An outbreak of bubonic plague in Aberdeen,…

Turkish forces on Crete, having gained a foothold by the summer of 1647, prepare to lay siege to the capital city of Candia.

Venetian ships meanwhile keep Candia continuously supplied and blockade the Dardanelles.

The Cretan War, or War of Candia will continue for another twenty-two years.

Rembrandt's paintings have varied greatly in size, subject, and style in the decade following his Night Watch.

The previous tendency to create dramatic effects primarily by strong contrasts of light and shadow has given way to the use of frontal lighting and larger and more saturated areas of color.

Simultaneously, figures have come to be placed parallel to the picture plane.

These changes can be seen as a move toward a classical mode of composition and, considering the more expressive use of brushwork as well, may indicate a familiarity with Venetian art (Susanna and the Elders, 1637–47).

At the same time, there is a marked decrease in painted works in favor of etchings and drawings of landscapes.

In these graphic works, natural drama eventually makes way for quiet Dutch rural scenes.

Corneille had returned to the theater in 1640 after a hiatus.

The Querelle du Cid has caused Corneille to pay closer attention to classical dramatic rules.

This is evident in his subsequent plays, which are classical tragedies: Horace (1640, dedicated to Richelieu), Cinna (1643), and Polyeucte (1643).

These three plays and Le Cid are collectively known as Corneille's 'Classical Tetralogy'.

Corneille’s popularity has grown and by the mid 1640s, the first collection of his plays had been published.

Corneille in the mid to late 1640s produces mostly tragedies: La Mort de Pompée (The Death of Pompey, performed 1644), Rodogune (performed 1645), Theodore (performed 1646), and Héraclius (performed 1647).

He has also written one comedy in this period: Le Menteur (The Liar, 1644).

Taken and ransacked by Royalist troops in 1644 after the Battle of Aberdeen, it had been stormed two years later by a Royalist force under the command of Marquis of Huntly.

The colony on Rhode Island is united with Providence in 1647 under a single government, and liberty of conscience is again proclaimed.

The area is to become a safe haven for people who are persecuted for their beliefs—Baptists, Quakers, Jews, and others come here to follow their consciences in peace and safety.

D'Aulnay becomes governor-general and seigneur of Acadia by royal proclamation in 1647.

However, while La Tour has been enriching himself with the fur trade, d'Aulnay has become heavily indebted to pay for the colony.

The Dutch settle Awiehawken on May 11, 1647, when Maryn Adriansen receives a patent for a plantation (of one hundred and sixty-nine acres) at the site of present Weehawken, New Jersey.

Kieft, recalled to the Netherlands to answer for his conduct in 1647, dies in a shipwreck near Swansea on his way back to the Netherlands.

His archive is also lost, so his exact role in the events of the Wappinger War cannot be established.

Zhang Xianzhong is killed in January of 1647 by Manchu troops after he flees Chengdu and employs a scorched earth policy.

The Manchu subsequently occupy the entire country, ending Ming power.

The Qing Dynasty that replaces it, though alien, is politically a Manchu-Chinese synthesis and, continuing the Confucianist Ming policies, will successfully rule in a manner familiar to the sedentary Chinese.

As is current in other developed nations of the period, enlightened despots exercise absolute authority under the rationale that their regimes operate in the best interests of the governed.

This second round of foreign rule (the Mongols being the first) will have little effect on the direction or integrity of native Chinese culture.

Advanced studies and growing applications of neo-Confucianism contribute to the transition of the social and political order from feudal norms to class- and large- group-oriented practices.

The rule of the people or Confucian man is gradually replaced by the rule of laws.

New laws are developed and new administrative devices are instituted.

A new theory of government and a new vision of society emerges as a means of justifying more comprehensive governance by the bakufu.

Each person has a distinct place in society and is expected to work to fulfill his mission in life.

The people are to be ruled with benevolence by those whose assigned duty it is to rule.

Government is all-powerful but responsible and humane.

Although the class system is influenced by neo-Confucianism, it is not identical to it.

Whereas soldiers and clergy are at the bottom of the hierarchy in the Chinese model, in Japan some members of these classes constitute the ruling elite.