Willoughbyland and the Treaty of Breda
Sources: Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Suriname: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Van Riebeeck founds the Cape station
Jan van Riebeeck landed at Table Bay and established a Dutch East India Company refreshment station, the beginning of permanent European settlement in South Africa.
Era: The Dutch Cape Colony and the frontier
Sources: Jan van Riebeeck · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jan van Riebeeck · South African History Online, South Africa (country, history and government) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
British protectorate over the Mosquito Coast
Great Britain allies with the Miskito kings and treats the Caribbean Mosquito Coast as a protectorate, leaving the region distinct from Hispanic Pacific Nicaragua.
Era: Conquest, León, and the Mosquito Coast
Sources: Mosquito Coast · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Asia:
Dutch supplant the Portuguese
Allied with Kandy, the Dutch East India Company takes Galle (1640) and expels the Portuguese with the fall of Colombo (1656) and Jaffna (1658), ruling the maritime provinces for cinnamon.
Era: European Coasts and the Kandyan Kingdom
Sources: Sri Lanka: History · Encyclopædia Britannica, Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Africa:
France founds Saint-Louis
French traders establish Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River, the first permanent French settlement and future colonial capital.
Era: Atlantic Trade, Gorée and Saint-Louis
Sources: French conquest of Senegal · Wikipedia, Saint-Louis, Senegal · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
England takes James Island
English forces seized the midstream island, renaming it James Island and building Fort James; chartered companies ran the post, and its trade shifted from gold and ivory toward enslaved Africans.
Era: The river, European trade and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Kunta Kinteh Island · Wikipedia, Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Africa:
Bunce Island slave fort established
The Royal African Company built a fortified post on Bunce Island in the Sierra Leone River, beginning the island's long and notorious role in the British slave trade.
Era: The Atlantic slave trade and Bunce Island
Sources: Bunce Island, Sierra Leone River · Sierra Leone Heritage, Bunce Island in Sierra Leone (Gilder Lehrman Center) · Yale University, Gilder Lehrman Center
- — Africa:
France takes Gorée
France captures Gorée island from the Dutch during the Franco-Dutch War, holding the slaving and trading post for nearly three centuries.
Era: Atlantic Trade, Gorée and Saint-Louis
Sources: French conquest of Senegal · Wikipedia, Island of Gorée (World Heritage List) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — South America:
Portugal founds Colonia del Sacramento
Portuguese soldiers establish Colonia opposite Buenos Aires; it becomes a strategic outpost and smuggling centre, changing hands between the crowns for over a century.
Era: The Contested Frontier: Colonia and Montevideo
Sources: Colonia del Sacramento · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Asia:
Khalkha Mongols submit to the Qing
The Khalkha Mongols of the north accept Manchu overlordship, bringing Mongolia under the Qing dynasty; the Manchus govern through the Mongol nobility and impose religious controls to secure their rule.
Era: Buddhism and the Manchu Overlordship
Sources: History of Mongolia: The ascendancy of the Manchu · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Mongolia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Inner and Outer Mongolia governed apart
Under the Qing, Inner Mongolia is divided into six leagues of 49 banners, while Outer Mongolia, the Khalkha north of four aimags, is administered separately and, being further from Beijing, enjoys a higher degree of autonomy. By the 1780s Han Chinese farm tens of thousands of hectares in Inner Mongolia.
Era: Buddhism and the Manchu Overlordship
Sources: Mongolia under Qing rule · Wikipedia
- — North America:
France gains Saint-Domingue
The Treaty of Rijswijk transfers the western third of Hispaniola from Spain to France, creating the colony of Saint-Domingue.
Era: Saint-Domingue: The Richest Colony on Earth
Sources: Treaty of Rijswijk · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Saint-Domingue · Encyclopaedia Britannica
Colonisation in the 17th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged colonisation — the establishment, administration and ending of colonial rule, narrowed to the 17th century — 32 of them, drawn from 27 nations, running from 1600 to 1697. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 32
- Nations
- 27
- Earliest
- 1600
- Latest
- 1697
- Africa
- 9
- Asia
- 8
- Europe
- 5
- North America
- 4
- Oceania
- 3
- South America
- 3
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.