1560s1647

1560s1647 covers roughly the period from the mid-16th century to the mid-17th century, a hinge between late Renaissance developments and the early modern era. It witnessed intensified religious upheaval, including the consolidation of Reformation networks and the Counter-Reformation, and broad shifts in politics, science, and global exchange that would shape Europe and its colonies for generations. The era's early decades set in motion long-running conflicts and transformations that would redraw maps of power, faith, and knowledge.

In Europe, the period featured protracted religious wars, such as France's Wars of Religion, the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain, and the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Political life was unsettled in Britain as well, with the 1640s producing the English Civil War. At the same time, the Scientific Revolution gathered momentum: Copernican ideas circulated more widely, Kepler formulated planetary laws, Galileo refined telescopic observation, and William Harvey described blood circulation, while Descartes advanced new methods of doubt and reasoning.

Across the Atlantic and in other colonial theatres, maritime powers extended their networks through exploration and colonization. Jamestown was established in 1607, Plymouth Colony in 1620, and the Dutch and English built extensive commercial empires in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The period saw the growth of transoceanic trade and the beginnings of slave-based plantation systems in the Americas, alongside mercantilist state practice that tied economic power to political authority.

By 1647, conflict and negotiation continued across Europe; the decisive settlement of the Thirty Years' War would follow with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The interval thus marks a transition from Renaissance to early modern world history, characterized by religious transformation, scientific change, state-building, and global interconnection.