1640
Isaac Walton writes The Compleat Angler about fishing and conservation.
1641
The Dutch seize Malacca, on the Malay peninsula, from the Portuguese.
1642
Blaise Pascal invents the adding machine.
1642 - 1643
Abel Tasman sails in search of 'Terra Incognita' and lands in both Tasmania and New Zealand. His charts and account are later used by Captain Cook.
1642
Russian merchants hear about fur, walrus ivory and silver to be found by the Pogycha River.
1643 - 1727
Isaac Newton.
1643
The barometer is invented by Evangelista Torricelli.
1643 - 1715
Reign of Louis XIV of France, the Sun King.
1643
Cardinal Mazarin serves as chief minister to the young Louis XIV now that Richelieu is dead.
1644 - 1912
The Qing Dynasty in China. China conquers Outer Mongolia and Tibet.
1644
Tasman maps the North Coast of Australia.
1645
The vacuum pump is invented by Otto von Guericke.
1645
Italy's first coffee house opens in Venice.
1648
After 80 years of struggle the Netherlands gain independence from Spain.
1648
Semyon Dezhnyov explores Russia's Eastern frontier charting the Kolyma River and becoming the first person to sail through the Bering Strait to the Pogycha-Anadyr River.
1649
Grenada becomes a French colony.
Conquest of Ireland. Oliver Cromwell leads his expeditionary force and destroys almost all Irish resistence to English control within a year.
1650
The Dutch introduce tea to New York (then New Amsterdam).
1650
The first British coffee house opens in Oxford.
1650 - 1659
Coffee is introduced to the Virginia Colony.
1650 - 1659
Significant VOC imports of Bengal opium begin.
1651
The Navigation Acts restricted the use of foreign ships in trade between Britain and her colonies.
1651
John French publishes The Art of Distillation.
1651
English Navigation Acts restrict access to Chinese porcelain in American colonies to merchandise shipped on English ships from English ports.
1652
The Turk's Head coffee house is opened in London.
1652
Lucas Bols is born and will make Bols a powerful company in the Dutch Golden Age.
1652 - 1654
The First Anglo-Dutch War is fought off the shores of England, the Netherlands and Italy.
1652
A Dutch colony is established in Cape Town.
1652
Jan van Riebeeck establishes a Dutch colony for the VOC in Cape Town.
1654
Richard Bell works as a gun founder for the Great Moghul.
1655
The British sieze Jamaica from the Spanish, giving them access to cacao plantations.
1655
Vermeer paints Officer and Laughing Girl showing an officer with an elaborate beaver felt hat.
1655
British forces capture Jamaica from the Spanish.
1656
Dutch forces capture Sri Lanka from the Portuguese.
1656
The first Quaker missionaries arrive in Boston, Massachusetts.
1657
Tea is sold at Garway's Coffee House in London.
1657
Britain's first Chocolate House is advertised in Bishopsgate Street, London.
1658
Tea is advertised in the 'Mercurius Politicus' journal in England.
1658
Dutch traders establish small coffee plantations in Ceylon.
1658
Francois Bernier comments on the sugar cane plantations in Bengal.
1658 - 1668
Francois Bernier explores India, describing Agra, Kashmir and Delhi in detail.
1659 - 1695
Henry Purcell.
1659 - 1707
Aurangzeb is Mughal Emperor and expands into Southern India.
1659
The Peace of the Pyrenees ends the Franco-Spanish War. France gains Rousillon and territories bordering the Spanish Netherlands.
1659
Pierre Radisson and Des Grosseilliers explore the Great Lake region and collect furs.
1660
Samuel Pepys records his first experience of drinking tea.
1660 - 1669
Chocolate becomes popular in Britain. By 1663 there are 82 coffee houses in England, many serving chocolate as well.
1660 - 1669
Francesco Redi, physician to Cosimo III de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, helps to popularise chocolate amongst the elite in Italy.
1660
Charles II returns from France to take the crown and popularises the French habit of taking snuff.
1660
The Royal African Company is founded and is given a monopoly over the British Slave Trade.
1660
The Royal Society is founded in London.
1660
The Navigation Act is passed to promote English commerce and protect it from European competition in colonial trade.
1661
Robert Boyle proposes that matter consists of tiny corpuscles in his book The Sceptical Chymist.
1661
Cardinal Mazarin dies and Louis XIV declares himself an absolute monarch.
1661
Bombay is given to Charles II of England as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza.
1661
John Evelyn writes Fumifugium, or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoake of London Dissipated which proposes remedies for London's air pollution problem.
1662
Catherine of Braganza, King Charles II's Portuguese wife, encourages tea drinking at the British royal court.
1662
The Irish linen trade is given tariff protection.
1662
Company of Royal Adventurers into Africa begins trading in slaves (later Royal African Company).
1662
John Graunt publishes a book which covers the understanding of disease and public health.
1663
The Imperial Diet is now fixed in Regensburg.
1663
Rum distillation began in Barbados and the Mount Gay Distillery, dating from 1663, is probably the oldest operating Rum producer in the world.
1664
Construction commences on the Palace of Versailles.
1664 - 1674
The Compagnie de l'Occident helps the French to organise trade in North America.
1664
Jenever becomes popular in the Netherlands and in England where it provides 'Dutch Courage'. Jenever is shortened to Gin in England.
1664
The French East India Company is established.
1665 - 1667
The Second Anglo-Dutch War sees the Dutch fleet sailing up the Thames.
1665
Pierre Radisson and Des Grosseilliers visit London and convince Britain to join the fur trade.
1665
The Royal Society issues its 'Directions for Seamen' and encourages Pacific exploration.
1666
Chocolate becomes popular at the court of King Louis XIV.
1666
The Fire of London destroys many of London's timber structures. Many are replaced by brick buildings as these were safer and timber was scarce.
1666
The shogun of Japan warns against the dangers of erosion and flooding caused by deforestation and calls for the planting of tree seedlings.
1667
John Milton publishes Paradise Lost.
1667
The tricorne hat is made popular during the war between France and Spain in the Netherlands.
1667
Louis XIV's forces overrun Flanders in the War of Devolution.
1667
The Treaty of Breda. Britain cedes its interests in Sumatra and the Spice Islands to the Netherlands in return for New Amsterdam (Manhattan). Britain concentrates on pepper trade from India.
1668 - 1669
Prince Rupert leads a successful trade expedition to Hudson's Bay for the Hudson's Bay Company.
1668
The British East India Company establishes a trading base in Bombay (now Mumbai).
1668
France acquires Lille and other territories at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ends the War of Devolution with Spain.
1669
The Hanseatic League ceases to function.
1669
Robert de La Salle explores Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and the Ohio River valley.
1669 - 1688
Thomas Bowrey explores India, Burma, Sumatra and Ceylon.
1669
Stricter forest codes are introduced in France.
1669
The Hanseatic League ceases to function.
1670
Dutch traders establish small coffee plantations in Southern India.
1670
Jamaica, now under British control, becomes the world's largest sugar-exporting nation.
1670
Louis XIV endorses the transport of African slaves to Saint Domingue to work on sugar plantations.
1670
The Hudson's Bay Company sets up forts on James Bay.
1670
Fort Albany is established in Ontario by the Hudson's Bay Company.
1670
Foundation of the Hudson's Bay Company.
1670 - 1674
Radisson and Des Grosseilliers help to establish the British fur trade in Canada.
1670
Robert de La Salle explores Lake Michigan and then is the first European to sail down the length of the River Mississippi, arriving in the Gulf of Mexico.
1670 - 1680
Calico printing spreads from the Netherlands to England, France, Switzerland and Italy.
1672
France's first coffee house opens in Paris.
1672 - 1674
The Third Anglo-Dutch War.
1673
Robert de La Salle establishes fur trading posts in the Ohio River valley and upper Mississippi.
1673
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Mississippi River from Green Bay down to the River Arkansas.
1673
James Needham and Gabriel Arthur explore Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida.
1675
Over 3,000 coffee houses exist in Britain serving coffee, tea, chocolate, beer and spirits.
1675
George Ravenscroft invents lead crystal glass.
1675 - 1680
The English and Dutch East India Companies import more than one million pieces of Indian cloth a year into Europe.
1676
William Sherwin of West Ham near London takes out a patent for calico printing.
1678 - 1741
Antonio Vivaldi.
1678
Criollo cacao trees are introduced to Trinidad from Venezuela.
1678
Tobacco is cultivated in India.
1679
William Dampier and Bart Sharp raid Spanish shipping in Central America and Peru.
1680 - 1689
The French practice drinking tea with milk, a custom adopted by the English.
1680
Thomas Sydenham introduces his own blend of laudanum in pill form.
1680
Jacques de Segur plants what will become the Chateau Lafite vineyard in the Medoc.
1681
Louis XIV of France renews persecution of Huguenots, causing many to flee to England.
1681
France forms a peaceful alliance with the Miami and Illinois peoples and lifts the ban on supplying guns to Native Indians.
1681
Robert de La Salle establishes Fort St Louis on the Mississippi and expands trade with Native Indians.
1682
Edmond Halley charts and describes the orbit of a comet which is named after him.
1682
Henry Stubbes writes The Natural History of Coffee, Thee, Chocolate, Tobacco...
1682 - 1713
The Russian fur trade reaches its zenith, exporting furs from Archangel.
1682
The Hudson's Bay Company establishes a Headquarters at Port Nelson on the Nelson River.
1682
Louis XIV moves the French Royal Court to Versailles.
1682
Robert de La Salle further explores the lower Mississippi, naming the area Louisiana after King Louis XIV and founding Fort Prudhomme in what is now Memphis.
1683
The Ottoman army is defeated following the siege of Vienna.
1683
Austria's first coffee house is opened, making use of bags of coffee beans left behind by the Turks.
1683
Massachusetts passes a law forbidding smoking outdoors due to the fire hazard.
1683 - 1698
Resumption of the French and Indian Wars fighting for territory and trading rights in the Great Lakes and North East of America.
1683 - 1691
William Dampier sails around the world via Cape Horn, the East Indies, Australia and the Cape of Good Hope.
1683 - 1684
Englebert Kaempfer journeys through Persia, Ceylon, Java and Siam to reach Japan where he makes notes on Japanese life and customs.
1684 - 1791
Over 200 million pieces of porcelain are imported into Europe from China.
1685 - 1750
Johann Sebastian Bach.
1685 - 1759
George Frideric Handel.
1685
John Chamberlayne writes The Manner of Making Coffee, Tea and Chocolate.
1685
Louis XIV signs the Code Noir, regulating slavery in French colonies.
1686 - 1690
Child's War. British forces attack the Mughal Empire, but are defeated.
1686
King of Siam visits France and presents over 1,500 porcelain pieces to the French court.
1687
Isaac Newton publishes Principia in which he formulates his laws on gravity.
1687
Simon de la Loubere leads a French trade mission to Siam.
1688 - 1744
Alexander Pope.
1688
Edward Lloyd opens Lloyd's Coffee House in London and it becomes a centre for the insurance trade.
1688
Gin becomes popular in England following the coronation of William III of Orange.
1688 - 1697
The War of the League of Augsburg pits France against Spain, the Dutch Empire, England, Scotland, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire. It is ended by the Treaty of Ryswick, where France recognises William III of Orange as King of England, Scotland and Ireland, retains Alsace, Pondicherry and Acadia, but returns Catalonia to Spain and Freiburg and other territories to the Holy Roman Empire.
1689
Political philosopher John Locke publishes Two Treatises on Government.
1689
Hans Sloane returns to England after 3 years in Jamaica and develops a medicinal drink of chocolate mixed with milk.
1689
First record of EIC importation of tea direct from China, via the port of Amoy (Xiamen).
1689 - 1697
King William's War. Britain and France fight for land and trade in Acadia.
1689
Jesuit missionary Samuel Fritz explores and charts the Amazon.
1689
Engelbert Kaempfer writes one of the earliest accounts of smoking opium-soaked tobacco (madat, madak), on Java.
1689
First record of EIC importation of tea direct from China, via the port of Amoy (Xiamen). Engelbert Kaempfer writes one of the earliest accounts of smoking opium-soaked tobacco (madat, madak), on Java.
1690
The British East India Company establishes a trading base in Calcutta.
1690
William Penn instructs Pennsylvania settlers to preserve one acre of trees for every five acres cleared.
1690s
Paris becomes the first European city with an extensive sewer system.
1690
William of Orange defeats Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne which ensures the dominance of the Protestant Ascendancy.