CNN Perspectives - Millennium A Thousand Years of History (1999) Part 7 The Seventeenth Century Century of the Telescope

Join CNN's MILLENNIUM for a panoramic sweep over the last 1,000 years, watching the people, events and achievements that shaped the world. The 10, one-hour episodes of MILLENNIUM are extraordinary in their range of vision and compelling in their presentation. Yet MILLENNIUM is neither chronological nor all-encompassing. Instead, it is eclectic, a pastiche of things great–or small–that sculpted the world. Each of the 10 episodes of MILLENNIUM focuses on a single century, brought to life by five vignettes from five different locations worldwide. Inspired by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's book, “Millennium,” and filmed in 28 countries, the series is as geographically far-ranging as the world it covers. Its producers and crews spent more than two years and traveled 100,000 miles gathering footage. MILLENNIUM reconstructs the visual images of past ages using this footage, along with vivid re-enactments and computer-generated graphic animation.

Part 7 The Seventeenth Century Century of the Telescope

The role of the scientist changed dramatically. Greatest of all the new gentlemen scientists was Isaac Newton, whose experiments with the laws of nature were undertaken to reveal God, not to disprove his existence. Colonies were established along America's Atlantic coasts. The first, in Jamestown, Virginia, struggled to survive until the tobacco trade made it viable. Slaves were transported from Africa to service new colonies. The largest numbers were taken to Brazil by the Portuguese and Dutch, their short, brutal lives eked out on the sugar plantations. In Europe the economic center of gravity shifted north. The Dutch became rich on the South East Asian spice trade and Amsterdam began a golden age. Women entered business and great painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer were commissioned by the emerging middle class. Europe began to eclipse Arabic and Chinese eminence in science. Visiting Jesuits proved to the Emperor in China that their knowledge of astronomy was more accurate than that of the Chinese.

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