- South America
The frontier Captaincy General
Chile is governed as a poor, militarised captaincy general of the Spanish empire, its southern frontier held against an independent Mapuche nation that the conquest never subdued.
Era: Conquest, Santiago, and the Long Arauco War
Sources: History of Chile · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Araucanian wars · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Promulgation of the Leges Statutae
The republic enacted the Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini, a six-book written constitution governing the Council, the Regents and the courts; it remains in force as the foundation of San Marino's law.
Era: The Commune, the Statutes and the Captains Regent
Sources: The Institutions of the Republic of San Marino · Consulate of San Marino to the UK, The World's Oldest Continuous Republic · WorldAtlas
- Oceania
Reign of the paramount chief Roi Mata
Oral tradition records Roi Mata as a great chief of central Vanuatu who ended inter-clan warfare and whose burial on Artok is honoured by lasting prohibitions on his sites.
Era: Lapita Seafarers and Chief Roi Mata
Sources: Chief Roi Mata's Domain — World Heritage List · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, A Legendary Leader: Chief Roi Mata's Domain · UNESCO, Chief Roimata's Domain — World Heritage Site · Vanuatu Tourism Office
- Asia
Tokugawa shogunate founded
Ieyasu is appointed shogun and establishes his government at Edo, beginning the Tokugawa (Edo) period of long internal peace.
Era: Sengoku and Edo: Unification and the Long Peace
Sources: Tokugawa Ieyasu · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sakoku · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Union of the Crowns
James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I as James I of England, uniting the English and Scottish crowns under one monarch while the two kingdoms remained separate states.
Era: Union, revolution, and the rise of Britain
Sources: The British Library: history and collections · The British Library
- Europe
The French crown becomes co-prince
After the rights of Foix passed through Navarre to Henry IV, an edict confirmed the King of France and the Bishop of Urgell as Andorra's co-princes; the French role later passed to the head of state.
Era: Two Princes, Neutrality and Endurance
Sources: Andorra: Countries · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Andorra: History, Facts & Points of Interest · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The House of Liechtenstein raised to princely rank
Karl von Liechtenstein received the hereditary dignity of an imperial prince in 1608, confirmed for his brothers soon after, raising the wealthy Austrian dynasty to the highest rank of the nobility.
Era: The Lordships of the Rhine and the Distant House of Liechtenstein
Sources: The History of the Princely House of Liechtenstein · Fürstenhaus von Liechtenstein (official Princely House), The History of the Family and the Collections · LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna
- Europe
Honoré II takes the title of Prince
Honoré II became the first Grimaldi to call himself Prince and Lord of Monaco, marking the principality's emergence as a sovereign state out of the medieval lordship.
Era: From Lordship to Principality: Spanish, then French Protection
Sources: Monaco: 1215 to 1662 · GlobalSecurity.org, Monaco · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Michael Romanov elected tsar
A national assembly (Zemsky Sobor) elects sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov as tsar, ending the Time of Troubles and founding the Romanov dynasty that will rule Russia for three centuries.
Era: Muscovy and the Tsardom of Russia
Sources: Russia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Njinga becomes queen of Ndongo
After leading a diplomatic mission to the Portuguese in 1621, Njinga Mbande took the throne of Ndongo, beginning a decades-long struggle against Portuguese expansion.
Era: Luanda, Queen Njinga and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba · Wikipedia, Njinga a Mbande: Power and War in 17th-Century Angola · Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Angola — Colonialism, Independence, Civil War (history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Rise of the Yarubid imamate
A member of the Yarub tribe was elected imam, founding the Yarubid dynasty that would unite Oman and lead the campaign to expel the Portuguese.
Era: The Portuguese, Hormuz and the Yarubid Recovery
Sources: Yarubid dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Oman: The early period · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
An island within the Papal States
By the seventeenth century the lands of the Church surrounded San Marino on every side; the republic guarded its autonomy and secured papal acknowledgements of its rights, but its independence rested on the goodwill of a far greater neighbour.
Era: The Alberoni Occupation and Restored Liberty
Sources: History of San Marino · Visit San Marino (official tourism site), San Marino (Napoleon, Congress of Vienna, 1862 treaty) · New World Encyclopedia
- Asia
Ottoman conquest of Baghdad
The Ottoman Empire takes definitive control of Baghdad from Safavid Persia, ruling Mesopotamia for nearly three centuries as the provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.
Era: Ottoman Rule, the British Mandate and the Kingdom
Sources: Iraq — History · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Asia
- Europe
Treaty of Péronne
Honoré II and Louis XIII signed the Treaty of Péronne, shifting Monaco from Spanish to French protection while recognising the principality's independence and the prince's sovereignty.
Era: From Lordship to Principality: Spanish, then French Protection
Sources: French protection (Treaty of Péronne, 1641) · Government of Monaco (gouv.mc), Monaco: 1215 to 1662 · GlobalSecurity.org, Monaco · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
French titles for the Grimaldi
Under the Péronne settlement the prince of Monaco received French titles and estates, including the duchy of Valentinois, binding the dynasty to the French crown.
Era: From Lordship to Principality: Spanish, then French Protection
Sources: French protection (Treaty of Péronne, 1641) · Government of Monaco (gouv.mc)
- Europe
- Asia
Manchus establish the Qing dynasty
The Manchus capture Beijing and found the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), China's last imperial dynasty, which expands the empire to its greatest extent under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors.
Era: Empires of Conquest and Restoration: Yuan, Ming, Qing
Sources: China · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Yuan Dynasty · World History Encyclopedia
- Europe
Peace of Westphalia
The settlement ending the Thirty Years' War granted Sweden Western Pomerania, Bremen and Verden and a vote in the imperial diet, confirming it as a dominant power on the Baltic and in northern Germany.
Era: Stormaktstiden: The Swedish Empire and Its Fall
Sources: Peace of Westphalia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Dual system of government established
The Zhabdrung institutes the chhoesi dual system, splitting power between a spiritual Je Khenpo and a secular Druk Desi; his death around this time is concealed to preserve the fledgling state.
Era: Unification under the Zhabdrung
Sources: Bhutan — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies · Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
- Europe
Council of Pereiaslav
Khmelnytsky and the Cossack assembly swore allegiance to the tsar, placing the Hetmanate under Muscovite protection while seeking to retain its autonomy, and drawing Muscovy into war with Poland.
Era: The Cossack Hetmanate and the Partition of Ukrainian Lands
Sources: Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Ukraine · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The establishment of absolutism
In the crisis following defeat by Sweden, Frederick III secured a hereditary and absolute monarchy, a system later codified in the Royal Law (Kongeloven) of 1665.
Era: Reformation, Denmark-Norway and the Wars with Sweden
Sources: Denmark: Reformation and war · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
Treaty of Breda
The peace confirms Suriname to the Dutch while England keeps New Netherland and New Amsterdam, the future New York.
Era: Willoughbyland and the Treaty of Breda
Sources: Treaty of Breda (1667) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Treaty of Breda, 1667 · Historical Society of the New York Courts
- Europe
Partition along the Dnieper
The Truce of Andrusovo and later settlements divided the Ukrainian lands between Russia and Poland, with the left bank and Kyiv under Russian control and the right bank remaining Polish.
Era: The Cossack Hetmanate and the Partition of Ukrainian Lands
Sources: History of Ukraine · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- North America
Grant to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina
The Bahamas were granted to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, though their rule proved weak and largely nominal, leaving the scattered islands poorly governed.
Era: English settlers and the Republic of Pirates
Sources: Bahamas: Local History and Genealogy — Research Guide · Library of Congress, The Bahamas — British colonization (History) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Rule of the deys
Power in the regency passes to elected military rulers titled dey, heading a janissary state financed by corsairing and ransom.
Era: The Ottoman Regency of Algiers
Sources: Regency of Algiers · Wikipedia, History of Algeria · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Rise of the Moorish emirates
Moorish society consolidates into the emirates of Trarza, Brakna, Tagant and Adrar, each governed by an emir of the Hassan warrior elite.
Era: Arab Migration, the Char Bouba War and the Caravan Ksour
Sources: Mauritania · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Emirate of Brakna · Wikipedia
- Africa
The Rozvi state under Changamire Dombo
Changamire Dombo founded the Rozvi state, absorbing the Torwa and expelling Portuguese fairs from the plateau around the 1690s; Rozvi power dominated the region until the Mfecane in the 1830s.
Era: Mutapa, Torwa and Rozvi
Sources: Rozvi Empire · Wikipedia, Torwa: historical state, Africa · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Zimbabwe: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
The Glorious Revolution
James II was deposed and William and Mary took the throne on Parliament's terms; the Bill of Rights of 1689 entrenched parliamentary authority and constitutional monarchy.
Era: Union, revolution, and the rise of Britain
Sources: Glorious Revolution · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Fashoda made the Shilluk royal seat
King Tugo founds Fashoda as the permanent residence of the Shilluk kings, formalising the kingdom's investiture rituals and divine kingship.
Era: Peoples of the Upper Nile
Sources: Shilluk Kingdom · Wikipedia
- Europe
Williamite victory and the Penal era
The Protestant William III defeated the Catholic James II at the Boyne in 1690 and Limerick in 1691, after which the Protestant Ascendancy entrenched its rule through the anti-Catholic Penal Laws.
Era: Anglo-Norman Invasion, Plantation and Conquest
Sources: The Cromwellian Conquest and Land Settlement of Ireland · The Down Survey of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, The Penal Laws in Ireland · John J. Burns Library, Boston College
- Europe
Petrovic-Njegos dynasty established
Metropolitan Danilo Petrovic-Njegos secured the right to name his successor, founding the hereditary Petrovic-Njegos line of prince-bishops that ruled Montenegro until 1918, the title passing from uncle to nephew.
Era: The Prince-Bishopric and the Petrovic-Njegos Resistance
Sources: Danilo I, first prince-bishop of the Petrovic-Njegos dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vladika: the Montenegrin prince-bishop · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- North America
Treaty of Ryswick
Spain formally recognises French control of the western third of Hispaniola, creating the colony of Saint-Domingue beside Spanish Santo Domingo.
Era: A Divided Island and the French Era
Sources: Hispaniola · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Europe
Return to the Habsburgs
Luxembourg reverted to Habsburg rule, passing in the eighteenth century from the Spanish to the Austrian branch of the dynasty while remaining a frontier fortress.
Era: The Gibraltar of the North and the First Partition
Sources: History of the city of Luxembourg · Luxembourg City Tourist Office
- Europe
Treaty of Karlowitz
The Ottomans ceded almost all of Hungary to the Habsburgs, reuniting the country but binding it firmly within the Habsburg monarchy.
Era: Mohács and the Three-Part Kingdom
Sources: Battle of Mohács (1526) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Treaty of Karlowitz
After the failed 1683 siege of Vienna, the Treaty of Karlowitz ceded Hungary and other lands to the Habsburgs, the first major Ottoman territorial retreat in Europe.
Era: The Ottoman Empire: Height and Decline
Sources: Ottoman Empire · Encyclopædia Britannica
Politics & PowerThe 17th century
Politics & Power in the 17th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged politics and power — dynasties, constitutions, revolutions and changes of regime, narrowed to the 17th century — 36 of them, drawn from 30 nations, running from 1600 to 1699. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 36
- Nations
- 30
- Earliest
- 1600
- Latest
- 1699
- Europe
- 19
- Asia
- 7
- Africa
- 5
- North America
- 2
- South America
- 2
- Oceania
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.