Brandenburg-Prussia

State · 1619–1720 CE · at its largest around 1687 CE

The combined lands of the Hohenzollern margraves of Brandenburg and dukes of Prussia, which under Frederick William, the Great Elector, became a significant power and was raised to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

On its lands while it lasted

Hanseatic trade route (1356–1669 CE): The Hanseatic League of north German merchant towns, led by Lübeck, dominated Baltic and North Sea trade from London and Bruges to Novgorod, exchanging furs, wax, grain, fish and timber for cloth and salt.
Galileo Galilei (1564 CE – 1642 CE): Italian astronomer and physicist born in Pisa who pioneered experimental science and telescopic astronomy. Condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, he spent his last years under house arrest near Florence.
Johannes Kepler (1571 CE – 1630 CE): German astronomer and mathematician who, working in Prague with Tycho Brahe’s observations, found that planets move in ellipses and formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
Rembrandt (1606 CE – 1669 CE): Dutch painter and printmaker from Leiden who worked in Amsterdam. A master of light and shadow, he is considered the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648 CE): A series of wars fought mainly in the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648, involving most European powers. It devastated Germany, where millions died from fighting, famine and disease.
Johannes Vermeer (1632 CE – 1675 CE): Dutch painter from Delft known for quiet interiors filled with soft daylight, such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. He painted slowly, and only about 35 of his works survive.
John Locke (1632 CE – 1704 CE): English philosopher and physician, a founder of empiricism and liberalism, whose Two Treatises of Government and Essay Concerning Human Understanding argued for natural rights, government by consent and knowledge from experience.
Louis XIV (1638 CE – 1715 CE): The 'Sun King', King of France from 1643 to 1715, the longest recorded reign of any major European monarch. He embodied absolute monarchy and moved his court to Versailles.
English Civil War (1642–1651 CE): A series of wars between Royalists loyal to Charles I and Parliamentarians. Parliament won, the king was executed in 1649, and England briefly became a republic.
The Night Watch (1642 CE): Rembrandt’s large group portrait of an Amsterdam civic militia company led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, notable for its movement and dramatic light. It hangs in the Rijksmuseum.
Isaac Newton (1643 CE – 1727 CE): English mathematician and physicist at Cambridge who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, co-invented calculus and advanced optics.
Peace of Westphalia (1648 CE): Treaties signed at Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. They recognised Dutch and Swiss independence and reshaped the European state system.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665 CE): Johannes Vermeer’s painting of a girl in an exotic turban and a large pearl earring, looking over her shoulder; a tronie rather than a portrait. It is in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
Battle of Vienna (1683 CE): In September 1683 a relief army under King John III Sobieski of Poland defeated the Ottomans besieging Vienna. It began the Habsburg reconquest of Hungary.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 CE – 1750 CE): German composer and organist, cantor of St Thomas Church in Leipzig from 1723. His works, including the Brandenburg Concertos and St Matthew Passion, are summits of Baroque music.