Portuguese-Brazilian forces win at Tabocas

The two states signed a truce intended to suspend conflict, though fighting continued in several colonial theaters. The agreement illustrates how European diplomacy treated overseas territories as...

A WIC fleet captured Luanda, with support from Queen Njinga’s forces and the Kingdom of Kongo in the wider conflict against Portugal. Dutch occupation aimed to secure access to enslaved people for...

Abel Tasman’s VOC expedition sighted the South Island. Māori had long inhabited and named these lands; describing the sighting as “discovery” centers European records and obscures Indigenous knowledge...

Tasman’s ships anchored in the bay of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. On the evening of December 18, Māori waka approached the unfamiliar ships. The encounter unfolded between communities with different...

Dutch forces recaptured Negombo from Portuguese control. The shifting possession of the fort reflects a wider war in which local communities and Kandy were not passive spectators, while the Dutch...

Pieter Stuyvesant arrived to govern New Netherland. Dutch rule was layered over Lenape and other Indigenous homelands and relied on unequal trade, land pressure, and military power. The colony also...

Portuguese-Brazilian forces defeated the Dutch in a major battle near Recife. The coalition included people of African and Indigenous descent alongside Portuguese settlers. Their victory challenged...

A Portuguese fleet from Brazil forced the Dutch to surrender Luanda. The Dutch occupation had been tied to the Atlantic slave trade and the supply of enslaved Africans to Brazil. African polities...

Portuguese-Brazilian forces defeated the WIC again at Guararapes. The battle weakened Dutch control inland and helped sustain the uprising. African and Indigenous participants were central military...

Jan van Riebeeck came ashore at Table Bay to establish a refreshment station for VOC ships. The Cape was not empty: Khoikhoi and San communities had their own economies, territories, and political...