Thomas Hobbes
.jpg?width=160 "John Michael Wright · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1588 – 1679 · 91 years · London · Europe
In Leviathan he described the state of nature as a "war of all against all", which people escape by handing power to a strong state through a social contract.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: John Michael Wright · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 18 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 24 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 8 years younger
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 50 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 55 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 41 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 8 years younger
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 41 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 7 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 7 years younger
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 10 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 36 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 17 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 24 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 23 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 1 year younger
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 12 years younger
- Mehmed IV the Hunter — sultan of the Köprülü era and the siege of Vienna, 54 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 5 years older
- Zera Yacob — Ethiopian philosopher, 11 years younger
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 15 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 32 years older
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 57 years younger
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 72 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 45 years older
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 66 years younger
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 46 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 4 years younger
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 30 years younger
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 11 years older
Americas
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 60 years younger
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 21 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 49 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 8 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 15 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 0, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 3, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 4, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 10, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 12, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 12, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 12, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 17, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 19, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 21, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 22, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 24, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 30, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 36, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 44, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 56, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 60, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 61, Europe
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — aged 66, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — aged 74, Africa
- 1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — aged 88, Europe