The War dummies data set provides structured data on organized armed confrontations with Dutch involvement between 1566 and 1812. The data structure and content align with two well-known datasets with modern (i.e. post 1815) conflict data: the Inter-State War Database of the Correlates of War Project and the Georeferenced Event Dataset (GED) of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. The War dummies data are based on three volumes of the book series Militaire geschiedenis van Nederland (published under the auspices of the Dutch Institute for Military History – NIMH) that cover the early modern period. This curated collection is a rich resource for analyzing early modern (military) history, and enhances the potential for comparative studies with modern warfare datasets.