17th century

Centuries: Year in Review 17th Century (16th century - 17th century - 18th century)

Decades: 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s

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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