Number theory in the nineteenth century

From the end of the Renaissance through the eighteenth century European mathematics was dominated by geometry and allied fields. The work of Descartes in the seventeenth century had bound algebra together with geometry and the subsequent development of the infinitesimal calculus by Newton and Leibniz led to a greatly expanded power to examine geometric phenomena. The domination of geometry was so complete that the term ‘geometer’ was synonymous with mathematician.