London in the 17th Century

Timeline

1. 1641–1651London · EnglandDuring the English Civil War, London firmly backed Parliament; commercial elites funded Parliament, and the city militia (the London Trained Bands) resisted the royal army's advance. London's printing industry and pulpits became core venues for spreading Puritan thought, and the city remained a political fortress for the overthrow of Charles I.
2. 1651–1660Port of London, north bank of the Thames · LondonAfter the 1651 Navigation Acts, the Port of London became the main hub of England's colonial trade; Dutch merchant shipping was excluded, and English merchants expanded rapidly in the Caribbean, North America, and Africa. London's merchant-capitalist class amassed great wealth during the Commonwealth, reinforcing the city's dominance in the English economy.
3. 1660–1669London · EnglandAfter the 1660 Restoration, London's theaters reopened, court culture revived, the Royal Society was founded, and coffeehouses flourished as centers of commercial information and the exchange of ideas, further establishing London as a core European commercial and cultural metropolis — its heyday before the Great Fire of 1666.