René Descartes
1596 – 1650 · 54 years · Amsterdam · Europe
Father of modern philosophy ('I think, therefore I am') and inventor of analytic geometry; spent most of his career in the Dutch Republic.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: After Frans Hals · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 32 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 10 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 49 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 32 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 42 years younger
- Oliver Cromwell — Lord Protector of England, 3 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, born the same year
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 33 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 15 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 1 year older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 18 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 44 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 25 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 16 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 7 years older
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 4 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 15 years younger
- Ibrahim the Mad — sultan nicknamed 'the Mad', 19 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 13 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 7 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 40 years older
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 53 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 4 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 19 years older
- Tokugawa Iemitsu — shogun who closed Japan to the Europeans, 8 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 17 years older
- Mumtaz Mahal — consort of Emperor Shah Jahan, 3 years older
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 29 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, born the same year
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 57 years older
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 7 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 2, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 4, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 4, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 4, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 9, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 11, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 13, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 14, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 22, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 28, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 36, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 48, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 52, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 53, Europe