Explore by year

1632 CE

This year falls in the Early modern period (c. 1500–1800). European ships link the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia into one trading world, and the conquest of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade follow. Large land empires, among them the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal and Qing, rule much of Asia, while printing and the Scientific Revolution change how knowledge spreads in Europe.

Dated to 1632 CE

Philosopher · Early modern period · NetherlandsBaruch Spinoza1632–1677Dutch Jewish thinker, excommunicated by the Amsterdam synagogue in 1656, who ground lenses for a living and wrote the Ethics, identifying God with Nature. He lived 1632 to 1677 and published almost nothing under his name in his lifetime.

Philosopher · Early modern period · EnglandJohn Locke1632–1704English thinker whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding made him the founder of British empiricism, and whose Two Treatises justified the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He taught that the mind begins as a blank slate. He lived 1632 to 1704.

Within fifteen years

Ruler · Early modern period · FranceLouis XIV1638–1715King of France from 1643 to 1715, born in 1638, whose seventy two year reign is the longest verified reign in European history. He made the monarchy absolute in practice, built Versailles into the seat of government, and revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. France under him was the dominant power of Europe.

Philosopher · Early modern period · GermanyGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz1646–1716German polymath, diplomat, and librarian who invented the calculus independently of Newton and built a metaphysics of monads, windowless souls mirroring the universe. He lived 1646 to 1716 and wrote mostly in French and Latin.