As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.
   The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement and the beginning of modern science and philosophy, including the contributions of Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton; Europe was torn by warfare throughout the century, by the Thirty Years' War, the Great Turkish War and the English Civil War among others, while European colonization of the Americas began in earnest. In the east, the 17th Century saw the flowering of the Ottoman and Mughal empires, the beginning of the Edo period in feudal Japan, and the violent transition from the Ming to the Qing Dynasty in China.

Events

1600s

• 1600- Michael the Brave became for less than 6 months the first ruler of all three Romanian provinces: Walachia, Transylvania and Moldavia; British East India Company was chartered; Charles I of England born to James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark.
• 1601: The Elizabethan Poor Law appoints HI parishes as administrators of poverty relief; Earl of Essex executed on a count of treason; 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; Tokugawa Ieyasu seizes control of Japan and establishes the Shogunate which lasts until 1868.
• 1603-23: After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands Persia by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese.
• 1604: James I meets the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference, but eventually demands compliance with all Thirty-Nine Articles, and bans Jesuits.
• 1605: Gunpowder Plot failed in England.
• 1607: The London Company establishes the Jamestown Settlement in North America, precipitating the British colonization of the Americas.
• 1607: For the first time, Euclid's Elements (幾何原本) is translated into Chinese by the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci and the Chinese mathematician Xu Guangqi (徐光启).
• 1608: Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada).
• 1609: Maximilian of Bavaria establishes the Catholic League.

1620s