Early Modern Wars

Wars from the Imjin War to the Thirty Years' War, the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, when gunpowder changed armies.

• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The American Revolutionary War: From Lexington to YorktownA one-page timeline of the American Revolutionary War, from the shots on Lexington Green in 1775 to the surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783: how a tax dispute became a war, militia and the Continental Army, Saratoga and the French alliance, muskets and rifles, the Battle of the Capes, numbers that differ between U.S. and British institutions, and what the war left for Loyalists, African Americans and Native Americans.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Austerlitz: The Battle of the Three EmperorsOn 2 December 1805, Napoleon's French army met a Russian and Austrian coalition army at Austerlitz. Using the Fondation Napoléon timeline and proclamation, the original text of the Treaty of Pressburg and German Historical Museum material, this article follows the Third Coalition, a day on the Pratzen Heights, the French army of 1805, how to read a victor's numbers, and the map the treaty redrew.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Myeongnyang: Thirteen Ships and the Uldolmok StraitA walk through the 1597 Battle of Myeongnyang, fought in the narrow Uldolmok channel between Jindo Island and Haenam, using Yi Sun-sin's report in the Annals of King Seonjo and entries from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. It looks at where counts like 13, 12, 133 and 31 ships come from, what the panokseon warship and its guns were, and what the battle left behind.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Sekigahara: The Day Japan's Ruler Was DecidedOne day in 1600, the armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari met in the valley of Sekigahara. This article follows that day through public material from Japan's National Diet Library, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, a Gifu Prefecture museum and the U.S. National Park Service: Hideyoshi's death, the positions and the fighting, matchlocks and field signs, dates and numbers that differ by source, the shogunate and the battlefield today.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Trafalgar: The Day Nelson Broke the LineOn 21 October 1805, off Cape Trafalgar in Spain, Nelson's British fleet sailed straight at the single line of the combined French and Spanish fleet in two columns and cut through it. This article looks at why the battle was fought, how the day unfolded hour by hour, why sailing warships fired to the side, why the numbers differ by source, and what the battle left behind, using records from Royal Museums Greenwich and The National Archives.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon's Last DayOn 18 June 1815 at Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon's French army was beaten by Wellington's allied army and Blücher's Prussians. This article follows that day through British and German national museums and the Fondation Napoléon: the escape from Elba and the Hundred Days, the night of rain, Hougoumont and the squares, muskets and the Baker rifle, and the troop and casualty figures that differ from source to source.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The English Civil War: When King and Parliament Went to WarFrom the royal standard at Nottingham in 1642 to Naseby in 1645, the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660: why king and Parliament fought, how the New Model Army and armies of muskets and pikes worked, and what the wars left behind, based on the National Army Museum and The National Archives (UK).
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Gunpowder Revolution: How Muskets and Cannon Changed ArmiesGunpowder began as festival fire, became fire arrows and rockets, and then turned into castle-breaking cannon and infantry muskets. This article follows Chinese fire arrows, Goryeo's Hwatong Dogam, Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle, the star-shaped fort, and the road from matchlock to percussion cap, then sets out what historians argue about in the "military revolution."
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Imjin War at a Glance: Seven Years from 1592The Japanese army that landed at Busan in the 4th month of 1592 reached Seoul in less than a month. This article follows the seven years that came after: how the tide turned at sea and in the counties, the Ming army and the long peace talks, the second invasion of 1597 and the end in 1598, and the weapons and records of the time.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Manchu Invasions of Joseon: Forty-Seven Days at NamhansanseongThe Jeongmyo invasion of 1627 and the Byeongja invasion of 1636–1637, traced through the Injo Sillok and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture: why King Injo went to Namhansanseong instead of Ganghwa, the troops and food inside the walls, the fall of Ganghwa and the surrender at Samjeondo, the split between peace and resistance, and where the figure of 47 days comes from.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The 1812 Russian Campaign: Why the Grande Armée Didn't Come BackNapoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Niemen in June 1812, and only part of it came back in December. This article follows the ultimatums and a year of preparation, an army drawn from twenty nations, supply seen through ovens and fodder, Borodino and the burning of Moscow, the Berezina, and the diseases found in DNA from a grave in Vilnius. It uses the Fondation Napoléon, the Russian Presidential Library and the Institut Pasteur, and sets side by side the dates and numbers that differ by source.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Napoleonic Wars at a Glance: Corps and ConscriptionA one-page timeline of the wars that swept Europe from 1792 to 1815, a look at the two systems that kept them going, conscription and the army corps, the limits they hit at sea, in the Iberian Peninsula and in Russia, and why death tolls differ by source, drawn from German and British national museums and scholars writing for the Fondation Napoléon.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026Righteous Armies and Monk Soldiers in the Imjin WarIn the summer of 1592, volunteer forces called righteous armies rose county by county in Joseon Korea, and Buddhist monks formed an army of their own. Using the Revised Annals of King Seonjo and entries from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, this article looks at how they differed from the government army, who rose where, how they fought and kept going, and where their strength ran out.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Seven Years' War: A War Fought on Several Continents at OnceFrom a small fort in the Ohio woods in 1754 to two peace treaties signed in Paris and Hubertusburg in 1763, this article follows the Seven Years' War across four theaters: North America, Europe, India and the sea. It covers volleys, light infantry, blockading fleets, troop numbers that differ by source, and the debts that victory left, using public records.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Spanish Armada, 1588: An Expedition Decided by Sea and WeatherIn 1588 Philip II sent a Spanish fleet to help invade England. This article follows it up the English Channel, past Calais and Gravelines, and round Scotland and Ireland until only about half came home, using letters of the time transcribed by The National Archives, Royal Museums Greenwich and National Museums NI. It also looks at sailing ships and guns, the shortage of powder, numbers that differ by source, and two calendars ten days apart.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Thirty Years' War: A Religious War That Reshaped EuropeA four-phase timeline of the Thirty Years' War, from a window in Prague Castle in 1618 to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648: armies run by military entrepreneurs and war taxes, what civilians paid and why death estimates differ, how historians debate the label of religious war, and the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, drawn from German, Austrian and Swedish public institutions and the treaty text.
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026The Turtle Ship: What the Records Confirm and What We Don't KnowA look at Korea's turtle ship through entries in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the Complete Works of Yi Sun-sin published some 200 years later, and the views of scholars: what the Annals entries show, and what is still argued over (iron plating, two or three levels, the dragon head, and how many were built).
• Early Modern WarsOctober 23, 2026Yi Sun-sin and the Battle of HansandoFollow the 1592 sea battle that moved from the Gyeonnaeryang strait to the waters off Hansando, using the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and old records translated by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics. See what the records say and do not say about the crane-wing formation, how the panokseon and its guns worked, and why ship counts differ from source to source.