|
(17th-century)
The 17th century was the century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian calendar. The 17th century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and in that continent was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, and The General Crisis. This last is characterised in Europe most notably by the Thirty Years' War,[1] the Great Turkish War, the end of the Dutch Revolt, the disintegration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the English Civil War. Some historians extend the scope of the General Crisis to encompass the globe, as with the demographic collapse of the Ming Dynasty, China lost approximately 30% of its population. It was during this period also that European colonization of the Americas began in earnest, including the exploitation of the fabulously wealthy silver deposits of Potosi and Mexico which resulted in great bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe from the rest of the world. In the midst of this global General Crisis, there were victory and triumph In the Near East, the Ottoman, Safavid Persian and Mughal empires grew in strength. Farther east in Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo period at the beginning of the century, starting the isolationist Sakoku policy that was to last 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.
|
17th-century Subcategories
17th-century Articles
|
|
