1666–1699: The age of science begins

In 1666, Europe was changing fast. Scientists were replacing old ideas with experiments, measurement and mathematics, a movement historians call the Scientific Revolution.

Isaac Newton led the way. His work on light, calculus and gravity, begun in 1665 and 1666, culminated in the Principia of 1687, which set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation. In the Netherlands, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used his own microscopes to describe bacteria and other microorganisms, and in 1676 Ole Rømer showed that light travels at a finite speed.

Science became organised. The Royal Society in London, founded in 1660, and the French Academy of Sciences, founded in 1666, brought scholars together to share and test discoveries. Observatories at Paris and Greenwich improved the charting of the stars, which helped sailors find their way at sea.

Money and trade also took modern shape. Coffee houses became meeting places for merchants, one of which grew into the insurance market Lloyd's of London. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to manage government finance.

Power was shifting too. In England, the changes of 1688 and 1689 strengthened Parliament, while France under Louis XIV became Europe's leading power. By 1698, Thomas Savery had patented a steam pump, an early step toward the machines of the coming century.