The 17th century was the
century that lasted from January 1,
1601 (
MDCI), to December 31,
1700 (
MDCC). The term is often used to refer to the 1600s, the century between January 1, 1600, and December 31, 1699. It falls into the
Early Modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the
Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the
Spanish Golden Age, the
Dutch Golden Age, the French ''
Grand Siècle'' dominated by
Louis XIV, the
Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and
megacorporation known as the
Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians,
the General Crisis. The greatest military conflicts were the
Thirty Years' War,
the
Great Turkish War, Mughal–Safavid Wars
(Mughal–Safavid War (1622–23), Mughal–Safavid War (1649–53)),
Anglo-Mughal Indian War, and the
Dutch–Portuguese War. It was during this period also that
European colonization of the Americas began in earnest, including the exploitation of the silver deposits, which resulted in bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe.

]]
with Queen
Christina of Sweden.]]

, built by
Shah Jahan, one of the
Wonders of the World.]]
'' or ''The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq'', 1642. Oil on canvas; on display at the
Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam ]]

]] for France]]

In the
Islamic world, the
gunpowder empires – the
Ottoman,
Safavid and
Mughal – grew in strength.
Especially in the
Indian subcontinent,
Mughal architecture,
culture and
art reached its zenith, while the empire itself, during the
sharia reign of Emperor
Aurangzeb, is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of
Western Europe and worth 25% of global GDP, and its wealthiest province, the
Bengal Subah, signaled the period of
proto-industrialization.
In Japan,
Tokugawa Ieyasu established the
Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the century, beginning the
Edo period; the isolationist
Sakoku policy began in the 1630s and lasted until the 19th century. In China, the collapsing
Ming dynasty was challenged by a series of conquests led by the
Manchu warlord
Nurhaci, which were consolidated by his son
Hong Taiji and finally consummated by his grandson, the
Shunzi Emperor, founder of the
Qing dynasty.
From the middle decades of the 17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the
Kingdom of France of
Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the
civil war of the
Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial
French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an
absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the
Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded royal court could be more easily kept under surveillance. With domestic peace assured, Louis XIV caused the borders of France to be expanded. It was during this century that the
English monarch became a symbolic figurehead and
Parliament was the dominant force in government – a contrast to most of Europe, in particular France.
By the end of the century, Europeans were aware of
logarithms,
electricity, the
telescope and
microscope,
calculus,
universal gravitation,
Newton's Laws of Motion,
air pressure and
calculating machines due to the work of the first scientists of the
Scientific Revolution, including
Galileo Galilei,
Johannes Kepler,
René Descartes,
Pierre Fermat,
Blaise Pascal,
Robert Boyle,
Christiaan Huygens,
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek,
Robert Hooke,
Isaac Newton, and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It was also a period of development of culture in general (especially theater, music, visual arts and philosophy).
Events
1601–1650
*
1600:
Michael the Brave unifies the three
Romanian principalities:
Wallachia,
Moldavia and
Translyvania after the
Battle of Șelimbăr from 1599.
*
1601: In the
Battle of Kinsale, England defeats Irish and Spanish forces at the town of Kinsale, driving the Gaelic aristocracy out of Ireland and destroying the Gaelic clan system.
*
1601–
1603: The
Russian famine of 1601–1603 kills perhaps one-third of Russia.
*
1602:
Matteo Ricci produces the
Map of the Myriad Countries of the World (坤輿萬國全圖, ''Kūnyú Wànguó Quántú''), a world map that will be used throughout East Asia for centuries.
*
1602: The
Dutch East India Company (VOC) is established by merging competing
Dutch trading companies.
[Ricklefs (1991), page 28] Its success contributes to the
Dutch Golden Age.
*
1603:
Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King
James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.
*
1603:
Tokugawa Ieyasu takes the title of ''
shōgun'', establishing the
Tokugawa shogunate. This begins the
Edo period, which will last until 1868.
*
1603: In
Nagasaki, the Portuguese Jesuit missionary
João Rodrigues publishes ''
Nippo Jisho'', the first dictionary of Japanese to an European language (Portuguese)
*
1605: The King of
Gowa, a
Makassarese kingdom in
South Sulawesi, converts to Islam.
*
1605-
1627: The reign of
Mughal emperor
Jahangir after the death of emperor
Akbar.
*
1606: The
Long War between the
Ottoman Empire and
Austria is ended with the
Peace of Zsitvatorok—Austria abandons
Transylvania.
*
1606:
Treaty of Vienna ends anti-Habsburg uprising in
Royal Hungary.
*
1607:
Flight of the Earls (the fleeing of most of the native
Gaelic aristocracy) occurs from
County Donegal in the west of
Ulster in Ireland.
*
1607:
Iskandar Muda becomes the Sultan of
Aceh (r. 1607–1637). He will launch a series of naval conquests that will transform Aceh into a great power in the western
Malay Archipelago.
*
1610: The
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army defeats combined Russian–Swedish forces at the
Battle of Klushino and conquers Moscow.
*
1610:
King Henry IV of France is assassinated by
François Ravaillac.
*
1611: The Pontifical and Royal
University of Santo Tomas, the oldest existing university in Asia, established by the
Dominican Order in Manila
[History of UST]
UST.edu.ph. Retrieved December 21, 2008.
*
1611: The first publication of the
King James Bible.
*
1612:
Cotswold Olympic Games,
Robert Dover
*
1613: The
Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the
House of Romanov, which rules until 1917.
*
1613–
1617:
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is invaded by the
Tatars dozens of times.
*
1613: The
Dutch East India Company is forced to evacuate
Gresik because of the
Mataram siege of neighboring
Surabaya. The VOC enters into negotiations with Mataram and is allowed to set up a trading post in
Jepara.
*
1614–
1615: The
Siege of Osaka (last major threat to
Tokugawa shogunate) ends.
*
1616: The last remaining
Moriscos (Moors who had nominally converted to Christianity) in Spain are expelled.
*
1616: English poet and playwright
William Shakespeare dies.
*
1618:
The Defenestration of Prague.
*
1618: The
Bohemian Revolt precipitates the
Thirty Years' War, which devastates Europe in the years 1618–48.
*
1618: The
Manchus start invading China. Their
conquest eventually topples the
Ming dynasty.
*
1619:
Dutch East India Company,
English East India Company, and
Sultanate of Banten all fighting over port city of
Jayakarta. VOC forces storm the city and withstand a months-long siege by the combined English, Bantenese, and Jayakartan forces. They are relieved by
Jan Pieterszoon Coen and a fleet of nineteen ships out of Ambon. Coen had burned
Jepara and its EIC post along the way. The VOC levels the old city of
Jayakarta and builds its new headquarters,
Batavia, on top of it.

*
1620–
1621:
Polish-Ottoman War over
Moldavia.
*
1620:
Bethlen Gabor allies with the Ottomans and an invasion of
Moldavia takes place. The Polish suffer a disaster at
Cecora on the River
Prut.
*
1620: The
Mayflower sets sail from
Plymouth, England to what became
Plymouth Colony in the New England region of North America.
*
1621: The
Battle of Chocim: Poles and
Cossacks under
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz defeat the Ottomans.
*
1622:
Jamestown massacre:
Algonquian natives kill 347 English settlers outside
Jamestown, Virginia (one-third of the colony's population) and burn the
Henricus settlement.
*
1624–
1642: As chief minister,
Cardinal Richelieu centralises power in
France.
*
1626:
St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed.
*
1627:
Aurochs go extinct.
*
1628—
1629:
Sultan Agung of
Mataram launches a failed campaign to
conquer Dutch Batavia.
*
1629:
Abbas I, the
Safavids king, died.
*
1629:
Cardinal Richelieu allies with Swedish Protestant forces in the
Thirty Years' War to counter
Ferdinand II's expansion.
*
1630 : Birth of
Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at
Shivneri fort
*
1631:
Mount Vesuvius erupts.
*
1632:
Battle of Lützen, death of king of
Sweden Gustav II Adolf.
*
1632:
Taj Mahal building work started in
Agra, India.
*
1633:
Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the
Inquisition.
*
1633–
1639: Japan transforms into
"locked country".
*
1634:
Battle of Nördlingen results in Catholic victory.
*
1636:
Harvard University is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
*
1637:
Shimabara Rebellion of Japanese Christians,
rōnin and peasants against Edo.
*
1637: The first opera house,
Teatro San Cassiano, opens in Venice.
*
1637:
Qing dynasty attacked Joseon dynasty.
*
1639: Naval
Battle of the Downs –
Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.
*
1639: Disagreements between the
Farnese and
Barberini Pope Urban VIII escalate into the
Wars of Castro and last until 1649.
*
1639–
1651:
Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and
England.
*
1640–
1668: The
Portuguese Restoration War led to the end of the
Iberian Union.
*
1641: The
Irish Rebellion.
*
1641:
René Descartes publishes ''Meditationes de prima philosophia''
Meditations on First Philosophy.
*
1642: Beginning of
English Civil War, conflict will end in 1649 with the execution of
King Charles I, abolishment of the monarchy and the establishment of the supremacy of Parliament over the king.
*
1643:
L'incoronazione di Poppea,
Monterverdi
*
1644: The
Manchu conquer China ending the
Ming dynasty. The subsequent
Qing dynasty rules until 1912.
*
1644–
1674: The
Mauritanian Thirty-Year War.
*
1645–
1669: Ottoman war with
Venice. The Ottomans invade
Crete and capture
Canea.
*
1647–
1652: The
Great Plague of Seville.
*
1648: The
Peace of Westphalia ends the
Thirty Years' War and the
Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of
Spain and the
Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.
*
1648–
1653:
Fronde civil war in
France.
*
1648–
1657: The
Khmelnytsky Uprising – a Cossack rebellion in
Ukraine which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from
Poland.
*
1648–
1667:
The Deluge wars leave
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins.
*
1648–
1669: The
Ottomans capture
Crete from the
Venetians after the
Siege of Candia.
*
1649:
King Charles I is executed for
High treason, the first and only English king to be subjected to legal proceedings in a
High Court of Justice and put to death.
*
1649–
1653: The
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
1651–1700
*
1651:
English Civil War ends with the Parliamentarian victory at the
Battle of Worcester.
*
1656–
1661:
Mehmed Köprülü is
Grand Vizier.
*
1655–
1661: The
Northern Wars cement
Sweden's rise as a
Great Power.
*
1658: After his father
Shah Jahan completes the
Taj Mahal, his son
Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the
Mughal Empire.
*
1660: The
Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the
English Restoration.
*
1660: The Royal Society is founded
*
1661: The reign of the
Kangxi Emperor of China begins.
*
1663:
Ottoman war against
Habsburg Hungary.
*
1664: The
Battle of St. Gotthard: count
Raimondo Montecuccoli defeats the Ottomans. The
Peace of Vasvar – intended to keep the peace for 20 years.
*
1665:
Robert Hooke discovers cells using a microscope.
*
1665:
Portugal defeats the
Kongo Empire at the
Battle of Mbwila.
*
1665–
1667: The
Second Anglo-Dutch War fought between
England and the
United Provinces.
*
1666: The
Great Fire of London.
*
1667: The
Raid on the Medway during the
Second Anglo-Dutch War.
*
1667–
1668: The
War of Devolution; France invades the Netherlands. The
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) brings this to a halt.
*
1667–
1699: The
Great Turkish War halts the
Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.
*
1672–
1673: Ottoman campaign to help the
Ukrainian Cossacks.
John Sobieski defeats the Ottomans at the second
battle of Khotyn (1673).
*
1672–
1674: The
Third Anglo-Dutch War fought between
England and the
United Provinces
*
1672–
1676:
Polish–Ottoman War.
*
1672–
1678:
Franco-Dutch War.
*
1674:
Shivaji forms the
Maratha Empire, which lasts until 1818.
*
1676–
1681: Russia and the
Ottoman Empire commence the
Russo-Turkish Wars.
*
1678: The
Treaty of Nijmegen ends various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Brandenburg, Sweden, Denmark, the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, and the Holy Roman Empire.

*
1680: The
Pueblo Revolt drives the Spanish out of
New Mexico until 1692.
*
1682:
Chateau de Versailles,
Saint-Gobain
*1682 – In North America, the French explorer Robert La Salle claims all the land east of the Mississippi River.
*
1683:
China conquers the
Kingdom of Tungning and annexes
Taiwan.
*
1683: The Ottoman Empire is defeated in the second
Siege of Vienna.
*
1683–
1699: The
Great Turkish War leads to the conquest of most of
Ottoman Hungary by the Habsburgs.
*
1687:
Isaac Newton publishes ''
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica''.
*
1688: The
Siege of Derry.
*
1688:
Siamese revolution of 1688 ousted French influence and virtually severed all ties with the West until the 19th century.
*
1688–
1689: The
Glorious Revolution starts with the
Dutch Republic invading England, England becomes a
constitutional monarchy.
*
1688–
1691:
The War of the Two Kings in Ireland.
*
1688–
1697: The
Grand Alliance sought to stop French expansion during the
Nine Years' War.
*
1689: The
Battle of Killiecrankie is fought between
Jacobite and
Williamite forces in Highland
Perthshire.
*
1689: The Karposh rebellion is crushed in present-day
North Macedonia, Skopje is retaken by the Ottoman Turks. Karposh is killed, and the rebels are defeated.
*
1689:
Bill of Rights
*
1690: The
Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
*
1692:
Port Royal in Jamaica is struck by an earthquake and a
tsunami. Approximately 2,000 people die and 2,300 are injured.
*
1692–
1694:
Famine in France kills two million.
*
1693:
The College of William and Mary is founded in
Williamsburg, Virginia, by a royal charter.
*
1694: The
Bank of England is established.
*
1695: The
Mughal Empire nearly bans the
East India Company in response to pirate
Henry Every's capture of the ''
Ganj-i-Sawai''.
*
1696–
1697:
Famine in
Finland wipes out almost one-third of the population.
[Karen J. Cullen (2010). "]
Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s
'". Edinburgh University Press. p. 20.
*
1697–
1699:
Grand Embassy of Peter the Great
*
1699:
Thomas Savery demonstrates his first
steam engine to the
Royal Society.
Significant people
]]

, Queen of France]]
Politics
*
Abbas I of Persia, shah of the
Safavid dynasty (
1571–
1629)
*
Ahmed I, sultan of the
Ottoman Empire (
1590–
1617)
*
Alexis of Russia, tsar of Russia (
1629–
1676)
*
Anne of Austria, queen consort and regent of France (
1601–
1666)
*
Gustavus Adolphus,
king of Sweden (
1594–
1632)
*
Aurangzeb, Mughal emperor
*
Bohdan Khmelnytsky,
hetman of
Cossacks (
1595–
1657)
*
Gabriel Bethlen, Hungarian prince of Transylvania (
1580–
1629)
*
Queen Christina of Sweden, high-profile Catholic convert, matron of the arts (
1626–
1689)
*
Charles I of England (
1600–
1649)
*
Charles II of England (
1630–
1685)
*
Charles II of Spain (
1661–
1700)
*
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, chief minister of Louis XIV of France
*
Oliver Cromwell,
Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (
1599–
1658)
*
Richard Cromwell,
Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (
1626–
1712)
*
Henry IV of France (
1553–
1610)
*
Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the
Tokugawa shogunate in Japan (
1543–
1616)
*
Jahangir, Mughal emperor
*
James I of England (
1566–
1625)
*
James II of England (
1633–
1701)
*
Kangxi Emperor, ruler of China
*
Leopold I,
Holy Roman Emperor (
1640–
1705)
*
Louis XIII of France, King of France (
1601–
1643)
*
Louis XIV of France, King of France (
1638–
1715)
*
Marie de' Medici, regent of France (
1575–
1642)
*
Mary II of England (
1662–
1694)
*
Cardinal Mazarin, French prime minister of Italian origin (
1602–
1661)
*
Mehmed IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire
*
Murad IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire
*
Peter the Great, first Russian emperor (
1672–
1725)
*
Philip III of Spain, Spanish king (
1578–
1621)
*
Philip IV of Spain, Spanish king (
1605–
1665)
*
Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince, leader of anti-Polish uprising (
1577–
1642)
*
Cardinal Richelieu, French prime minister (
1585–
1642)
*
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish prime minister
*
Michael of Russia, tsar of Russia (
1596–
1645)
*
Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor
*
Shivaji, emperor of the Maratha Empire (
1674–
1680)
*
Jan III Sobieski, military leader and king of Poland (
1629–
1696)
*
Imre Thököly, leader of the anti-Habsburg uprising in Hungary (
1657–
1705)
*
Henri de Turenne, Marshal General of France (
1611–
1675)
*
Albrecht von Wallenstein, Catholic German general and
statesman in the
Thirty Years' War (
1583–
1634)
*
William III of England,
stadthouder of the main provinces of the
Republic of the United Provinces and
King of England (
1650–17027)
*
Johan de Witt,
Grand Pensionary of the
Republic of the United Provinces (
1625–
1672)
Consorts of Rulers (and lovers)
*
Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, lover of
Louis XIV (
1641–
1707)
*
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, wife of
Louis XIV (
1635–
1719)
*
Maria Theresa of Spain, queen consort of France
Military
*
Louis de Bourbon, prince of Condé, French general(
1621–
1686)
*
Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (
1607–
1676)
*
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, Catholic general in the
Thirty Years' War (
1559–
1632)
Relatives of political figures
*
Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, younger son of
Louis XIII of France and his wife,
Anne of Austria. His older brother was the "Sun King",
Louis XIV. He is also ancestor of many European monarchs
Religious Leader
*
Guru Teg Bahadur, 9th Sikh Guru (
1621–
1675)
Musicians
*
Johann Christoph Bach, Composer and great-uncle of J.S. Bach, (1642–1703)
*
John Blow, English composer (1649–1708)
*
Dieterich Buxtehude, Danish-German composer
*
Francesco Cavalli, Venetian opera composer (1602–1676)
*
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (1643–1708)
*
Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (1653–1713)
*
Jean-Baptiste Lully, Italian-born composer regarded as the father of French opera (1632–1687)
*
Claudio Monteverdi, the most prominent composer of his time and creator of Baroque (1567–1643)
*
Johann Pachelbel, German composer (1653–1706)
*
Henry Purcell, English composer (1659–1695)
*
Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian opera composer (1660–1725)
*
Heinrich Schütz, German composer (1585–1672)
Visual artists
*
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor and architect (1598–1680)
*
Francesco Borromini, Italian architect (1599–1667)
*
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Italian painter (1571–1610)
*
Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (1599–1641)
*
Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian painter (1593 – c. 1656)
*
Frans Hals, Dutch painter (1580–1666)
*
Georges de La Tour, French painter (1593–1652)
*
Charles Le Brun, painter of Louis XIV
*
André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (1613–1700)
*
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish painter (1617–1682)
*
Nicolas Poussin, French painter (1594–1665)
*
Guido Reni, Italian painter
*
José de Ribera, ''Lo Spagnoletto'' (1591–1652)
*
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter (1606–1669)
*
Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, 1577–1640
*
Jan Steen, Dutch painter (1626–1679)
*
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Spanish painter (1599–1660)
*
Vauban, French military architect
*
Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (1632–1675)
*
Christopher Wren, English architect
*
Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish painter (1598–1664)
Literature

*
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (1636–1711)
*
John Bunyan, author of ''
The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1628–1688)
*
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish dramatist (1600–1681)
*
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish novelist (1574–1616)
*
Pierre Corneille, French dramatist (1606–1684)
*
Cyrano de Bergerac, French playwright and novelist (1619–1655)
*
John Donne, English
metaphysical poet (1572–1631)
*
John Dryden, English poet (1631–1700)
*
Jean de La Fontaine, French poet (1621–1695)
*
Luis de Góngora, Spanish poet (1561–1627)
*
Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican poet (1651–1695)
*
Ben Jonson, English dramatist (1572–1637)
*
Matsuo Bashō, the first author of
haiku (1644–1694)
*
François de La Rochefoucauld, French author (1613–1680)
*
John Milton, English author and poet (1608–1674)
*
Molière, French dramatist (1622–1673)
*
Tirso de Molina, Spanish dramatist (1579–1648)
*
Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese
samurai and author (1584–1645)
*
Samuel Pepys, English civil servant and diarist (1633–1703)
*
Charles Perrault, French author of fairy tales (1628–1703)
*
Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (1580–1645)
*
Jean Racine, French dramatist (1639–1699)
*
William Shakespeare, English playwright (1564–1616)
*
Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright (1562–1635)
Explorers
*
William Baffin, English navigator in
Northwest Passage
*
Evliya Çelebi, Ottoman traveler
*
Samuel de Champlain, French founder of Canada
*
Semyon Dezhnyov (1605–1672), Russian explorer of Siberia
*
Henry Hudson (1565–1611), English
navigator of North America
*
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, French explorer of Mississippi
*
Matteo Ricci, Italian missionary in China
*
Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603–1659), Dutch seafarer of Australia
*
Luis Váez de Torres (c. 1565–1607), Spanish explorer of the Pacific
Science and philosophy
thumb|upright|Galileo Galilei

*
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch biologist
*
Athanasius Kircher, German polymath
*
Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (1632–1677)
*
Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher (1623–1662)
*
Christiaan Huygens, Dutch inventor, physicist and astronomer (1629–1695)
*
Edmond Halley, English astronomer
*
Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician
*
Francis Bacon, English methodologist and politician (1561–1626)
*
Francis de Sales, doctor of the Church
*
Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer (1564–1642)
*
Giovanni Cassini, Italian-French astronomer
*
Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician (1646–1716)
*
Hugo Grotius, Dutch political scientist
*
Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician and philosopher (1643–1727)
*
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French theologian
*
Jacob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician
*
Johannes Amos Comenius, Czech educationist
*
Johannes Kepler, German astronomer (1571–1630)
*
John Locke, English philosopher (1632–1704)
*
John Napier, Scottish inventor of the logarithms (1550–1617)
*
Margaret Mary Alacoque, French mystic
*
Marin Mersenne, (1588–1648), French
polymath
*
Ole Rømer, Danish astronomer (1644–1710)
*
Otto von Guericke, German inventor (1602–1686)
*
Pierre Bayle, French freethinker
*
Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (1601–1665)
*
Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher
*
René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician (1596–1650)
*
Robert Boyle, the founder of chemistry
*
Robert Hooke, English biologist and physicist (1635–1703)
*
Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (1588–1679)
*
Tommaso Campanella, Italian philosopher
*
William Harvey, English biologist (1578–1657)
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
Major changes in philosophy and science take place, often characterized as the
Scientific revolution.
*
Banknotes reintroduced in Europe.
*
Ice cream.
* Tea and
coffee become popular in Europe.
*
Central Banking in France and
modern Finance by Scottish economist
John Law.
*
Minarets,
Jamé Mosque of Isfahan,
Isfahan,
Persia (Iran), are built.
*
1604: Supernova
SN 1604 is observed in the
Milky Way.
*
1605:
Johannes Kepler starts investigating
elliptical orbits of planets.
*
1605:
Johann Carolus of Germany publishes the 'Relation', the first newspaper.
*
1608:
Refracting telescope's first appear. Dutch spectacle-maker
Hans Lippershey tries to obtain a patent on one spreading word of the invention.
*
1610: The
Orion Nebula is identified by
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc of France.
*
1610:
Galileo Galilei and
Simon Marius observe
Jupiter's
Galilean moons.
*
1611:
King James Bible or 'Authorized Version' first published.
*
1612: The first
flintlock musket likely created for
Louis XIII of
France by
gunsmith Marin Bourgeois.
*
1614:
John Napier introduces the
logarithm to simplify calculations.
*
1616:
Niccolò Zucchi describes experiments with a bronze
parabolic mirror trying to make a
reflecting telescope.
*
1620:
Cornelis Drebbel, funded by
James I of England, builds the first '
submarine' made of wood and greased leather.
*
1623: The first English dictionary, 'English Dictionarie' is published by
Henry Cockeram, listing difficult words with definitions.
*
1628:
William Harvey publishes and elucidates his earlier discovery of the
circulatory system.
*
1637: Dutch Bible published.
*
1637:
Teatro San Cassiano, the first public opera house, opened in Venice.
*
1637:
Pierre de Fermat formulates his so-called
Last Theorem, unsolved until 1995.
*
1637: Although Chinese
naval mines were earlier described in the 14th century ''
Huolongjing'', the ''Tian Gong Kai Wu'' book of
Ming dynasty scholar
Song Yingxing describes naval mines wrapped in a
lacquer bag and ignited by an ambusher pulling a rip cord on the nearby shore that triggers a steel-wheel
flint mechanism.
*
1642:
Blaise Pascal invents the mechanical calculator called
Pascal's calculator.
*
1642:
Mezzotint engraving introduces grey tones to printed images.
*
1643:
Evangelista Torricelli of Italy invents the mercury
barometer.
*
1645:
Giacomo Torelli of
Venice, Italy invents the first rotating stage.
*
1651:
Giovanni Riccioli renames the
lunar maria.
*
1656:
Christiaan Huygens describes the true shape of the
rings of Saturn.
*
1657:
Christiaan Huygens develops the first functional
pendulum clock based on the learnings of
Galileo Galilei.
*
1659:
Christiaan Huygens first to observe surface details of
Mars.
*
1662:
Christopher Merret presents first paper on the production of sparkling wine.
*
1663:
James Gregory publishes designs for a reflecting telescope.
*
1669: The first known operational reflecting telescope is built by
Isaac Newton.
*
1676:
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovers
Bacteria.
*
1676: First measurement of the
speed of light.
*
1679:
Binary system developed by
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
*
1684:
Calculus independently developed by both Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and
Sir Isaac Newton and used to formulate
classical mechanics.
References
Further reading

* Chang, Chun-shu, and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang. ''Crisis and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century China" (1998).
* Langer, William. ''An Encyclopedia of World History'' (5th ed. 1973); highly detailed outline of event
online free* Reid, A. J. S. ''Trade and State Power in 16th & 17th Century Southeast Asia'' (1977).
* Spence, J. D. ''The Death of Woman Wang: Rural Life in China in the 17th Century'' (1978).
Focus on Europe
*
Clark, George. ''The Seventeenth Century'' (2nd ed. 1945).
* Hampshire, Stuart. ''The Age of Reason the 17th Century Philosophers, Selected, with Introduction and Interpretive Commentary'' (1961).
* Lewitter, Lucian Ryszard. "Poland, the Ukraine and Russia in the 17th Century." ''
The Slavonic and East European Review'' (1948): 157–171
in JSTOR*
Ogg, David. ''Europe in the Seventeenth Century'' (6th ed. 1965).
*
Rowbotham, Sheila. ''Hidden from history: Rediscovering women in history from the 17th century to the present'' (1976).
*
Trevor-Roper, Hugh R. "The general crisis of the 17th century." ''
Past & Present'' 16 (1959): 31–64.
External links
Vistorica Timelines of 17th century events, science, culture and persons
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Category:Early Modern period