| Millennium: |
1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium |
| Centuries: |
16th century - 17th century - 18th century |
| Decades: |
1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s |
As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601- 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.
Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is the founder of
Japan's last shogunate, which lasted well into the
19th century.
Events
1600s
- 1601: Battle of Kinsale, one of the most important battles in Irish history, fought.
- 1602: Dutch East India Company founded. 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 seizes control of Japan and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate which rules the country until 1868.
- 1603- 23: After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands Persia by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese.
- 1605: Gunpowder Plot failed in England.
- 1607: The London Company establishes the Jamestown Settlement in North America precipitating the British colonization of the Americas.
- 1608: Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada).
1610s
- 1611: The King James Version of the Bible is completed.
- 1613: The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov which rules until 1917.
- 1615: The Mughal Empire grants extensive trading rights to the British East India Company.
- 1618- 48: The Thirty Years' War devastates Central Europe.
1620s
Apollo and Daphne ( 1622- 1625), by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is considered one the masterpieces of the century.
- 1624- 42: As chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu centralizes power in France.
- 1625: New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America.
1630s
- 1637: The Dutch tulip mania bubble bursts.
- 1637: The Pequot War, the first of the American Indian Wars
- 1639- 51: Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England.
1640s
- 1640: Portugal regains its independence from Spain bringing an end to the Iberian Union.
- 1640: Torture is outlawed in England.
- 1641: The Tokugawa Shogunate institutes Sakoku- foreigners are expelled and no one is allowed to enter or leave Japan.
- 1642: Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman achieves the first recorded European sighting of New Zealand.
- 1644: The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming Dynasty. The subsequent Qing Dynasty rules until 1912.
- 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- 53: Fronde civil war in France.
- 1648- 67: The Deluge wars leave Poland in ruins.
- 1648- 69: The Ottoman Empire captures Crete from the Venetians after the Siege of Candia.
1650s
- 1652: Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa.
- 1652: Anglo-Dutch Wars begin.
- 1655- 61: The Northern Wars cement Sweden's rise as a Great Power.
- 1656: Velázquez paints Las Meninas
1660s
- 1660: The Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the English Restoration.
- 1660: Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge founded.
- 1661: The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins.
- 1662: Koxinga captures Taiwan from the Dutch and founds the Kingdom of Tungning which rules until 1683.
- 1663: France takes full political and military control over its colonial possessions in New France.
- 1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York.
- 1665: Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire.
- 1666: The Great Fire of London.
- 1667- 99: The Great Turkish War halts the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.
1670s
- 1670: The Hudson's Bay Company is founded in Canada.
- 1672- 78: Franco-Dutch War
- 1674: Maratha Empire founded in India by Shivaji.
- 1676: Russia and the Ottoman Empire commence the Russo-Turkish Wars.
1680s
1690s
- 1692: Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
- 1700- 21: Russia supplants Sweden as the dominant Baltic power after the Great Northern War.
Significant people
- Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden ( 1594- 1632).
- Tokugawa Ieyasu
- Francis Bacon, English philosopher and politician ( 1561- 1626).
- Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer of genius( 1685- 1750)
- Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, Spanish painter ( 1599- 1660)
- Pierre Corneille, French dramatist ( 1606 - 1684)
- William Harvey, medical doctor ( 1578 – 1657)
- Jean Racine, French dramatist ( 1639 - 1699)
- Molière, French dramatist, actor, director ( 1622 - 1673)
- Jean de La Fontaine French poet ( 1621 - 1695)
- Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ( 1636 - 1711) French poet and critic
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini ( 1598 - 1680) Italian artist
- Jean-Baptiste Lully Italian-born French compsoer ( 1632 - 1687)
- André Le Nôtre French landscape architect ( 1613 - 1700)
- Gabriel Bethlen, Hungarian prince of Transylvania ( 1580- 1629)
- Sir Thomas Browne, English author, philosopher and scientist ( 1605- 1682).
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish author ( 1574 - 1616)
- Charles I of England ( 1600 - 1649).
- Charles II of England ( 1630 - 1685).
- Queen Christina of Sweden, high profile Catholic convert, matron of arts ( 1626 - 1689)
- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland ( 1599 - 1658)
- Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland ( 1626 - 1712).
- René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician ( 1596 - 1650)
- John Donne, English metaphysical poet ( 1572 - 1631)
- John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester ( 1647 - 1680) English poet
- Elizabeth I of England ( 1533 - 1603).
- Galileo Galilei, Italian natural philosopher ( 1564 - 1642)
- Andreas Gryphius, German poet and dramatist( 1616 - 1664)
- Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and mathematician ( 1588 - 1679)
- Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer ( 1629 - 1695)
- Johannes Kepler, German astronomer ( 1571 - 1630)
- Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician ( 1646 - 1716)
- John Locke, English philosopher ( 1632 - 1704)
- James I of England ( 1566 - 1625).
- James II of England ( 1633 - 1701).
- Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor ( 1640 - 1705)
- Louis XIV, King of France, ( 1638 - 1715)
- Mary II of England ( 1662 - 1694).
- Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh (d. 1671), Irish historian and genealogist.
- John Milton, English author and poet ( 1608 - 1674)
- Miyamoto Musashi, famous warrior in Japan, author of The Book of Five Rings, a treatise on strategy and martial combat. ( 1584 - 1645)
- Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician ( 1642 - 1727)
- Blaise Pascal, French theologian, mathematician and physicist ( 1623 - 1662)
- Pierre de Fermat French lawyer and mathematician 1601 – 1665
- John Dryden, English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright ( 1631 - 1700)
- Samuel Pepys, English civil servant and diarist ( 1633 - 1703)
- Henry Purcell, English composer ( 1659 - 1695)
- Samarth Ramdas, Hindu saint ( 1608 - 1681)
- Sant Tukaram, Hindu saint ( 1600 - 1650)
- Anne of Austria ( 1601 - 1666) Queen consort and regent of France
- Cardinal Richelieu, French cardinal, duke, and politician ( 1585 - 1642)
- Cardinal Mazarin, French cardinal and politician of Italian origin ( 1602 - 1661)
- Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan ( 1641 - 1707) lover of Louis XIV
- Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon ( 1635 - 1719 second wife of Louis XIV
- Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter ( 1606 - 1669)
- William Shakespeare, English author and poet ( 1564 - 1616)
- Pedro Calderón de la Barca Spanish dramatist ( 1600 - 1681)
- Shivaji Bhonsle, Hindu king, 1st Maratha ruler, established Hindavi Swaraj. ( 1630- 1680)
- Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher ( 1632 - 1677)
- Seathrún Céitinn, Irish historian (ca. 1569 - ca. 1644)
- Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland ( 1629 - 1696)
- Imre Thököly, prince of Transylvania, leader of the anti-Habsburg uprising in Hungary ( 1657 - 1705)
- Albrecht von Wallenstein, German general in the Thirty Years' War, Catholic ( 1583 - 1634)
- William III of England ( 1650 - 1702).
- Abel Janszoon Tasman ( 1603 - 1659), Dutch seafarer and explorer.
- Michiel de Ruyter ( 1607 - 1676), Dutch admiral
- Guru Teg Bahadur, ( 1621 - 1675), 9th Sikh Guru
- Peter the Great, ( 1672 - 1725), Russian tsar
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
List of 17th century inventions
Major changes in philosophy and science take place, often characterized as the Scientific revolution.
- First measurement of the speed of light, 1676.
- Banknotes were reintroduced in Europe.
- Ice cream
- Tea and coffee become popular in Europe.
- Central Banking in France and modern Finance by Scottish economist John Law.
- 1609: Johann Carolas of Germany published the 'Relation', the first newspaper
- 1610: The Orion Nebula was identified by Nicolas de Peiresc of France
- c. 1612: The first flintlock musket was likely created for Louis XIII of France by gunsmith Marin de Bourgeoys
- 1620: Funded by James I of England, Cornelius Drebbei built the first ' submarine' made of wood and greased leather
- 1623: The first English dictonary, 'English Dictionarie' was published by Henry Cockeram, listing difficult words with definitions
- 1642: Mezzotint engraving introduced grey tones to printed images
- 1643: Evangelista Torricelli of Italy invented the mercury Barometer
- 1645: Giacomo Torelli of Venice, Italy invented the first rotating stage
- 1657: Christiaan Huygens developed the first functional pendulum clock based on the learnings of Galileo Galilei
- 1663: The first reflecting telescope was built by James Gregory based on suggestions of Italian astronomer Niccolo Zucchi
- c. 1670: Monk Dom Perignon discovered Champagne in France
- 1676: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek fist discovered Bacteria
- 1679: Binary system developed by Gottfried Leibnitz, possibly influenced by Shao Yung
- 1684: Calculus independently developed by both Gottfried Leibnitz and Sir Issac Newton and used to formulate classical mechanics.
Decades and years
| 1590s |
1590 |
1591 |
1592 |
1593 |
1594 |
1595 |
1596 |
1597 |
1598 |
1599 |
| 1600s |
1600 |
1601 |
1602 |
1603 |
1604 |
1605 |
1606 |
1607 |
1608 |
1609 |
| 1610s |
1610 |
1611 |
1612 |
1613 |
1614 |
1615 |
1616 |
1617 |
1618 |
1619 |
| 1620s |
1620 |
1621 |
1622 |
1623 |
1624 |
1625 |
1626 |
1627 |
1628 |
1629 |
| 1630s |
1630 |
1631 |
1632 |
1633 |
1634 |
1635 |
1636 |
1637 |
1638 |
1639 |
| 1640s |
1640 |
1641 |
1642 |
1643 |
1644 |
1645 |
1646 |
1647 |
1648 |
1649 |
| 1650s |
1650 |
1651 |
1652 |
1653 |
1654 |
1655 |
1656 |
1657 |
1658 |
1659 |
| 1660s |
1660 |
1661 |
1662 |
1663 |
1664 |
1665 |
1666 |
1667 |
1668 |
1669 |
| 1670s |
1670 |
1671 |
1672 |
1673 |
1674 |
1675 |
1676 |
1677 |
1678 |
1679 |
| 1680s |
1680 |
1681 |
1682 |
1683 |
1684 |
1685 |
1686 |
1687 |
1688 |
1689 |
| 1690s |
1690 |
1691 |
1692 |
1693 |
1694 |
1695 |
1696 |
1697 |
1698 |
1699 |
| 1700s |
1700 |
1701 |
1702 |
1703 |
1704 |
1705 |
1706 |
1707 |
1708 |
1709 |
| Millennium |
Century |
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18th BC |
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11th BC |
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10th BC |
9th BC |
8th BC |
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3rd BC |
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