1650s

The 1650s refers to the decade from 1650 to 1659 in the Gregorian calendar. It was a period of political upheaval and ongoing interstate conflict, centered on England’s experiment with republican governance after the Civil War and the broader consolidation of state power across Europe and the Atlantic world.

In England, the decade saw the Navigation Act of 1651, which aimed to control overseas trade and challenged Dutch commercial dominance. The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654) followed, ending with the Peace of Westminster in 1654. In 1653 the Instrument of Government established the Protectorate with Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, a constitutional framework that guided governance through 1654. From 1655 to 1657 the Major-Generals administered the counties as part of a militarized civilian rule. Cromwell’s death in 1658 precipitated political instability, the short rule of his son Richard, and ultimately the dissolution of the Protectorate in 1659.

Across Europe, the Fronde in France concluded by 1653, paving the way for centralized royal authority under Mazarin and the early reign of Louis XIV. The Franco-Spanish War ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, redrawing borders and shaping Iberian power dynamics. The Dutch Republic remained a leading maritime and commercial power, engaging in naval warfare with England and expanding its global trade networks.

In the Atlantic world, English forces conducted expansionist operations in the Caribbean as part of the Western Design, with Jamaica secured for the English in 1655, contributing to colonial footholds in the region. The decade thus served as a transitional period, bridging republican experimentation in England with broader European power realignments and imperial competition that would continue into the Restoration era.