17th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.

Events

• 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 granted title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan and establishes the Edo or Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo, Japan. This ends the Azuchi-Momoyama period and begins the Edo period.
• 1603: Samuel de Champlain maps the Saint Lawrence River.
• 1603: Safavids capture Baghdad from the Ottomans.
• 1605: Gunpowder Plot foiled in England.
• 1605: Akbar, emperor of the Mughal Empire, dies.
• 1607: The London Company establishes the Jamestown Settlement in North America.
• 1608: Quebec City founded by French settlers in Canada.
• 1613: The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov.
• 1615: The Mughal Empire grants extensive trading rights to the British East India Company.
• 1618-48: Thirty Years' War in Europe
• 1625: New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America.
• 1630: Boston founded by the Massachusetts Bay Company in North America.
• 1636: Harvard University founded.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1643: Louis XIV crowned King of France.
• 1644: The Manchu conquer the Chinese Ming Dynasty and begin the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China.
• 1648: Peace of Westphalia
• 1648-53: Fronde civil war in France.
• 1648-67: The Deluge wars leave Poland in ruins.
• 1648-69: Siege of Candia after which the Ottoman Empire captures Crete from the Venetians
• 1652: Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa.
• 1652: Anglo-Dutch Wars begin.
• 1653: The Taj Mahal in India is completed.
• 1655-61: The Northern Wars cement Sweden's rise as a Great Power.
• 1660: English Restoration
• 1661: The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins.
• 1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York.
• 1665: Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire.
• 1670: The Hudson's Bay Company is founded in Canada.
• 1674: Maratha empire founded in India by Shivaji.
• 1676: Russia and the Ottoman Empire commence the Russo-Turkish Wars.
• 1682-99: The Great Turkish war is fought between the Ottoman Empire and a Holy League.
• 1682: Peter the Great becomes joint ruler of Russia (sole tsar in 1696).
• 1682: La Salle explores the length of the Mississippi River and claims Louisiana for France.
• 1683: China annexes Taiwan.
• 1685: Edict of Fontainebleau outlaws Protestantism in France.
• 1685: European traders restricted to Guangzhou in China.
• 1688-89: Glorious Revolution in England.
• 1688-97: The War of the Grand Alliance between France and the Grand Alliance.
• 1689: Nerchinsk Treaty establishes a border between Russia and China.
• 1692: Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
• 1700-21: The Great Northern War between Sweden and a coalition of Northern European countries.