- — Asia:
Battle of Sekigahara
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats a rival coalition in the decisive battle that makes him master of Japan and clears the path to the shogunate.
Era: Sengoku and Edo: Unification and the Long Peace
Sources: Battle of Sekigahara · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tokugawa Ieyasu · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
The Nine Years' War and the Battle of Kinsale
The Ulster lords Hugh O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell led a war against Elizabethan rule with Spanish support; at Kinsale on Christmas Eve 1601 (3 January 1602 by the new calendar) their army was routed by Lord Deputy Mountjoy, and the war ended in 1603.
Era: Anglo-Norman Invasion, Plantation and Conquest
Sources: The Battle of Kinsale, 1601 (John McGurk) · History Ireland, Red Hugh O'Donnell, Tirconnell's missing lord (James O'Neill) · History Ireland
- — South America:
Cartagena fortified
Cartagena de Indias is built into the most complete fortified port in South America, guarding the empire's wealth against repeated pirate and naval assaults.
Era: Conquest and the Viceroyalty of New Granada
Sources: Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Europe:
The Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia
A devastating European war fought largely in Germany ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which confirmed the autonomy of the empire's states and entrenched German fragmentation.
Era: The Holy Roman Empire and the Reformation
Sources: Peace of Westphalia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Battle of White Mountain
Imperial and Catholic League armies crushed the Bohemian rebels at White Mountain near Prague, ending Czech estates' power and ushering in Habsburg absolutism and forced Counter-Reformation.
Era: Habsburg Bohemia: White Mountain, Counter-Reformation and National Revival
Sources: Defenestration of Prague (1618) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Czechoslovak history · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
The Banda massacre
To enforce the nutmeg monopoly, Coen's forces kill, starve, enslave or deport almost the entire population of the Banda Islands, an atrocity that destroys Bandanese society.
Era: Portuguese and Dutch Colonialism and the VOC
Sources: Banda Islands (Dutch conquest, 1621) · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
Swedish conquest of Riga
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden captured Riga and most of Livonia from Poland-Lithuania, opening the period of Swedish rule remembered by Latvians as the 'good Swedish times'.
Era: Poland, Sweden, Courland and the Russian Empire
Sources: Latvia: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of the Port of Riga · Freeport of Riga Authority (rop.lv)
- — Europe:
Sweden enters the Thirty Years' War
Gustavus Adolphus landed in Pomerania and intervened on the Protestant side, turning the tide of the Thirty Years' War with a series of victories before his death at Lützen in 1632.
Era: Stormaktstiden: The Swedish Empire and Its Fall
Sources: Peace of Westphalia · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sweden: The early Vasa kings (1523–1611) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Njinga rules from Matamba
Driven from Ndongo by the Portuguese, Njinga rebuilt her power in the eastern kingdom of Matamba, from which she resisted, raided and negotiated with the colonisers until peace in 1656.
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
- — Asia:
Execution of Fakhr al-Din II
Defeated by Ottoman forces wary of his power, Fakhr al-Din is captured and executed in Constantinople, but the union of Druze and Maronite districts he created endures.
Era: The Emirate of Mount Lebanon
Sources: Fakhr al-Din II · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Dutch sack of São Tomé
Dutch forces captured and occupied São Tomé for several years, razing sugar mills and accelerating the long decline of the island's plantation economy.
Era: Sugar, the slave trade and the revolt of Rei Amador
Sources: History of São Tomé and Príncipe · Wikipedia, São Tomé and Príncipe · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
- — Africa:
The Char Bouba (Marabout) war
Sanhaja Berber religious leaders fight the Arab Beni Hassan tribes; the war's outcome confirms Arab warrior dominance and the social hierarchy of Moorish society.
Era: Arab Migration, the Char Bouba War and the Caravan Ksour
Sources: Char Bouba war · Wikipedia, Mauritania · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Khmelnytsky's uprising
Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars, in a great rebellion against Polish rule, founding a self-governing Cossack Hetmanate in the Ukrainian lands.
Era: The Cossack Hetmanate and the Partition of Ukrainian Lands
Sources: Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ukraine: The Cossacks · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Cromwellian conquest
Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary army stormed Drogheda and Wexford with notorious massacres; the conquest was followed by the 1652 Act for the Settlement of Ireland and the mass confiscation of Catholic land.
Era: Anglo-Norman Invasion, Plantation and Conquest
Sources: The Cromwellian Settlement and Down Survey · The Down Survey of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin
- — Europe:
Execution of Charles I
After defeat in the English Civil War, Charles I was tried and beheaded, and a republican Commonwealth was established — a singular assertion of Parliament's power over the crown.
Era: Union, revolution, and the rise of Britain
Sources: English Civil Wars · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Expulsion of the Portuguese from Muscat
The Yarubid imams recaptured Muscat in 1650, ending Portuguese occupation of the Omani coast and launching Oman as an Indian Ocean naval power.
Era: The Portuguese, Hormuz and the Yarubid Recovery
Sources: Yarubid dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Oman: The early period · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Buganda expands at Bunyoro's expense
Under a line of aggressive kabakas, the compact kingdom of Buganda annexes territory from Bunyoro-Kitara, growing into the largest state in the interlacustrine region.
Era: Peoples and the Great Lakes Kingdoms
Sources: Uganda: Bunyoro and Buganda · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Buganda · Wikipedia
- — North America:
English conquest
An English force under Penn and Venables seizes the island for Cromwell, launching the sugar-and-slavery plantation economy.
Era: Spanish Colony and English Conquest
Sources: Jamaica: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jamaica: British rule · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
The Deluge
A devastating Swedish invasion during the Second Northern War ravaged the Commonwealth, causing enormous loss of life and population and accelerating the state's long decline.
Era: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Golden Age and Decline
Sources: The Deluge (Swedish invasion, 1655-1660) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Poland: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Treaty of Roskilde
After Sweden's invasion across the frozen belts, Denmark ceded Scania, Halland, Blekinge, Bornholm and Trondheim; the loss of the eastern provinces was the largest in Danish history.
Era: Reformation, Denmark-Norway and the Wars with Sweden
Sources: Treaty of Roskilde (1658) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Treaty of Copenhagen · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Treaty of Roskilde
After Charles X Gustav's invasion of Denmark, the Treaty of Roskilde forced Denmark to cede Scania, Blekinge, Halland and Bohuslän to Sweden, fixing its southern border and marking the empire's territorial peak.
Era: Stormaktstiden: The Swedish Empire and Its Fall
Sources: Treaty of Roskilde · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Treaty of the Pyrenees: the First Partition
The peace between France and Spain ceded a southern band of the duchy, including Thionville, Montmedy and Stenay, to Louis XIV's France, the first partition of Luxembourg's territory.
Era: The Gibraltar of the North and the First Partition
Sources: Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) · EBSCO Research Starters, History of the city of Luxembourg · Luxembourg City Tourist Office
- — Asia:
Koxinga expels the Dutch
After a siege begun in 1661, the Ming-loyalist commander Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) forces the surrender of Fort Zeelandia, ending Dutch rule and founding the Zheng (Tungning) regime on Taiwan.
Era: Austronesian Island and the European Outposts
Sources: Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Battle of Mbwila breaks Kongo
Portuguese forces defeat Kongo and kill King António I at Mbwila (Ambuila); the kingdom splinters into rival factions and a long civil war.
Era: Kongo & the Savanna Kingdoms
Sources: Kingdom of Kongo · Wikipedia, Kongo (historical kingdom, Africa) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — South America:
Dutch capture of the colony
A Dutch force from Zeeland seizes the English colony during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
Era: Willoughbyland and the Treaty of Breda
Sources: Suriname: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Treaty of Breda (1667) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — North America:
Henry Morgan sacks Panama
The buccaneer Henry Morgan crosses the isthmus and takes Panama Viejo, which burns to the ground; the city is refounded on a new site in 1673.
Era: Artery of the Spanish Empire
Sources: Sir Henry Morgan · Encyclopaedia Britannica, El Sitio Arqueológico de Panamá Viejo · Patronato Panamá Viejo
- — Europe:
The Rampjaar (Disaster Year)
France, England and allied bishops invade the Republic; the Dutch open the dikes to flood the land and halt the advance, and William III rises to power.
Era: The Golden Age: Trade, the VOC, Art and Empire
Sources: Netherlands · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Second Ottoman siege and the relief of Vienna
An Ottoman army under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa besieged Vienna until a relief force led by Charles V of Lorraine and King Jan III Sobieski of Poland routed it on 12 September 1683, a turning point against Ottoman expansion.
Era: The Rise of the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Wars
Sources: The second Turkish siege of Vienna, 1683 · Die Welt der Habsburger (The World of the Habsburgs)
- — Europe:
Relief of Vienna
King John III Sobieski led the allied cavalry charge that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna, marking the high point of the Commonwealth's military reputation in Europe.
Era: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Golden Age and Decline
Sources: John III Sobieski · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Qing conquest of the Zheng regime
A Qing fleet defeats the Zheng (Tungning) forces, ending the Ming-loyalist kingdom; Taiwan is annexed the following year and attached to Fujian province as a prefecture.
Era: The Zheng Regime and Qing Rule
Sources: Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Battle of Nanjing (1659) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Louis XIV takes the fortress; Vauban rebuilds it
French forces captured Luxembourg City in 1684, and the engineer Vauban remodelled its fortifications before the stronghold was later returned to Spanish rule.
Era: The Gibraltar of the North and the First Partition
Sources: History of the city of Luxembourg · Luxembourg City Tourist Office, History of the City of Luxembourg · Ville de Luxembourg (City of Luxembourg)
- — Europe:
Reconquest of Buda
A Habsburg-led Christian coalition retook Buda from the Ottomans, part of the campaign that drove the Turks from Hungary after more than a century.
Era: Mohács and the Three-Part Kingdom
Sources: Battle of Mohács (1526) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Omani Arabs capture Fort Jesus
After a siege of some thirty-three months, Omani forces take Fort Jesus, ending Portuguese dominance and bringing the Kenyan coast, Zanzibar and Pemba under Omani Arab control.
Era: Portuguese and Omani Rule on the Coast
Sources: Siege of Mombasa (1696–1698) · Wikipedia, Fort Jesus Museum · National Museums of Kenya
- — Africa:
Omanis take Fort Jesus at Mombasa
Omani Arabs capture Fort Jesus in Mombasa, rolling back Portuguese power on the northern Swahili coast and confining it largely to the territory of modern Mozambique.
Era: Da Gama and the Portuguese Seizure of the Coast
Sources: Mozambique · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Mozambique · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
Prince Eugene and the conquest of Hungary
After Vienna's deliverance, Prince Eugene of Savoy won victories such as Zenta (1697) and the capture of Belgrade (1717); the Peace of Karlowitz (1699) secured Habsburg control of Hungary and Transylvania.
Era: The Rise of the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Wars
Sources: Prince Eugene, the 'noble knight' · Die Welt der Habsburger (The World of the Habsburgs)
War & Rupture in the 17th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged war and rupture — wars, invasions, conquests, battles and armed conflict, narrowed to the 17th century — 36 of them, drawn from 29 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
- 29
- Earliest
- 1600
- Latest
- 1699
- Europe
- 18
- Africa
- 7
- Asia
- 7
- North America
- 2
- South America
- 2
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.