Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. 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 Dutch Golden Age, the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Si cle dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, and The General Crisis. This last is characterised in Europe most notably by the Thirty Years' War, 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 Potos in Upper Peru and Mexico which resulted in great bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe from the rest of the world.
