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Age 5 of 6 1500 CE – 1800 CE

The early modern world, 1500–1800

300 years · 1,632 records · 182 dated moments

Three centuries in which the map stops being regional.

Open the canvas here The atlas at 1650 CE

Oceans crossed, continents claimed, and the first conflicts whose bars run across more than one region lane at once. Trade routes are at their densest here, and the figures lane starts carrying people whose dates are known to the year rather than to the century.

The states the atlas drew most often

The polities the canvas draws first in this age, when it has room for only a few.

All 957 polities

South Asia

Tibet

Attested 1000 CE – 1960 CE

Europe

Ottoman Empire

1299 CE – 1922 CE

Americas

United States

Founded 1784 CE · attested to 2026 CE

Europe

Holy Roman Empire

962 CE – 1806 CE

South Asia

Hindu kingdoms

Attested 500 BCE – 1715 CE

Middle East

Egypt

Attested 3000 BCE – 2026 CE

Europe

Sweden

Founded 900 CE · attested to 2026 CE

Middle East

Persia

Attested 400 CE – 1914 CE

Best-evidenced conflicts

Ranked the way the war lane ranks them: the ones the canvas draws first.

All 119 conflicts

East Asia

Sengoku Period (Japanese Warring States)

1467 CE – 1615 CE

Nearly 150 years of civil war as feudal warlords fought for supremacy across Japan. Three great unifiers — Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu — progressively reunified the country, culminating in the Tokugawa Shogunate that would rule for 250 years.

Americas

Hawaiian Unification Wars

1782 CE – 1810 CE

Kamehameha I used European weapons and advisors to unify the Hawaiian Islands into a single kingdom, culminating in the dramatic Battle of Nuʻuanu where defenders were driven off the Pali cliffs.

Americas

Tongan Maritime Power and Rivalries

1200 CE – 1600 CE

Tongan maritime power grew through regional exchange and political rivalry. This approximate period overview does not establish continuous conquest or uniformly controlled borders.

Europe

Anglo–Scottish Wars

1296 CE – 1560 CE

Centuries of border warfare between England and Scotland, from Edward I's invasions through the Wars of Independence to ongoing border raids. The 'Auld Alliance' with France made Scotland a persistent strategic threat to England's northern flank.

Europe

Ottoman–Safavid Wars

1514 CE – 1639 CE

Over a century of intermittent warfare between the Sunni Ottoman Empire and Shia Safavid Persia for control of Iraq, the Caucasus, and eastern Anatolia — shaping the Sunni-Shia divide that persists today.

South Asia

Mughal Conquests of India

1526 CE – 1707 CE

Babur's victory at Panipat in 1526 founded the Mughal Empire, which expanded over two centuries to control nearly all of the Indian subcontinent — one of the most populous and wealthiest empires in history.

Europe

French Wars of Religion

1562 CE – 1598 CE

Eight devastating civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots tore France apart for 36 years, killing 2–4 million people. The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 shocked Europe. Peace came only when Henry IV converted to Catholicism and issued the Edict of Nantes.

Europe

Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt)

1568 CE – 1648 CE

The Dutch provinces revolted against Spanish Habsburg rule over taxation, religious persecution, and political autonomy. After 80 years of fighting, the Peace of Munster recognised Dutch independence.

Still standing, and who was alive

Landmarks standing during this age, and people who lived in it.

All 492 landmarks All 42 figures

Landmark · Americas

Grand Canyon

3000 BCE – still standing

Immense gorge carved by the Colorado River over millions of years

Landmark · Oceania

Great Barrier Reef

3000 BCE – still standing

World's largest coral reef system, visible from space

Landmark · Europe

Plitvice Lakes

3000 BCE – still standing

Cascading chain of sixteen turquoise lakes connected by waterfalls in the Croatian highlands

Landmark · Europe

Giant's Causeway

3000 BCE – still standing

40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Northern Irish coast

Figure · Spain / Atlantic / Caribbean

Christopher Columbus

1451 CE – 1506 CE

The Genoese weaver’s son who convinced a queen, crossed an ocean, and changed the world forever — told in his own words in a first-person ePub.

Figure · Florence, Milan, France

Leonardo da Vinci

1452 CE – 1519 CE

The life of the ultimate Renaissance man — illegitimate son, apprentice, painter, engineer, anatomist, and visionary. A first-person ePub told in Leonardo's own voice.

Figure · Florence

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469 CE – 1527 CE

The Florentine diplomat who watched republics fall, served tyrants and statesmen alike, was tortured for conspiracy, and in exile wrote the most dangerous book in Western political thought — told in his own voice.

Figure · Poland / Prussia

Nicolaus Copernicus

1473 CE – 1543 CE

The quiet canon who rewrote the cosmos — how a church administrator in a remote Baltic province overturned two thousand years of astronomy and launched the Scientific Revolution.

Dated moments

16 of 182, spread evenly across the age.

All 182 dated moments
1500 CE Royal Hill of Ambohimanga Africa 1514 CE Kalyan Mosque 1529 CE Inca Civil War Americas 1547 CE Burmese–Siamese Wars East Asia 1566 CE Stari Most Europe 1587 CE Church of São Francisco Americas 1601 CE Thiên Mụ Pagoda East Asia 1618 CE Qing Conquest of Ming Dynasty East Asia 1640 CE Catalan Revolt (Reapers' War) Europe 1665 CE Cathedral of Caracas Americas 1683 CE Great Turkish War Europe 1704 CE Battle of Blenheim Europe 1746 CE Carnatic Wars South Asia 1765 CE Sino-Burmese War East Asia 1781 CE Battle of Yorktown Americas 1798 CE Battle of the Nile Middle East
Image credits17 pictures from Wikimedia Commons