Representatives of the British Crown and many Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document; differences between its English and Māori texts remain debated.
From the 16th to the 19th century, an estimated 12.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, with profound consequences for both continents.
The shogunate expels the Portuguese and severely restricts foreign contact, allowing only Dutch and Chinese trade at Nagasaki.
Ranjit Singh captures Lahore and unites the Sikh confederacies into an empire in the Punjab.
Britain wars with Qing China after it cracks down on the opium trade; the defeat opens what China calls the 'century of humiliation'.
The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat, a series of reforms modernising Ottoman administration, law and the army.