Early modern Europe
The
early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in
Western Europe and its first
colonies which spans the time between the
Middle Ages and the
Industrial Revolution that has created modern society. The early modern period is characterized by the rise to importance of
science and increasingly rapid technological
progress,
secularized civic
politics and the
nation state.
Capitalist economies began their rise, beginning in northern
Italian republics such as
Genoa. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of
mercantilism. As such early modern period represents the diminution and abolition of
Christian theocracy,
feudalism, and
serfdom.
In general, historians generally place the end of the Middle Ages at the beginning of the
Reformation, in about
1517-
1525 and the
Industrial Revolution, beginning at about
1750. When the economic
historian Fernand Braudel covered the early modern world in his book
Civilization and Capitalism, the span of time he covered was the
15th to the
18th centuries.
The beginning of the early modern period receives differing conventional dates in different nations. Common start dates include
1453 — the fall of
Constantinople, but
Spain and
Portugal entered the early modern age with the first documented European voyage to
the Americas, by
Christopher Columbus in
1492 and
Vasco da Gama's voyage to
India (
1498) set off the
Age of Discovery. The year 1492 also marked the end of the
Reconquista with the capitulation of Moorish
Granada; simultaneously the government of Spain
expelled the Spanish Jews. In
England, the early modern period opened decisively in
1485, when the last
Plantagenet king,
Richard III, was killed at
Bosworth and the medieval civil wars of aristocratic factions gave way to early modern
Tudor monarchy, in the person of
Henry VII.
France and Italy initiated one another to early modern politics and warfare in
1494, when the French king
Charles VIII invaded Italy. Finally,
Germany entered the new epoch in
1519, when
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V united the imperial throne with the crown of Spain. However, by the time these events took place, the cultural Renaissance initiated in
Florence had already moved from its early phase to what art historians term the
High Renaissance, its culmination, cut short with the
Sack of Rome by German troops in
1527. At that time, the early modern religious movement, the
Reformation was well under way: its opening is conventionally dated from
Martin Luther's act in nailing his
ninety-five theses to the door of the church in
Wittenberg in
1517.
Major works of political and social
philosophy, such as
Machiavelli's
The Prince (
1513) and
Thomas More's
Utopia (
1515) are also regarded as significant markers of the beginning of the early modern period.
The end date of the early modern period is most often placed at
1789, the end of the
Ancien Régime in France, with the Industrial Revolution already transforming British society. The
Napoleonic Era forms a transitional cap at the end of the early modern era. When Europe emerged, it was to a world-economy becoming distinctly modern. There is no agreement and the early modern period can be said to start and stop in different parts of Europe at different times.
The expression "early modern" is sometimes, and incorrectly, used as a substitute for the term
Renaissance. However, "Renaissance" is properly used in relation to a diverse series of cultural developments; which occurred over several hundred years in many different parts of
Europe — especially central and northern
Italy — and span the transition from late
Medieval civilization and the opening of the early modern period.
Artistically the early modern is not a common designation as the Renaissance is clearly distinct from what came later. Only in the study of literature is the early modern period a standard period. Music is generally divided between
Renaissance,
Baroque. Similarly philosophy is divided between
Renaissance philosophy and
the Enlightenment. In other fields there is far more continuity through the period such as
warfare and
science.
The term early modern is most often applied to Europe, and its overseas empire. However, in
Japan the
Edo period from
1603 to
1867 is also sometimes referred to as the early modern period.
*
Renaissance*
Early modern Britain*
Early Modern France*
Early modern Italy*
periodization*
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth*
Early Modern Romania*
Society for Renaissance Studies
