Centuries: Year in Review 17th Century (16th century - 17th century - 18th century)
Decades: 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s
Events:
- Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England
- Scottish and English Protestants sent to colonize Ireland, as reaction to Catholicism there.
- The Thirty Years War in Europe (1618-1648).
- Development in military sciences: Cannon and gunpowder technology refined.
- The English Civil Wars (1642-1651).
- Calculus is invented and used to formulate classical mechanics.
Significant persons:
- William Shakespeare, author and poet
- Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician
- Gottfried Leibniz, philosopher and mathematician
- Galileo Galilei, scientist
- René Descartes, philosopher and mathematician
- Blaise Pascal, theologian and mathematician
- Baruch Spinoza, philosopher
- Thomas Hobbes, philosopher
- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England