The Seventeenth Century is seen as the beginning of the Early Modern Period, it was the Late Renaissance when the style of Mannerism has bridged the way to the beginning of the Baroque style developing in Rome. Europe was torn by warfare due in large part to religious divisions at the beginning of the century, the Thirty Years War, the Great Turkish War, the End of the Dutch Revolt and the English Civil War. Strong centralised European states entered into worldwide international competition for wealth and power, accelerating the pace of colonisation in America and Asia. As the Mayflower set sail with the first European pilgrims to America struggles continued to maintain and extend colonies throughout the world. The powers also fought each other at home in Europe where warfare grew increasingly complex and expensive and power shifts saw the Spanish empire decline and France rise to be the greatest power. In England it was the era of Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil war, the Gun Powder Plot, the Glorious Revolution, the English Restoration, the Unification of Scotland and England, The Great Fire of London and the beginning of a constitutional monarchy. In France the rule of Louis XIV threatened to dominate Europe. The money European governments invested in military technology meant this was an age of military revolution. The end of Thirty Years War marked the end of the Spanish and Holy Roman Empire’s powers. In the east the period saw the blossoming of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires and the beginning of the Edo period in feudal Japan. The century saw the beginning of modern science and philosophy with works and discoveries by Galileo, Descartes, Pascal William Harvey and Isaac Newton and Hugo Grotius initiated international law. Agricultural and commercial changes were taking place which would pave the way for the industrial revolution and it was the era of the dominance of the Dutch East India Company.
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