THE EARLY MODERN ERA 199
under his reign many Protestants
were imprisoned and many others
fled from the country.THE SPANISH ARMADA
(1588)In 1588, the Catholic monarch
Philip II of Spain attempted to
conquer Protestant England by
sending a fleet of 130 ships to
invade the country. After the
English succeeded in destroying
part of the fleet using fire ships,
a defeat at Gravelines sent the
remains of the Spanish Armada
retreating northward toward
Scotland, where many more ships
were wrecked by storms. Only 86
vessels made it back to Spain. The
defeat was a blow to Spain, ending
this campaign to capture England
for Catholicism and confirming
England’s status as a secure
Protestant nation under Elizabeth I.THE JAPANESE INVASIONS
OF KOREA ARE DEFEATED
(1592–98)The Japanese samurai leader
Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched
attempts to conquer Korea in
1592 and 1597, part of a larger
campaign that was intended to
culminate with an invasion of
China. Both times, Japan made
major advances, but the Koreans,
with the support of Chinese forces,
managed to fight back. However,
they were unable to expel the
Japanese completely, which led
to a stalemate on land, although
Korea’s Admiral Yi inflicted
frequent naval defeats on Japan.
Beaten at sea and confined to
a few fortresses on land, Japan
abandoned its attempts to invade.Korea remained independent until
1910, after which there was a
35-year period of Japanese rule.THE SIEGE OF DROGHEDA
(1649)England’s parliamentarian leader
Oliver Cromwell launched his
campaign to conquer Ireland in
1649, after Irish Catholics took
control of the country from its
English administrators in 1641.
Once Cromwell had taken Dublin,
Drogheda became a base for Irish
Catholic leaders. Cromwell laid
siege to the town, massacring the
people inside its walls when they
refused to surrender. Most of the
garrison of about 2,500 men,
plus many civilians, were killed.
Although the killings did not
break the military code of the
time, their ruthlessness and the
sheer number of victims were
both unprecedented, and they
embittered future relations between
the English and the Irish Catholics.THE DUTCH ESTABLISH A
COLONY AT CAPE TOWN
(1650)Although Portuguese explorers
were the first Europeans to
discover the Cape of Good Hope
in the 15th century, it was the
Dutch who founded Cape Town.
In 1652, a group from the Dutch
East India Company under Jan
van Riebeeck established a colony
there, creating a stopping point
for Dutch ships on their way to
and from Asia. The settlement
became the center of a large
community of people of Dutch
origin, who dominated trade and
agriculture in the region, evolvedtheir own language—Afrikaans—
and played a central role in the
history of South Africa.THE OTTOMAN SIEGE
OF VIENNA
(1683)By 1683, the Turkish Ottoman
Empire was at its greatest extent
and included large areas of North
Africa, the Middle East, and
Eastern Europe. Austria was on
the empire’s western border, and
the Turks had already attempted
to conquer Vienna. In 1683 they
besieged the city for the last time:
the forces of the Habsburg-ruled
Holy Roman Empire and of Poland
came to defend Vienna, and the
Ottomans were vanquished. From
this point on, the Ottomans’ power
declined. No longer a threat to
Christian Europe, they steadily
lost their European territories.THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN
(1746)At the Battle of Culloden, Scotland,
an army being led by the Duke of
Cumberland, son of the Hanoverian
king George II, defeated a smaller
force of Jacobites (including many
from the Highland clans) under
Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
The Stuart prince had hoped to
restore his bloodline to the British
throne, but Culloden effectively
put an end to his campaign. It
also led to the disarming of the
Scottish Highlands, where Jacobite
support was strongest, the
dismantling of the clan system
there, and a ruthless suppression
of Highland culture that included
bans on wearing Highland dress
and speaking Gaelic.US_198-199_CH4_Further_Events.indd 199 15/02/2016 16:43