1638 - Definition and Overview

Events

• March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden.
• April 15 - Shogunate forces defeat the last rebels of Shimabara Rebellion in the fortress of Hara.
• May 11 - French admiral d'Estrees runs his whole fleet aground in Curacao.
• Dutch settle in Ceylon.
• Pedro Texeira makes the first ascent of the Amazon River, from its mouth to Quito, Ecuador. The same trip had been made in the opposite direction in 1541.
• Willem Kieft, Dutch merchant, appointed Director of New Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company.
• The Netherlands colonizes Mauritius.
• Shipwrecked sailors from England found the first known European settlement in Belize.
• Swedish settlers arrive on the ships Kalmare Nyckel and Fågel Grip to the American colony New Sweden (Delaware).

Births

• March 15 - Future Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty of China.
• September 5 - Future King Louis XIV of France
• November 25 - Catherine of Braganza, Queen-Consort of King Charles II of England

Deaths

• April 7 - Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese daimyo
• Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian