How is central Europe different today from the way it was in the middle of the 17th century?

Europe engaged with the rest of the world through trade, exploration and colonialism, from the Ottoman Empire, to Spanish America, to the Dutch in south-east Asia. The intellectual sphere saw the scientific revolution and the early enlightenment, as witnessed for instance in the work of Gallileo, Spinoza and Descartes.

it further strained relations between the north and the south and convinced