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{{Short description|Historical period from c. 1500 to 1700 or 1800}}
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[[File:1700 map of the world by Paolo Petrini.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|1700 map of the world by Paolo Petrini]]{{Human history|222}}
The '''early modern period''' is a [[Periodization|historical period]], with divisions based primarily on the [[history of Europe]] and the broader concept of [[modernity]]. There is no exact date that marks the beginning or end of the period and its extent may vary depending on the area of history being studied. In general, the early modern period is considered to have started at the beginning of the 16th century, and is variably considered to have ended at the 18th or 19th century (around 1500 to 1700–1800). In a European context, it is defined as the period following the [[Middle Ages]] and preceding the advent of modernity; but the dates of these boundaries are far from universally agreed. In the context of [[World history (field)|global history]], the early modern period is often used even in contexts where there is no equivalent "medieval" period.

Various events and historical transitions have been proposed as the start of the early modern period, including the [[fall of Constantinople|fall of Constantinople in 1453]], the start of the [[Renaissance]], the end of the [[Crusades]], the [[Reformation]] in [[History of Germany|Germany]] giving rise to [[Protestantism]], and the beginning of the [[Age of Discovery]] and with it the onset of the [[first wave of European colonization]]. Its end is often marked by the [[French Revolution]], and sometimes also the [[American Revolution]] or [[Napoleon]]'s [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|rise to power]],<ref>[[Christopher Bayly|Christopher Alan Bayly]], ''The birth of the modern world, 1780–1914: global connections and comparisons'' (2004). P. 123.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Vries |first1=Jan |date=14 September 2009 |title=The limits of globalization in the early modern world |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=710–733 |citeseerx=10.1.1.186.2862 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00497.x |jstor=40929823 |s2cid=219969360 |ssrn=1635517}}</ref> with the advent of the second wave modern colonization of [[New Imperialism]].

Historians in recent decades have argued that, from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its [[proto-globalization|spreading globalizing]] character.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Vries |first1=Jan |title=The limits of globalization in the early modern world |journal=The Economic History Review |date=14 September 2009 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=710–733 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00497.x |jstor=40929823 |ssrn=1635517 |citeseerx=10.1.1.186.2862 |s2cid=219969360 }}</ref> New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of [[mercantilism]] as an economic theory. Other notable trends of the period include the development of [[Science|experimental science]], increasingly rapid [[History of technology|technological progress]], [[secular]]ized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of [[nation state]]s.

== Definition ==
The early modern period is a subdivision of the most recent of the three major periods of [[History of Europe|European history]]: [[Classical civilization|antiquity]], the [[Middle Ages]] and the modern period. The term "early modern" was first proposed by medieval historian [[Lynn Thorndike]] in his 1926 work ''A Short History of Civilization'' as a broader alternative to the [[Renaissance]]. It was first picked up within the field of [[economic history]] during the 1940s and 1950s and gradually spread to other historians in the following decades and became widely known among scholars during the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wiesner-Hanks |first=Merry E. |title=What is Early Modern History? |publisher=Polity |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-509-54057-0 |location=Cambridge}}</ref>  

== Overview ==

At the onset of the early modern period, trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. [[Feudalism]] declined in Europe, and [[Christendom]] saw the end of the [[Crusades]] and of religious unity in Western Europe under the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. The old order was destabilized by the [[Protestant Reformation]], which caused a backlash that expanded the [[Inquisition]] and sparked the disastrous [[European wars of religion]], which included the especially bloody [[Thirty Years' War]] and ended with the establishment of the modern international system in the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. Along with the [[European colonization of the Americas]], this period also contained the [[Commercial Revolution]] and the [[Golden Age of Piracy]]. The globalization of the period can be seen in the medieval North Italian [[city-states]] and [[maritime republics]], particularly [[Genoa]], [[Venice]], and [[Milan]]. Russia [[Russian conquest of Siberia|reached the Pacific coast]] in 1647 and consolidated its control over the [[Russian Far East]] in the 19th century. The [[Great Divergence]] took place as Western Europe greatly surpassed China in technology and per capita wealth.<ref>Maddison, Angus (2001), ''The World Economy, Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective'', OECD Publishing, pp. 51–52.</ref>

As the [[Age of Revolution]] dawned, beginning with revolts in America and France, political changes were then pushed forward in other countries. This was partly as a result of the upheavals of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and their impact on the world of ideas and thought of the time: concepts from nationalism to organizing armies were attracting attention and debate.<ref>Crawley, C.W. (1965). [[Cambridge Modern History|The new Cambridge modern history]]. Volume 9., ''War and peace in an age of upheaval, 1793–1830''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref><ref>Goldman, E.O., & Eliason, L.C. (2003). The diffusion of military technology and ideas. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref><ref>Boot, M. (2006). ''War made new: Technology, warfare, and the course of history, 1500 to today''. New York: Gotham Books.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref> The early modern period ended in a time of economic and political change, as a result of [[mechanization]] in society, the [[American Revolution]], and the first [[French Revolution]]; other factors included the redrawing of the map of Europe by the [[s:Final Act of the Congress of Vienna|Final Act]] of the [[Congress of Vienna]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Bloy |first=Marjie |date=30 April 2002 |title=The Congress of Vienna, 1 November 1814 – 8 June 1815 |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/history/forpol/vienna.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004141242/http://www.victorianweb.org/history/forpol/vienna.html |archive-date=4 October 2018 |access-date=9 January 2009 |publisher=The Victorian Web}}</ref> and the peace established by the [[Treaty of Paris (1815)|Second Treaty of Paris]], which ended the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>Hazen, Charles Downer (1910). ''Europe since 1815''. American historical series, H. Holt and Company.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>

[[File:NanbanCarrack-Enhanced.jpg|thumb|A Japanese depiction of a Portuguese trading [[carrack]]. Advances in shipbuilding technology during the [[Late Middle Ages]] would pave the way for the global European presence characteristic of the early modern period.]]

In the Americas, [[pre-Columbian]] peoples had built a large and varied civilization, including the [[Aztec Empire]], the [[History of the Incas|Inca civilization]], the [[Maya civilization]] and its cities, and the [[Muisca]]. The European colonization of the Americas began during the early modern period, as did the establishment of European trading hubs in Asia and Africa, which contributed to the [[History of Christianity#Reformation and response (1517–1700)|spread of Christianity]] around the world. The rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe, in particular the [[Columbian Exchange]] that linked the [[Old World]] and the [[New World]], greatly altered the human environment. Notably, the [[Atlantic slave trade]] and colonization of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas]] began during this period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |url=https://archive.org/details/americancolonies00tayl |title=American Colonies |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-14-200210-0 |location=New York}}</ref> The [[Ottoman Empire]] conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ottoman Empire |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434996/Ottoman-Empire |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080426002714/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434996/Ottoman-Empire |archive-date=26 April 2008 |access-date=11 February 2013 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online }}</ref>

In the [[Islamic world]], after the fall of the [[Timurid Renaissance]], powers such as the Ottoman, [[Suri Empire|Suri]], [[Safavid]], and [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] empires grew in strength (three of which are known as [[gunpowder empires]] for the military technology that enabled them). Particularly in the [[Indian subcontinent]], [[Mughal architecture]], [[Indo-Persian culture|culture]], and [[Mughal painting|art]] reached their zenith, while the empire itself is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of [[Western Europe]] and worth 25% of global GDP.<ref name="books.google.com">[[Angus Maddison|Maddison, Angus]] (2003): ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=rHJGz3HiJbcC&pg=PA259 Development Centre Studies The World Economy Historical Statistics: Historical Statistics]'', [[OECD Publishing]], {{ISBN|9264104143}}, pp. 259–261</ref> By the mid-18th century, India was a major [[proto-industrialization|proto-industrializing]] region.<ref name="voss">{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Tirthankar |author-link=Tirthankar Roy |editor1=Lex Heerma van Voss |editor2=Els Hiemstra-Kuperus |editor3=Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk |year=2010 |chapter=The Long Globalization and Textile Producers in India |title=The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650–2000 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |page=255 |isbn=978-0-7546-6428-4 |access-date=20 June 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f95ljbhfjxIC&pg=PA255 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210055213/https://books.google.com/books?id=f95ljbhfjxIC&pg=PA255 |archive-date=10 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Various Chinese dynasties controlled the East Asian sphere. In Japan, the [[Edo period]] from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. In Korea, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the rise of the [[Joseon dynasty]] to the enthronement of [[Gojong of the Korean Empire|King Gojong]]. By the 16th century, Asian economies under the [[Ming dynasty]] and [[Mughal Bengal]] were stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch, while Japan engaged in the [[Nanban trade]] after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the [[Azuchi–Momoyama period]].

Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the [[First Toungoo Empire|Toungoo Empire]] along with [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Ayutthaya]] experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia,<ref name="vbl-151-152">{{Cite book |last=Lieberman |first=Victor B. |title=Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, {{circa}} 800–1830, volume 1, Integration on the Mainland |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-521-80496-7 |pages=150–154}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wyatt |first1=David K. |title=Thailand : A Short History |date=2003 |publisher=Silkworm Books |isbn=974957544X |edition=2nd |location=Chiang Mai |pages=109–110 |ref=none}}</ref> with the [[Nguyễn lords|Nguyen]] and [[Trịnh lords|Trinh]] lords<ref>Chapuis, Oscar. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jskyi00bspcC&q=Vietnam+from+Hong+Bang+to+Tu+Duc A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tự Đức]''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. p. 119. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811013749/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=Jskyi00bspcC&dq=Vietnam+from+Hong+Bang+to+Tu+Duc&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=Zc-6W_VeyZ&sig=mUH2SUb0jMwEoQFmX_EB6XP_5KU#PPR10,M1 |date=11 August 2016 }}</ref> de facto ruling the south and north of present-day Vietnam respectively, whereas the [[Mataram Sultanate]] was the dominant power in Maritime Southeast Asia. The early modern period experienced an influx of European traders and missionaries into the region.

== Asia and Africa ==
=== East Asia ===
In early modern times, the major nations of East Asia attempted to pursue a course of [[isolationism]] from the outside world but this policy was not always enforced uniformly or successfully. However, by the end of the early modern period, China, Korea and Japan were mostly closed and uninterested in Europeans, even while trading relationships grew in port cities such as [[Guangzhou]] and [[Dejima]].

==== Chinese dynasties ====
Around the beginning of the [[Han Chinese|ethnically Han]] [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644), China was leading the world in mathematics as well as science. However, Europe soon caught up to China's scientific and mathematical achievements and surpassed them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph |title=Mathematics and Science in China and the West |journal=Science & Society |date=1956 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=320–343 |doi=10.1177/003682375602000403 |id={{ProQuest|1296937594}} |jstor=40400462 }}</ref> Many scholars have speculated about the reason behind China's lag in advancement. A historian named Colin Ronan claims that though there is no one specific answer, there must be a connection between China's urgency for new discoveries being weaker than Europe's and China's inability to capitalize on its early advantages. Ronan believes that China's Confucian bureaucracy and traditions led to China not having a scientific revolution, which led China to have fewer scientists to break the existing orthodoxies, like Galileo Galilei.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bala |first1=A. |title=The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science |date=2006 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-60121-5 }}{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref> Despite inventing gunpowder in the 9th century, it was in Europe that the classic handheld firearms, matchlocks, were invented, with evidence of use around the 1480s. China was using the matchlocks by 1540, after the Portuguese brought their matchlocks to Japan in the early 1500s.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Andrade|author1-link=Tonio Andrade |first1=Tonio |title=The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History |date=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-7444-6 }}{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref> China during the Ming dynasty established a bureau to maintain its calendar. The bureau was necessary because the calendars were linked to celestial phenomena and that needs regular maintenance because twelve lunar months have 344 or 355 days, so occasional leap months have to be added in order to maintain 365 days per year.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elman |first1=Benjamin A. |title=On Their Own Terms |date=2005 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-01685-8|pages=65–66 }}</ref>

[[File:Cishou Temple Pagoda.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.7|[[Pagoda of Cishou Temple|Cishou Temple Pagoda]], built in 1576: the Chinese believed that building pagodas on certain sites according to [[Feng shui|geomantic principles]] brought about auspicious events; merchant-funding for such projects was needed by the late Ming period.]]

In the early Ming dynasty, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as [[Nanjing]] and [[Beijing]], also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty flourished over maritime trade with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Empires. The trade brought in a massive amount of silver, which China at the time needed desperately. Prior to China's global trade, its economy ran on paper money. However, in the 14th century, China's paper money system suffered a crisis, and by the mid-15th century, crashed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Flynn |first1=Dennis O. |last2=Giraldez |first2=Arturo |title=Arbitrage, China, and World Trade in the Early Modern Period |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |date=1995 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=429–448 |doi=10.1163/1568520952600308 |jstor=3632434 }}</ref> The silver imports helped fill the void left by the broken paper money system, which helps explain why the value of silver in China was twice as high as the value of silver in Spain during the end of the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Frank |first=Andre Gunder |title=ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1998 |hdl=2027/heb.31038.0001.001 |isbn=978-0520214743 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/reorient00andr }}</ref>

China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000ce_mingvoyages.htm#decision|title=The Ming Voyages {{!}} Asia for Educators {{!}} Columbia University|website=afe.easia.columbia.edu|access-date=21 September 2018|archive-date=6 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306203037/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000ce_mingvoyages.htm#decision|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite isolationist policies the Ming economy still suffered from an inflation due to an overabundance of [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish New World]] silver entering its economy through new European colonies such as [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115ch8.html|title=Chapter 8 The New World|website=mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu|access-date=21 September 2018|archive-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413015658/http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~gel115/115CH8.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Ming China was further strained by victorious but costly wars to protect [[Joseon|Korea]] from [[Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98)|Japanese invasion]].<ref>{{cite book |title=HarperCollins Atlas of World History |date=2003 |pages=168–169 |author=Barraclough, Geoffrey |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-681-50288-8 |oclc=56350180}}</ref> The European trade depression of the 1620s also hurt the Chinese economy, which sunk to the point where all of China's trading partners cut ties with them: [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip IV]] restricted shipments of exports from [[Acapulco]], the Japanese cut off all trade with [[Macau]], and the Dutch severed connections between [[Goa]] and Macau.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wakeman |first1=Frederic E. |title=China and the Seventeenth-Century Crisis |journal=Late Imperial China |date=1986 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1353/late.1986.0006 |s2cid=143899868 }}</ref>

[[File:Victory banquet 1788.jpg|thumb|Painting depicting the Qing Chinese celebrating a victory over the [[Kingdom of Tungning]] in [[Taiwan]]. This work was a collaboration between Chinese and European painters.]]

The damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient [[Little Ice Age]], natural calamities, crop failure and sudden epidemics. The ensuing breakdown of authority and people's livelihoods allowed rebel leaders, such as [[Li Zicheng]], to challenge Ming authority.

The Ming dynasty fell around 1644 to the [[Manchu people|ethnically Manchu]] [[Qing dynasty]], which would be the last [[dynasties in Chinese history|dynasty of China]]. The Qing ruled from 1644 to 1912, with a brief, [[Manchu Restoration|abortive restoration]] in 1917. During its reign, the Qing dynasty adopted many of the outward features of [[Chinese culture]] in establishing its rule, but did not necessarily "assimilate", instead adopting a more universalist style of governance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crossley |first1=Pamela Kyle |chapter=Conquest and the Blessing of the Past |pages=26–36 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wn4iv_RJv8oC&pg=PA29 |title=A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology |date=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-92884-8 |access-date=28 July 2020 |archive-date=12 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812213657/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wn4iv_RJv8oC&pg=PA29 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Manchus were formerly known as the [[Jurchen people|Jurchens]]. When Beijing was captured by [[Li Zicheng]]'s peasant rebels in 1644, the [[Chongzhen Emperor]], the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus then allied with former Ming general [[Wu Sangui]] and seized control of [[Beijing]], which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule of [[China proper]]. Schoppa, the editor of ''The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History'' argues, <blockquote>"A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality'. It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."<ref>{{cite book|author=R. Keith Schoppa|title=The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAhSGNGnhFMC&pg=PR15|year=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=15|isbn=978-0-231-50037-1|access-date=2019-10-15|archive-date=2020-08-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801034736/https://books.google.com/books?id=iAhSGNGnhFMC&pg=PR15|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

==== Japanese shogunates ====
The [[Sengoku period]] that began around 1467 and lasted around a century consisted of several continually "warring states".

Following contact with the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] on [[Tanegashima]] Isle in 1543, the Japanese adopted several of the technologies and cultural practices of their visitors, whether in the military area (the [[arquebus]], European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion ([[Christianity]]), decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a [[Japanese language#Vocabulary|Western vocabulary]]) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced [[tempura]] and valuable refined sugar.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Darra|last1=Goldstein|first2=Kathrin|last2=Merkle|first3=Stephen|last3=Mennell|title=Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity and Dialogue|location=Strasbourg|publisher=Council of Europe|year=2006|isbn=978-9-28715-744-7|page=350}}</ref>

[[File:Great Wave off Kanagawa2.jpg|left|thumb|''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'', {{circa}} 1830 by [[Hokusai]], an example of art flourishing in the Edo period]]

Central government was largely reestablished by [[Oda Nobunaga]] and [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] during the [[Azuchi–Momoyama period]]. Although a start date of 1573 is often given, in more broad terms, the period begins with [[Oda Nobunaga]]'s entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install [[Ashikaga Yoshiaki]] as the 15th, and ultimately final, shōgun of the [[Ashikaga shogunate]], and it lasts until the coming to power of [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the [[Battle of Sekigahara]] in 1600.<ref>''Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan'' (First edition, 1983), section "Azuchi-Momoyama History (1568–1600)" by George Elison, in the entry for "history of Japan".{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref> Tokugawa received the title of ''[[shōgun]]'' in 1603, establishing the [[Tokugawa shogunate]].

The [[Edo period]] from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was a [[feudal]]ist regime of Japan established by [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] and ruled by the ''[[shōgun]]s'' of the [[Tokugawa clan]]. The period gets its name from the capital city, [[Edo]], now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from [[Edo Castle]] from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the [[Meiji Restoration]] in the late [[Edo period]] (often called the [[Late Tokugawa shogunate]]).<ref>{{cite book|first=Kenneth|last=Henshall|title=Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham|year=2014|isbn=978-0-81087-872-3|page=91|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tmYYAgAAQBAJ}}</ref>

Society in the Japanese "[[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa period]]" ([[Edo society]]), unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class [[hierarchy]] originally established by [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]]. The ''[[daimyō]]s'' (feudal lords) were at the top, followed by the [[warrior]]-caste of [[samurai]], with the [[farmer]]s, [[artisans]], and [[merchant|traders]] ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the ''[[Sakoku]]'' policy.<ref name="HCAotW">{{cite book|title=HarperCollins atlas of world history|date=2003|page=175|author=Barraclough, Geoffrey |publisher=Borders Press in association with HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-681-50288-8|oclc=56350180}}</ref> Literacy among the Japanese people rose in the two centuries of isolation.<ref name="HCAotW" />

In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, ''daimyōs'' and samurai were more or less identical, since ''daimyōs'' might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this [[social stratification]] system unleashed disruptive forces over time. [[Taxes]] on the [[peasantry]] were set at fixed amounts which did not account for [[inflation]] or other changes in [[monetary]] value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.<ref>{{cite book|first=George Bailey|last=Sansom|title=Japan: A Short Cultural History|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford|year=1998|isbn=978-0-80470-954-5|page=364}}</ref>

==== Korean dynasty ====
In 1392, General [[Taejo of Joseon|Yi Seong-gye]] established the [[Joseon]] dynasty (1392–1910) with a largely bloodless coup. Yi Seong-gye moved the capital of Korea to the location of modern-day Seoul.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Lawrence |date=21 March 2014 |title=Honoring the Joseon Dynasty |work=The Wall Street Journal Asia |page=8 |id={{ProQuest|1508838378}} }}</ref> The dynasty was heavily influenced by Confucianism, which also played a large role to shaping Korea's strong cultural identity.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tae-gyu |first1=Kim |date=15 April 2012 |title=Joseon: Korea's Confucian kingdom |work=The Korea Times |id={{ProQuest|1990220190}} }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news |last1=Tae-gyu |first1=Kim |date=29 May 2012 |title=Joseon: Korea's Confucian kingdom |work=The Korea Times |id={{ProQuest|1990192832}} }}</ref> [[Sejong the Great of Joseon|King Sejong the Great]] (1418–1450), one of the only two kings in Korea's history to earn the title of great in their posthumous titles, reclaimed Korean territory to the north and created the [[Hangul|Korean alphabet]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Iksop|last1=Lee|author-link1=Iksop Lee|first2=S. Robert|last2=Ramsey|title=The Korean Language|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|year=2001|isbn=978-0-79149-130-0|page=13}}</ref>

During the end of the 16th century, Korea was invaded twice by Japan, first in 1592 and again in 1597. Japan failed both times due to Admiral [[Yi Sun-sin]], Korea's revered naval genius, who led the Korean Navy using advanced metal clad ships called [[turtle ship]]s. Because the ships were armed with cannons, Admiral Yi's navy was able to demolish the Japanese invading fleets, destroying hundreds of ships in Japan's second invasion.<ref name=":1" /> During the 17th century, Korea was invaded again, this time by Manchurians, who would later take over China as the Qing dynasty. In 1637, King [[Injo of Joseon|Injo]] was forced to surrender to the Qing forces, and was ordered to send princesses as concubines to the Qing Prince [[Dorgon]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nXLwSG2O8AC&pg=PA892|title=The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-century China|last=Wakeman|first=Frederic E.|date=1985|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520048041|language=en|access-date=27 July 2018|archive-date=29 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429100458/https://books.google.com/books?id=8nXLwSG2O8AC&pg=PA892|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== South Asia ===

====Indian empires====
[[File:Islamic Gunpowder Empires.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of the [[Gunpowder Empires]], with the [[Mughal Empire]] in orange]]

[[File:Shah Abbas the Great receiving the Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] ambassador Khan'Alam in 1618 negotiating with [[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas the Great]] of [[Safavid dynasty|Iran]]]]

The rise of the [[Mughal Empire]] is usually dated from 1526, around the end of the Middle Ages. It was an [[Islamic state|Islamic]] [[Persianate]]<ref>{{cite book|last=L. Canfield|first=Robert|author2=Jonathan Haas|title=Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-521-52291-5|page=20}}</ref> imperial power that ruled most of the area as [[Hindustan]] by the late 17th and the early 18th centuries.<ref name="sscnet.ucla.edu">{{cite web|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html|title=Manas: History and Politics, Mughals|access-date=8 July 2009|archive-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621203057/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The empire dominated [[South Asia]],<ref name="sscnet.ucla.edu" />
becoming the largest global economy and manufacturing power,<ref name="Parthasarathi38">{{cite book |title=Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850 |given=Prasannan |surname=Parthasarathi |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-139-49889-0 |pages=39–45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_YEcvo-jqcC&pg=PA38 |access-date=15 October 2019 |archive-date=21 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121101302/https://books.google.com/books?id=1_YEcvo-jqcC&pg=PA38 |url-status=live }}</ref> with a nominal GDP valued at a quarter of the global economy, superior than the combined GDP of Europe.<ref name="books.google.com" /><ref name="harrison">{{cite book|title=Developing cultures: case studies|author=[[Lawrence Harrison (academic)|Lawrence E. Harrison]], [[Peter L. Berger]]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2006|page=158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RB0oAQAAIAAJ|isbn=978-0415952798|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=12 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612234406/https://books.google.com/books?id=RB0oAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The empire, prior to the death of the last prominent emperor [[Aurangzeb]],<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|title=Mughal Empire (1500s, 1600s)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml|work=bbc.co.uk|publisher=BBC|access-date=18 October 2010|location=London|at=Section 5: Aurangzeb|archive-date=10 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101110065723/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting its different [[subah|provinces]]. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterized by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The [[Maratha Confederacy]], founded in the southwest of present-day India, surpassed the Mughals as the dominant power in India from 1740 and rapidly expanded until the [[Third Battle of Panipat]] halted their expansion in 1761.<ref>{{cite book|first=Susan S.|last=Wadley|title=South Asia in the World: An Introduction|location=London|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=978-1-31745-959-0|page=34}}</ref>

==== British and Dutch colonization ====
The development of [[New Imperialism]] saw the conquest of nearly all eastern hemisphere territories by colonial powers. The [[Company rule in India|commercial colonization of India]] commenced in 1757, after the [[Battle of Plassey]], when the [[Nawab of Bengal]] surrendered his dominions to the British East India Company,<ref>{{Harvnb|Bose|Jalal|2003|p=76}}</ref>{{Citation not found|date=December 2022}} in 1765, when the company was granted the ''diwani'', or the right to collect revenue, in [[Bengal]] and [[Bihar]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Judith Margaret|title=Modern India: the origins of an Asian democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eq7tAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-873112-2|page=46|access-date=28 January 2021|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815113830/https://books.google.com/books?id=Eq7tAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Peers|first=Douglas M.|title=India under colonial rule: 1700–1885|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iNuAAAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Pearson Education|isbn=978-0-582-31738-3|page=30|access-date=28 January 2021|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815000750/https://books.google.com/books?id=6iNuAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> or in 1772, when the company established a capital in [[Calcutta]], appointed its first [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General]], [[Warren Hastings]], and became directly involved in governance.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Metcalf|first1=Barbara Daly|author-link1=Barbara D. Metcalf|last2=Metcalf|first2=Thomas R.|author-link2=Thomas R. Metcalf|title=A concise history of modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuESgYNYPl0C|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86362-9|page=56|access-date=28 January 2021|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225220847/https://books.google.com/books?id=iuESgYNYPl0C|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757 by Francis Hayman.jpg|thumb|left|[[Robert Clive]] and [[Mir Jafar]] after the [[Battle of Plassey]], 1757, by Francis Hayman]]

The Maratha Confederacy, following the [[Anglo-Maratha Wars (disambiguation)|Anglo-Maratha wars]], eventually lost to the [[British East India Company]] in 1818 with the [[Third Anglo-Maratha War]]. Rule by the Company lasted until 1858, when, after the [[Indian rebellion of 1857]] and following the [[Government of India Act 1858]], the [[India Office|British government]] assumed the task of directly administering India in the new [[British Raj]].<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/393/ |title = Official, India |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 1890–1923 |access-date = 30 May 2013 |archive-date = 19 December 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191219213715/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/393/ |url-status = live }}</ref> In 1819, [[Stamford Raffles]] established [[Singapore]] as a key trading post for Britain in its rivalry with the Dutch. However, the rivalry cooled in 1824 when an [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824|Anglo-Dutch treaty]] demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear.

=== Southeast Asia ===
At the start of the modern era, the [[Spice Route]] between India and China crossed [[Majapahit]], an archipelagic empire based on the island of [[Java (island)|Java]]. It was the last of the major [[Hindu]] empires of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]] and is considered one of the greatest states in Indonesian history.<ref name="Ricklefs_19">M.C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia Since {{circa}} 1300, 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. page 19</ref> Its influence extended to [[Sumatra]], the [[Malay Peninsula]], [[Borneo]], and eastern Indonesia, though the effectiveness of this influence remains debated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pigeaud |first1=Theodore G. Th. |title=Java in the 14th Century |chapter=Alphabetical Index of Subjects Treated in Volumes II–V |pages=29–46 |doi=10.1007/978-94-011-8778-7_3 |date=1963 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-94-011-8778-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Resink |first1=Gertrudes Johan |title=Indonesia's History Between the Myths: Essays in Legal History and Historical Theory |date=1968 |publisher=Van Hoeve |isbn=978-90-200-7468-0 |page=21 }}</ref> Majapahit struggled to control the rising [[Sultanate of Malacca]], which dominated Muslim Malay settlements in Phuket, Satun, Pattani, and Sumatra. The Portuguese invaded Malacca's capital in 1511, and by 1528, the [[Sultanate of Johor]] was established by a Malaccan prince to succeed Malacca.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reid |first=Anthony |title=Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680: Volume Two, Expansion and Crisis |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1993 |isbn=}}</ref> While in Borneo, Brunei began their golden age during the reign of Sultan [[Bolkiah]] when he defeated the [[Tondo (historical polity)|Kingdom of Tondo]] in the [[Tondo War]] however but was paused when it fought the Spanish in the [[Castilian War]] in 1578. It was later restarted again with the reign of Sultan [[Muhammad Hasan of Brunei|Muhammad Hassan]], later in 1660, [[Bruneian Civil War of 1660|Brunei's first civil war]] started and in the aftermath of said war it paused Brunei's golden age once again until the reign of [[Omar Ali Saifuddin I|Omar Ali Saifuddien I]] defeating the [[Sultanate of Sulu|Sulu]] in the [[Twenty Years' War]].

=== West Asia and North Africa ===
{{Main|Timeline of 16th-century Muslim history|Timeline of 17th-century Muslim history|Timeline of 18th-century Muslim history}}

==== Ottoman Empire ====
{{main|Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire|Transformation of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman ancien régime}}
[[File:Ottoman empire.svg|thumb|Ottoman Empire 1481–1683]]

During the early modern era, the [[Ottoman Empire]] enjoyed an [[growth of the Ottoman Empire|expansion and consolidation]] of power, leading to a ''[[Pax Ottomana]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Holy Land, 1517–1713|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bS4yAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |year=2012 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-23624-0 |page=4 |quote=From [[Selim I|Selim]]'s conquest until the early eighteenth century, which marked the beginning of British and French domination of the Mediterranean Sea routes, the region witnessed what Rhoads Murphey [an Ottoman Studies professor] has described as the ''pax Ottomanica''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Király, Béla K.|title=Tolerance and movements of religious dissent in Eastern Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tsoAAAAYAAJ|year=1975|publisher=East European Quarterly|isbn=978-0-914710-06-6|chapter=The Ottoman aspects of ''Pax Ottomanica''}}</ref>  This was perhaps the golden age of the empire. The Ottomans expanded southwest into North Africa while battling with the re-emergent [[Persia]]n Shi'a [[Safavid Empire]] to the east.

==== North Africa ====
In the Ottoman sphere, the Turks seized Egypt in 1517 and established the regencies of [[Ottoman Algeria|Algeria]], [[Ottoman Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[Ottoman Tripolitania|Tripolitania]] (between 1519 and 1551), [[Morocco]] remaining an independent [[Arabized Berber]] state under the [[Saadi Sultanate|Sharifan dynasty]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Muzaffar Husain Syed |author2=Syed Saud Akhtar |author3=B D Usmani |title=Concise History of Islam|date=2011|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|isbn=978-93-82573-47-0|page=150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eACqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|access-date=22 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=9 May 2014 |script-title=ar:دراسة في مضمون النقوش الكتابية علي عمائر الأشراف السعديين بالمغرب الأقصي(915-1069هــ/1510-1658م) |trans-title=A Study on the Content of the Inscriptions on the Buildings of the Sharifian Saadi Dynasty of Morocco (During the Period between AH 915–1069/151069/1510–1658 CE) |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/abga/9/1/article-p150_15.xml |journal=Abgadiyat |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=150–194 |doi=10.1163/22138609-90000027 |issn=2213-8609 |last=Abu Rehab |first=Mohammad |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==== Safavid Iran ====
{{Main|Safavid Iran}}
The [[Safavid Empire]] was a great Shia [[Persianate society|Persianate empire]] after the Islamic conquest of Persia and the establishment of Islam, marking an important point in the history of Islam in the east.<ref>Stanford Jay Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. 1977, p. 77.</ref><ref>Andrew J. Newman, ''Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire'', IB Tauris (30 March 2006).</ref> The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501. From their base in [[Ardabil]], the Safavids established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming the first native dynasty since the [[Sassanids]] to establish a unified Iranian state. Problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, fought several [[Ottoman–Persian Wars|campaigns against the Safavids]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kia|first1=Mehrdad|title=The Ottoman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia|date=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=131|isbn=978-1610693899|quote="In October 1638 Ottoman forces returned to Mesopotamia, stormed Baghdad, and captured the city in December despite sustaining heavy casualties. These included the grand vizier, who "was killed leading the assault" (Sykes: 2:211). The Safavids were forced to sue for peace. On May 17, 1639 the Ottoman Empire and Iran signed a treaty (...)"}}</ref>

What fueled the growth of Safavid economy was its position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north. The [[Silk Road]], which led from Europe to East Asia, revived in the 16th century. Leaders also supported direct sea trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Persian carpet, silk, and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls, and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a spice in India. The main imports were spice, textiles (woolens from Europe, cotton from Gujarat), metals, coffee, and sugar. Despite their demise in 1722, the Safavids left their mark by establishing and spreading Shi'a Islam in major parts of the Caucasus and West Asia.<ref>{{cite book|title=Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes|author=Paul Bairoch|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1995|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/193124153/Economics-and-World-History-Myths-and-Paradoxes-Paul-Bairoch|page=107|author-link=Paul Bairoch|access-date=3 January 2020|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012060209/https://www.scribd.com/document/193124153/Economics-and-World-History-Myths-and-Paradoxes-Paul-Bairoch|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Uzbeks and Afghan Pashtuns ====
{{Main|Uzbeks|Pashtun people}}
In the 16th to early 18th centuries, [[Central Asia]] was under the rule of [[Uzbeks]], and the far eastern portions were ruled by the local [[Pashtun people|Pashtuns]]. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes, including the [[Kipchaks]], [[Naimans]], [[Kangly]], [[Khongirad]], and [[Manghud]]s. These groups were led by [[Muhammad Shaybani]], who was the [[Khan (title)|Khan]] of the Uzbeks.

The lineage of the [[Afghan (name)|Afghan]] Pashtuns stretches back to the [[Hotaki]] dynasty.<ref name="US State Dept">[http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/bgnotes/sa/afghanistan9407.html Afghanistan: History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113054241/http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/bgnotes/sa/afghanistan9407.html |date=13 November 2017 }}, ''U.S. Department of State'' (retrieved 10 October 2006).</ref> Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests, Pashtun ''[[Ghazw|ghazis]]'' (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the [[Lodhi dynasty]] and [[Suri dynasty]]. Pashtun forces also invaded Persia, and the opposing forces were defeated in the [[Battle of Gulnabad]]. The Pashtuns later formed the [[Durrani Empire]].

=== Sub-Saharan Africa ===
{{further|Dahomey|Aro Confederacy|Asante Empire|History of South Africa (1652–1815)|Atlantic slave trade}}
The [[Songhai Empire]] took control of the [[trans-Saharan trade]] at the beginning of the modern era. It seized [[Timbuktu]] in 1468 and [[Djenné|Jenne]] in 1473, building the regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. The empire eventually made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars to [[Gao]].<ref name="multiple">Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge 1988</ref>

== Europe ==
{{Main|Early Modern Europe}}Many major events caused [[Europe]] to change around the start of the 16th century, starting with the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, the fall of [[Muslim Spain]] and the discovery of the [[Americas]] in 1492, and [[Martin Luther]]'s [[Protestant Reformation]] in 1517. In [[England]] the modern period is often dated to the start of the [[Tudor period]] with the victory of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] over [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] at the [[Battle of Bosworth]] in 1485.<ref>Helen Miller, Aubrey Newman. ''Early modern British history, 1485–1760: a select bibliography'', [[Historical Association]], 1970</ref><ref>[http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/texts_by_period.shtml#emp ''Early Modern Period (1485–1800)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306004416/http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/texts_by_period.shtml#emp |date=6 March 2012 }}, Sites Organized by Period, [[Rutgers University]] Libraries</ref> Early modern European history is usually seen to span from the start of the 15th century, through the [[Age of Enlightenment]] in the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century.

The early modern period is taken to end with the [[French Revolution]], the [[Napoleonic Wars]], and the [[Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire]] at the [[Congress of Vienna]]. At the end of the early modern period, the [[Second British Empire|British]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian]] empires had emerged as world powers from the multipolar contest of [[colonial empires]], while the three great [[Asia]]n empires of the early modern period, [[stagnation of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turkey]], [[Mughal Empire#Decline|Mughal India]] and [[Qing China#Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors|Qing China]], all entered a period of stagnation or decline.

=== Gunpowder and firearms ===
{{Further|Military Revolution}}
When gunpowder was introduced to Europe, it was immediately used almost exclusively in weapons and explosives for warfare. Though it was invented in China, gunpowder arrived in Europe already formulated for military use; European countries took advantage of this and were the first to create the classic firearms.<ref name=":0" /> The advances made in gunpowder and firearms was directly tied to the decline in the use of plate armor because of the inability of the armor to protect one from bullets. The musket was able to penetrate all forms of armor available at the time, making armor obsolete, and as a consequence the heavy musket as well. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between [[arquebus]] and musket except in size and strength, it was the term ''musket'' which remained in use up into the 1800s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chase |first=Kenneth |year=2003 |title=Firearms: A Global History to 1700 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-82274-9|page=61}}</ref>

=== European kingdoms and movements ===
In the early modern period, the [[Holy Roman Empire]] was a union of territories in Central Europe under a [[Holy Roman Emperor]] the first of which was [[Otto I]]. The last was [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II]], who [[abdication|abdicated]] and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Despite its name, for much of its history the Empire did not include Rome within its borders.

The [[Renaissance]] was a cultural movement that began in the 14th century,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=renaissance&searchmode=none|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=8 July 2009|archive-date=29 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629033330/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=renaissance&searchmode=none|url-status=live}}</ref> beginning in Italy in the [[Late Middle Ages]] and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a rebellion of learning based on [[Classical antiquity|classical]] sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

==== Notable individuals ====
[[File:Press -Bettman.jpg|thumb|[[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]] reviewing a press proof (a colored engraving created probably in the 19th century)]]

[[Johannes Gutenberg]] is credited as the first European to use [[movable type]] [[printing]], around 1439, and as the global inventor of the mechanical [[printing press]]. [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] formulated a comprehensive [[heliocentrism|heliocentric]] [[cosmology]] (1543), which displaced the [[Earth]] from the center of the universe.<ref>A Greek mathematician, [[Aristarchus of Samos]], had already discussed heliocentric hypotheses as early as the third century BCE. However, there is little evidence that he ever developed his ideas beyond a very basic outline [[#Reference-Dreyer-1953|(Dreyer, 1953]], [https://archive.org/stream/historyofplaneta00dreyuoft#page/134/mode/2up pp. 135–148]; [[#Reference-Linton-2004|Linton, 2004, p. 39)]].</ref> His book, ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (''On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres'') began modern [[astronomy]] and sparked the [[Scientific Revolution]]. Another notable individual was [[Machiavelli]], an Italian political philosopher, considered a founder of modern [[political science]]. Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, [[The Prince]], a work of [[Political realism|realist]] [[political theory]]. The Swiss [[Paracelsus]] (1493–1541) is associated with a medical revolution<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wexler |first1=Philip |title=Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance |year= 2017 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-12-809559-1 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttB1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072345/https://books.google.com/books?id=ttB1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |url-status=live }}</ref> while the Anglo-Irish [[Robert Boyle]] was one of the founders of modern chemistry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levere |first1=Trevor H. |title=Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball |year=2001 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6610-4 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tnos3wua2cIC&pg=PA14 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072357/https://books.google.com/books?id=tnos3wua2cIC&pg=PA14 |url-status=live }}</ref> In visual arts, notable representatives included the "three giants of the High Renaissance", namely [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Raphael]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corrain |first1=Lucia |title=The Art of the Renaissance |date=2008 |publisher=The Oliver Press, Inc. |isbn=978-1-934545-04-1 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Pupv8gNWvIC&pg=PA28 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072353/https://books.google.com/books?id=6Pupv8gNWvIC&pg=PA28 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Albrecht Dürer]] (often considered the greatest artist of Northern Renaissance),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strickland |first1=Carol |last2=Boswell |first2=John |title=The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern |year= 2007 |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |isbn=978-0-7407-6872-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n39T-zRGI90C&pg=PA42 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072356/https://books.google.com/books?id=n39T-zRGI90C&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Titian]] from the [[Venetian painting|Venetian school]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Celinscak |first1=Mark |last2=Hutt |first2=Curtis |title=Artistic Representations of Suffering: Rights, Resistance, and Remembrance |year= 2021 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-5292-8 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQZAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072354/https://books.google.com/books?id=OQZAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Peter Paul Rubens]] of the Flemish Baroque traditions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carl |first1=Klaus H. |last2=Manca |first2=Joseph |last3=McShane |first3=Megan |title=30 Millennia of Painting |year= 2016 |publisher=Parkstone International |isbn=978-1-68325-359-4 |page=412 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlFBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA412 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215080417/https://books.google.com/books?id=qlFBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA412 |url-status=live }}</ref> Famous composers included [[Guillaume Du Fay]], [[Heinrich Isaac]], [[Josquin des Prez]], [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina]], [[Claudio Monteverdi]], [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sporre |first1=Dennis J. |title=The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts |date=1990 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |isbn=978-0-13-189754-0 |page=283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2T7KARr7XgC |access-date=16 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216194238/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2T7KARr7XgC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Barrie |title=The Hutchinson Concise Dictionary of Music |year= 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95018-7 |page=478 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoa3AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA438 |access-date=16 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216194238/https://books.google.com/books?id=zoa3AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA438 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Among the notable royalty of the time was [[Charles the Bold]] (1433–1477), the last [[House of Valois|Valois]] [[Duke of Burgundy]], known as ''Charles the Bold (or Rash)'' to his enemies,<ref>The title was derived from his savage behavior against his enemies, and particularly from a war with France in late 1471: frustrated by the refusal of the French to engage in open battle, and angered by French attacks on his unprotected borders in Hainault and Flanders, Charles marched his army back from the Ile-de-France to Burgundian territory, burning over two thousand towns, villages and castles on his way—Taylor, Aline S. ''Isabel of Burgundy''. Lanham, Md: Madison Books, c2001, pp. 212–213</ref> His early death was a pivotal moment in European history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wingfield |first1=George |title=Belgium |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0486-7 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AR1TpY1wcCMC&pg=PA31 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215075041/https://books.google.com/books?id=AR1TpY1wcCMC&pg=PA31 |url-status=live }}</ref> Charles has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mead |first1=Walter Russell |title=God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World |year=2014 |publisher=Atlantic Books |isbn=978-1-78239-600-0 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn7oAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072400/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn7oAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT90 |url-status=live }}</ref> although in administrative affairs, he introduced remarkable modernizing innovations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartellieri |first1=Otto |title=The Court of Burgundy |year= 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-20406-7 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQxUAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072353/https://books.google.com/books?id=vQxUAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vaughan |first1=Richard |last2=Paravicini |first2=Werner |title=Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy |date=2002 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-0-85115-918-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsKuCHXRuPMC&pg=PA97 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072359/https://books.google.com/books?id=GsKuCHXRuPMC&pg=PA97 |url-status=live }}</ref> Upon his death, Charles left an unmarried nineteen-year-old daughter, [[Mary of Burgundy]], as his heir. Her marriage would have enormous implications for the political balance of Europe. [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor]] secured the match for his son, the future [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]], with the aid of Mary's stepmother, Margaret. In 1477, the territory of the [[Duchy of Burgundy]] was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, [[Archduke of Austria]]. A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from the Empire<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berenger |first1=Jean |last2=Simpson |first2=C. A. |title=A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273–1700 |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-89570-1 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWQSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=1 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301025504/https://books.google.com/books?id=rWQSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |url-status=live }}</ref>) and France ensued, culminating in the [[Treaty of Senlis]] (1493) which gave the majority of Burgundian inheritance to the Habsburg (Mary already died in 1482).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=Steven |last2=Grummitt |first2=David |last3=Cools |first3=Hans |title=War, State, and Society in England and the Netherlands 1477–1559 |year= 2007 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-152588-9 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQtREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072359/https://books.google.com/books?id=KQtREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |url-status=live }}</ref> The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance.{{sfn|Johnson|2013|p=78}}

In Central Europe, King [[Matthias Corvinus]] (1443–1490), a notable nation builder, conqueror (Hungary in his time was the most powerful in Central Europe<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |last2=Watson |first2=Noelle |last3=Schellinger |first3=Paul |title=Northern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-63944-9 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072356/https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |url-status=live }}</ref>) and patron, was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vagnoni |first1=Mirko |title=Royal Divine Coronation Iconography in the Medieval Euro-Mediterranean Area |year= 2020 |publisher=MDPI |isbn=978-3-03943-751-1 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J-oOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072357/https://books.google.com/books?id=J-oOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Paul |title=The Renaissance |year= 2013 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-716-0 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUmqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT78 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072349/https://books.google.com/books?id=wUmqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT78 |url-status=live }}</ref> In military area, he introduced the [[Black Army of Hungary|Black Army]], one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morrison |first1=Elspeth |title=The Dorothy Dunnett Companion: Volume II |year= 2007 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42844-8 |page=245 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qLW7atYX8sC&pg=PA245 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072354/https://books.google.com/books?id=9qLW7atYX8sC&pg=PA245 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bulliet |first1=Richard W. |title=The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions |year= 2016 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-54061-2 |page=159 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x341CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072352/https://books.google.com/books?id=x341CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some noblemen from the generation that lived during this period have been attributed the moniker "the last knight", with the most notable being the above-mentioned Maximilian I (1459–1519),<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Terjanian |editor-first1=Pierre |title=The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I |year= 2019 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-674-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-anDwAAQBAJ |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072358/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-anDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard|Chevalier de Bayard]] (1476–1524),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gal |first1=Stéphane |last2=Bayard |first2=Amis de |title=Bayard: histoires croisées du chevalier |date=2007 |publisher=Presses universitaires de Grenoble |isbn=978-2-7061-1420-5 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mtlnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=fr |archive-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201092719/https://books.google.com/books?id=MTlnAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Franz von Sickingen]] (1481–1523)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kreis Kaiserslautern, Historischer Verein der Pfalz |title=Jahrbuch zur Geschichte von Stadt und Landkreis Kaiserslautern |date=1984 |publisher=Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kreis Kaiserslautern, Historischer Verein der Pfalz |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDdFAAAAMAAJ |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=de |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072350/https://books.google.com/books?id=LDdFAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Götz von Berlichingen]] (1480–1562).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durian-Ress |first1=Saskia |title=Badische Burgen aus romantischer Sicht: Auswahl aus den Beständen des Augustinermuseums |date=1993 |publisher=Rombach |isbn=978-3-7930-0678-7 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S15IAQAAIAAJ |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=de |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072346/https://books.google.com/books?id=S15IAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being the last medieval epic poet<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Michaud |first1=Claude |title=Hispania- Austria. Die Katholischen Könige, Maximilian I. und die Anfänge der Casa de Austria in Spanien/Los Reyes Catolicos, Maximiliano I. y los inicios de la Casa de Austria en España |journal=Revue d'Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine |date=1996 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=371–373 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhmc_0048-8003_1996_num_43_2_1824_t1_0371_0000_1 |access-date=16 February 2022 |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216194238/https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhmc_0048-8003_1996_num_43_2_1824_t1_0371_0000_1 |url-status=live }}</ref>) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brunner |first1=Jean-Claude |title=Historical Introduction |journal=Medieval Warfare |date=2012 |volume=2|issue=3, "The revival of infantry tactics in the Late Middle Ages (2012)" |pages=6–9 |jstor=48578016 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578016 |access-date=15 February 2022 |archive-date=24 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924090025/https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Kersken/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Axelrod |first1=Alan |title=Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies |date=2013 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-1483364674 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lX9ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124 |access-date=20 September 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926204224/https://books.google.com/books?id=lX9ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124 |url-status=live }}</ref> and communications,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Metzig |first1=Gregor |title=Kommunikation und Konfrontation: Diplomatie und Gesandtschaftswesen Kaiser Maximilians I. (1486–1519) |year=2016 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-045673-8 |pages=98, 99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiyXDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |access-date=15 February 2022 |language=de |archive-date=28 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228153214/https://books.google.com/books?id=MiyXDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor#Legacy|among others]]), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons)<ref name=Kersken>{{cite episode |last= Kersken|first=Uwe |year=2014 |title=Die letzten ihrer Art |series=Die Welt der Ritter |network=Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen(zdf)}}</ref> and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Turnbull |first1=Stephen |title=The Art of Renaissance Warfare: From The Fall of Constantinople to the Thirty Years War |year= 2018 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=978-1-5267-1377-3 |page=175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adhgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP175 |access-date=27 January 2022 |language=en |archive-date=27 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127080044/https://books.google.com/books?id=adhgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP175 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ninness |first1=Richard J. |title=German Imperial Knights: Noble Misfits between Princely Authority and the Crown, 1479–1648 |year= 2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-28504-8 |pages=65, 91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4wEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT91 |access-date= |language=en |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215072352/https://books.google.com/books?id=T4wEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT91 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Kersken/>

=== Christians and Christendom ===
{{Main|History of Christianity|Christendom}}
[[File:Johann Sebastian Bach - Mass in B minor - Agnus Dei.ogg|thumb|Johann Sebastian Bach – Mass in B minor – Agnus Dei, From 1724]]

Christianity was challenged at the beginning of the modern period with the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453 and later by various movements to reform the church (including Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist), followed by the [[Counter Reformation]].

==== End of the Crusades and Unity ====
The [[Hussite Crusades]] (1419–1434) involved military actions against the followers of [[Jan Hus]] in [[Bohemia]], concluding with the [[Battle of Grotniki]]. These wars were notable for being among the first European conflicts where hand-held gunpowder weapons, like [[muskets]], played a decisive role. The Taborite faction of Hussite warriors, primarily infantry, decisively defeated larger armies with heavily armored knights, contributing to the infantry revolution. However, the Hussite Crusades were ultimately inconclusive.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Hussite Revolution, 1419–1436|author=Howard Kaminsky|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2004|isbn=9780226424903}}</ref>

[[File:Anonym Entsatz Wien 1683.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Vienna]], 12 September 1683]]

The final crusade, the Crusade of 1456, was organized to counter the advancing [[Ottoman Empire]] and lift the [[Siege of Belgrade (1456)]], led by [[John Hunyadi]] and [[Giovanni da Capistrano]]. The siege culminated in a counterattack that forced Sultan Mehmet II to retreat, with the victory being credited with deciding the fate of [[Christendom]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/bluedot/belgrade.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413030956/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/bluedot/belgrade.html|title=Pope Calixtus III on the victory at Belgrade|archivedate=13 April 2009}}</ref> The noon bell, ordered by Pope Callixtus III, commemorates this victory across the Christian world to this day.

Nearly a century later, the [[Peace of Augsburg]] (1555) ended the concept of a united Christian church. The principle of ''[[cuius regio, eius religio]]'' allowed rulers to determine their state's religion. This framework was solidified by the [[Treaty of Westphalia]] (1648), which ended the [[European Wars of Religion]] and the notion of a singular Christian hegemony. The treaty also marked the birth of the modern concept of national sovereignty.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Peter H. Wilson |title=The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy |publisher=Belknap Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780674062313}}</ref>

==== Inquisitions and Reformations ====
{{Main|Reformation|Counter-Reformation|Inquisition|Spanish Inquisition}}

The [[Inquisition]] in the modern era refers to several institutions within the Catholic Church tasked with prosecuting [[heretics]] and others who violated [[canon law]]. The first significant manifestation was the [[Spanish Inquisition]] (1478–1834).<ref name="fordhaminquisition">{{Cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html |title=Medieval Sourcebook: Inquisition – Introduction |access-date=8 July 2009 |archive-date=14 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814182705/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Inquisition prosecuted crimes such as [[Magic (supernatural)|sorcery]], [[blasphemy]], [[Judaizing]], [[witchcraft]], and [[censorship]] of printed literature. Its jurisdiction was limited to baptized Catholics, while non-Christians were typically tried by secular courts.<ref name="fordhaminquisition" />

[[File:Ferdinand Pauwels - Luther hammers his 95 theses to the door.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|left|[[Martin Luther]] hammers his [[Ninety-five Theses|95 theses]] to the door, by [[Ferdinand Pauwels]]]]

The [[Reformation]] and rise of [[modernity]] in the early 16th century brought changes to [[Christendom]]. The Augustinian friar [[Martin Luther]] in [[History of Germany|Germany]] challenged the Church with his [[Ninety-five Theses]], marking the start of the Reformation. Luther's movement, supported by the [[Electorate of Saxony]], developed at the [[University of Wittenberg]], where he became a professor.<ref name="Simon-120-121">{{cite book |first=Edith |last=Simon |title=Great Ages of Man: The Reformation |pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingprogressth0000unse/page/120 120–121] |publisher=Time-Life Books |year=1966 |isbn=978-0-662-27820-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/makingprogressth0000unse/page/120 }}</ref>

Luther's 95 Theses criticized practices like the sale of [[indulgences]] and sparked debates, leading to the rise of rival [[Protestant denominations]], such as [[Lutheranism]] and the [[Reformed tradition]]. In England, the movement became known as the [[English Reformation]], resulting in the formation of [[Anglicanism]].<ref name="fordhaminquisition" />

The [[Diet of Worms]] (1521) declared Luther a heretic, but Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] was preoccupied with external threats and allowed German princes to decide whether to enforce the [[Edict of Worms]]. The religious conflict escalated, leading to the formation of the [[Schmalkaldic League]] to defend Protestant interests. This culminated in the [[Peace of Augsburg]] (1555), which established the principle of [[cuius regio, eius religio]]—allowing rulers to determine the religion of their territories.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|title=Europe: A History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0198201717}}</ref>

Two main Inquisitions remained active in the modern era:

*The [[Portuguese Inquisition]] (1536–1821), similar to the Spanish Inquisition.<ref>Hansen, Joseph. Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.</ref>
*The [[Roman Inquisition]] (1542–circa 1860), covering most of the Italian peninsula and certain other areas.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Roman Inquisition: A Papal Bureaucracy and Its Laws in the Age of Galileo|first=Thomas|last=Mayer|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2013|isbn=}}</ref>
The [[Counter-Reformation]] began in 1545 with the [[Council of Trent]] in response to the Protestant Reformation. Its goal was to reform internal Church practices while reaffirming the Church's authority as the true [[Church of Christ]].<ref>Olin, John C. The Catholic Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola. Fordham University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0823212750.</ref>

==== Tsardom of Russia ====
{{Main|Tsardom of Russia}}

In development of the [[Third Rome]] ideas, the Grand Duke [[Ivan IV]] (the "Awesome"<ref>Frank D. McConnell. [https://books.google.com/books?id=rqhZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22ivan+the+awesome%22 Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521233257/https://books.google.com/books?id=rqhZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22ivan+the+awesome%22 |date=21 May 2020 }} [[Oxford University Press]], 1979.  {{ISBN|0-19-502572-5}}; Quote from p. 78: "But Ivan IV, Ivan the Terrible, or as the Russian has it, ''Ivan Groznyi'', "Ivan the Magnificent" or "Ivan the Awesome", is precisely a man who has become a legend"</ref> or "the Terrible") was officially crowned the first [[Tsar]] ("[[Caesar (title)|Caesar]]") of Russia in 1547. The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws ([[Sudebnik of 1550]]), established the first Russian feudal representative body ([[Zemsky Sobor]]) and introduced local self-management into the rural regions.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Solovyov, S.|title=History of Russia from the Earliest Times|publisher=AST|year=2001|pages=562–604|volume=6|isbn=978-5-17-002142-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Skrynnikov, R.|title=Ivan the Terrible|publisher=Academic Intl Pr|year=1981|page=[https://archive.org/details/ivanterrible0000skry/page/219 219]|isbn=978-0-87569-039-1|url=https://archive.org/details/ivanterrible0000skry/page/219}}</ref> During his long reign, Ivan IV nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of disintegrated [[Golden Horde]]): [[Khanate of Kazan|Kazan]] and [[Astrakhan Khanate|Astrakhan]] along the Volga River, and [[Sibirean Khanate]] in South Western Siberia. Thus by the end of the 16th century Russia was transformed into a [[multiethnic]], multiconfessional and [[transcontinental state]].

Russia experienced territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of [[Cossacks]]. Cossacks were warriors organized into military communities, resembling [[pirate]]s and [[pioneers of the New World]]. The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian/Ruthenian town-fortresses located on the border with the [[Eurasian Steppe|steppe]] and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to the Dnieper via Pereyaslavl. This area was settled by a population of free people practicing various trades and crafts.

==== Mercantile capitalism ====
{{Main|Mercantilism|Merchant capitalism}}

===== Trade and the new economy =====
In the [[Old World]], the most desired trading goods were gold, silver, and [[spice]]s. Western Europeans used the [[compass]], new [[sailing ship]] technologies, new maps, and advances in astronomy to seek a viable [[trade route]] to Asia for valuable spices that Mediterranean powers could not contest.
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===== Piracy's Golden Age =====
{{Main|Golden Age of Piracy}}

The Golden Age of Piracy is a designation given to one or more outbursts of [[piracy]] in the early modern period, spanning from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century. The [[buccaneer]]ing period covers approximately the late 17th century. This period was characterized by Anglo-French seamen based in Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.<ref>Konstam, Angus. Pirates: The Complete History from 1300 BC to the Present Day. Osprey Publishing, 2008. ISBN 9781846032400.</ref> The [[Pirate Round]] was a route followed by certain Anglo-American pirates in the early 18th century, involving voyages from Bermuda and the Americas to attack Muslim and East India Company ships in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.<ref>Rediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Beacon Press, 2004. ISBN 9780807050255.</ref> The post-War of the Spanish Succession period saw many unemployed sailors and privateers turning to piracy in the Caribbean, the American eastern seaboard, West Africa, and the Indian Ocean.<ref>Leeson, Peter T. The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780691137477.</ref>

==== European states and politics ====
[[File:Europe map 1648.PNG|thumb|upright=1.2|Europe after the [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648]]

The 15th to 18th century period is marked by the first European colonies, the rise of strong centralized governments, and the beginnings of recognizable European nation states that are the direct antecedents of today's states. Although the Renaissance included revolutions in many [[intellectual]] pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for European artistic developments and the contributions of such [[polymath]]s as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]], who inspired the term "[[Polymath|Renaissance man]]".<ref>BBC Science & Nature, ''[https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/ Leonardo da Vinci] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205132502/http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/ |date=5 December 2019 }}'' (Retrieved on 12 May 2007)</ref><ref>BBC History, ''[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/michelangelo.shtml Michelangelo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225210110/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/michelangelo.shtml |date=25 December 2019 }}'' (Retrieved on 12 May 2007)</ref>

The Peace of Westphalia resulted from the first modern [[Diplomacy|diplomatic]] congress.  Until 1806, the regulations became part of the constitutional laws of the Holy Roman Empire. The [[Treaty of the Pyrenees]], signed in 1659, ended the [[war]] between France and Spain and is often considered part of the overall accord.

===== French power =====
Men who featured prominently in the political and military life of France during this period include [[Cardinal Mazarin|Mazarin]], [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]], [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Turenne]], [[Vauban]]. French culture likewise flourished during this era, producing a number of figures of great renown, including [[Molière]], [[Jean Racine|Racine]], [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]], [[Jean de La Fontaine|La Fontaine]], [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]], [[Charles Le Brun|Le Brun]], [[Hyacinthe Rigaud|Rigaud]], [[Louis Le Vau]], [[Jules Hardouin Mansart]], [[Claude Perrault]] and [[André Le Nôtre|Le Nôtre]].

===== Early English revolutions =====
Before the Age of Revolution, the [[English Civil War]] was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent. The [[English Restoration]], or simply put as the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War. The [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688 establishes modern [[parliamentary democracy]] in England.

===== International balance of power =====
The [[Peace of Utrecht]] established after a series of individual [[peace treaty|peace treaties]] signed in the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] city of [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]] concluded between various European states helped end the War of the Spanish Succession. The representatives who met were Louis XIV of France and [[Philip V of Spain]] on the one hand, and representatives of Queen [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]] of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], the [[Duchy of Savoy|Duke of Savoy]], and the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] on the other. The treaty enregistered the defeat of French ambitions expressed in the wars of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] and preserved the European system based on the [[Balance of power in international relations|balance of power]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Palmer |first1=Robert Roswell |title=A History of the Modern World |date=1962 |publisher=Knopf |oclc=1000384424 |page=234 }}</ref> The [[Treaty of Utrecht]] marked the change from [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] naval supremacy.

== Americas ==
{{Main|European colonization of the Americas|History of colonialism|New World}}
[[File:colonisation2.gif|thumb|center|upright=2.75|World Colonization of 1492 (Early Modern World), 1550, 1660, 1754 (Age of Enlightenment), 1822 (Industrial revolution), 1885 (European Hegemony), 1914 (World War I era), 1938 (World War II era), 1959 (Cold War era) and 1974, 2008 (Recent history)]]

The term ''colonialism'' is normally used with reference to discontiguous overseas empires rather than contiguous land-based empires, European or otherwise. European colonisation during the 15th to 19th centuries resulted in the spread of Christianity to [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], the Americas, Australia and the [[Philippines]].

=== Exploration and conquest of the Americas ===
{{Main|Spanish colonization of the Americas|Portuguese colonization of the Americas}}

=== Colonial Latin America ===
{{See also|New Spain|Spanish empire|Colonial Brazil}}

Initially, Portuguese settlements (Brazil) in the coastal northeast were of lesser importance in the larger Portuguese overseas empire, where lucrative commerce and small settlements devoted to trade were established in coastal Africa, India and China. With sparse indigenous populations that could not be coerced to work and no known deposits of precious metals, Portugal sought a high-value, low-bulk export product and found it in [[sugarcane]].  Black African slave labour from Portugal's West African possessions was imported to do the grueling agricultural work. As the wealth of the Ibero-America increased, some Western European powers (Dutch, French, British, Danish) sought to duplicate the model in areas that the Iberians had not settled in numbers. They seized some Caribbean islands from the Spanish and transferred the model of sugar production on plantations with slave labour and settled in northern areas of North America in what are now the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and Canada.<ref>[[James Lockhart (historian)|James Lockhart]] and [[Stuart B. Schwartz]], ''Early Latin America''. New York: Cambridge University Press 1983.{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>

=== Colonial North America ===
{{See also|New Spain|New France|New Netherland|Colonial history of the United States|History of Canada (1763–1867)}}
[[File:Declaration independence.jpg|thumb|[[John Trumbull]]'s ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'', showing the [[Committee of Five]] in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]]]]

North America outside the zone of Spanish settlement was a contested area in the 17th century. Spain had founded small settlements in Florida and Georgia, but nowhere near the size of those in [[New Spain]] or the Caribbean islands. France, The Netherlands, and Great Britain held colonies in North America and the West Indies from the 17th century, 100 years after the Spanish and Portuguese established permanent colonies. The British colonies in North America were founded between 1607 (Virginia) and 1733 (Georgia). The Dutch explored the east coast of North America and began founding settlements in what they called [[New Netherland]] (now [[New York State]].). France colonized what is now [[Eastern Canada]], founding [[Quebec City]] in 1608. France's loss in the [[Seven Years' War]] resulted in the transfer of [[New France]] to Great Britain.

The [[Thirteen Colonies]], in lower British North America, rebelled against British rule through 1765–1783, due to various factors such as belief in natural rights, the enforcement of new taxes levied by a Parliament which they could not vote for representatives in, and opposition to monarchy. The British colonies in Canada remained loyal to the crown, and a provisional government formed by the Thirteen Colonies proclaimed their independence on 4 July 1776, and subsequently became the original 13 United States of America. With the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the [[American Revolutionary War]], Britain recognised the former Thirteen Colonies' independence.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris | title=Treaty of Paris (1783) | date=16 April 2021 }}</ref>

==Atlantic World==
{{see also|Atlantic history}}
[[File:Waldseemuller map 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Waldseemüller map]] with joint sheets, 1507]]
A key development in early modern history is the creation of the [[Atlantic World]] as a category. The term generally encompasses Western Europe, West Africa, and the Americas. It seeks to illustrate both local and regional developments, as well as the connections between these geographical regions through trade, migration, and cultural exchange.<ref>Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 9780521789783.</ref>

== Religion, science, philosophy, and education ==
{{further|History of religion|History of philosophy}}

=== Protestant Reformation ===
{{Main|Reformation}}

The early modern period was initiated by the Reformation and the collapse of the unity of the medieval [[Catholic Church|Western Church]]. The theology of [[Calvinism]] in particular has been argued as instrumental to the rise of [[capitalism]]. Max Weber has written a highly influential book on this called ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]].''

=== Counter-Reformation and Jesuits ===
{{Main|Counter-Reformation}}

The Counter-Reformation was a period of [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] revival in response to the [[Reformation]] during the mid-16th to mid-17th centuries. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, involving ecclesiastical reforms as well as political and spiritual movements.

Such reforms included the foundation of [[seminaries]] for the proper training of priests, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with [[Christ]], including the [[Spanish mystics]] and the [[French school of spirituality]]. It also involved political activities that included the [[Roman Inquisition]].<ref>Olin, John C. The Catholic Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola: Reform in the Church, 1495–1540. Fordham University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8232-1275-0.</ref>

New religious orders were a fundamental part of this trend. Orders such as the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchins]], [[Ursulines]], [[Theatines]], [[Discalced Carmelites]], the [[Barnabites]], and especially the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] strengthened rural parishes, improved popular piety, helped to curb corruption within the church, and set examples that would be a strong impetus for Catholic renewal.<ref>Ditchfield, Simon. "The Catholic Reformation." Renaissance Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, 2001, pp. 390–409. DOI:10.1111/1477-4658.00088.</ref>

=== Scientific Revolution ===
{{See also|History of science#Scientific Revolution and birth of New Science|Science in the Age of Enlightenment}}
[[File:PeuerbachSuperioribus2.png|thumb|upright=.9|Model for the Three Superior Planets and Venus from [[Georg von Peuerbach]], ''Theoricae novae planetarum'']]

The [[Great Divergence]] in scientific discovery, technological innovation, and economic development began in the early modern period as the pace of change in Western countries increased significantly compared to the rest of the world.

During the [[Scientific Revolution]] of the 16th and 17th centuries, [[empiricism]] and [[modern science]] replaced older methods of studying nature, which had relied on ancient texts by writers like Aristotle. By the time of the Revolution, these methods resulted in an accumulation of knowledge that overturned ideas inherited from ancient Greece and Islamic scholars. Major changes during the Scientific Revolution and the 18th century included:
*The ancient [[geocentric model]] of the [[Solar System]] (the other planets circle the Earth) was replaced by the [[heliocentrism]] (the planets circle the Sun). This shift, known as the [[Copernican Revolution]], is marked by the 1543 publication of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]]'s ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]''. Copernicus' work, influenced by earlier scholars such as [[Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi]], sparked a significant paradigm shift. The [[Catholic Church]] resisted this theory, and the [[Inquisition]] famously imprisoned [[Galileo Galilei]] for promoting it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Machamer |first=Peter|title=The Cambridge Companion to Galileo |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=393}}</ref>
*Using precise astronomical observations by [[Tycho Brahe]], [[Johannes Kepler]] developed [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion]], demonstrating that planets move in ellipses rather than perfect circles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Principe |first=Lawrence M. |title=The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction |year=2011|page=65 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The idea that the stars were fixed on celestial spheres was replaced by the idea that stars are distant suns. [[Astrology and astronomy]] began to separate into different disciplines, with only [[astronomy]] using scientific methods. [[Telescope]] technology improved tremendously as did the [[History of optics|study of optics]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hawking |first=Stephen |title=The Universe in a Nutshell |year=2001 |publisher=Bantam Books |pages=66}}</ref>
*[[Aristotelian physics#Natural_motion|Aristotle's laws of motion]] were replaced by [[Newton's laws of motion]] and [[Newton's law of universal gravitation]]. The 1687 publication of [[Isaac Newton]]'s ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia Mathematica]]'' is often used to mark the end of the Scientific Revolution, as it established the fundamental laws of physics that would dominate scientific thinking for centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Michael |title=Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer |year=1998 |publisher=Basic Books}}</ref>
*Advances in anatomy were marked by the publication of ''[[De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem]]'' (1543) by [[Andreas Vesalius]], which revolutionized the understanding of human anatomy and corrected errors in the works of [[Galen]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Nutton |first=Vivian |title=Ancient Medicine |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |pages=204}}</ref> In 1628, [[William Harvey]]'s ''[[De Motu Cordis]]'' advanced knowledge of the [[circulatory system]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Wear |first=Andrew |title=Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine, 1550–1680 |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=278–280}}</ref>
*Both the 8th century Islamic experimenter [[Jabir ibn Hayyan]] and the 17th century scientist [[Robert Boyle]] have been described as founders of modern [[chemistry]]. Both worked as [[alchemists]] before the fields were clearly separated. Boyle argued for [[corpuscularianism]] in the 1661 book ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]'' and discovered [[Boyle's law]] of gases. The [[chemical revolution]] followed with the discovery of the [[conservation of mass]], which led to the rejection of [[phlogiston theory]] and the identification of chemical elements.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maxwell-Stuart |first=P.G. |title=The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy |year=2012 |publisher=Continuum}}</ref>
*Modern scientific [[dentistry]] was founded by [[Pierre Fauchard]], who is credited with pioneering dental techniques in his 1728 work ''Le Chirurgien Dentiste''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ring |first=Malvin E. |title=Pierre Fauchard and the Founding of Modern Dentistry |year=1992 |publisher=Journal of the History of Dentistry}}</ref>
*The [[smallpox vaccine]] was invented in the 1770s and popularized by [[Edward Jenner]] in the 1790s, though it was unclear at the time how it worked.<ref>{{cite book |last=Riedel |first=Stefan |title=Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination |year=2005 |publisher=Proceedings (Baylor University Medical Center)}}</ref>
*The ancient theory of [[spontaneous generation]] remained dominant throughout the early modern period, but the [[history of evolutionary thought]] includes some who questioned the strictest form of this dogma. The idea of partial [[common descent]] was famously promoted by [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon]]. [[Evolution]] was not fully articulated and accepted until the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bowler |first=Peter J. |title=Evolution: The History of an Idea |year=2009 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>
*The invention of the [[microscope]] led to the development of [[microbiology]], with early observations of microorganisms by [[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]] in the 1670s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bladon |first=Christine |title=Seeing the Invisible: Microscopes and Microscopists from the 17th to the 19th Century |year=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>
*[[Carl Linnaeus]] published the first modern [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]] in ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' (1735), introducing the classification of organisms into hierarchical categories and replacing Aristotle's ideas.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Margaret J. |title=Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification |year=2009 |publisher=Enslow Publishers}}</ref>
*Early modern [[geology]] was established with the work of [[Nicolas Steno]], who proposed the [[law of superposition]] in 1669, and the systematic study of fossils and rock types began to question the biblical age of the Earth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cutler |first=Alan |title=The Seashell on the Mountaintop |year=2003 |publisher=Dutton |pages=134–136}}</ref>
*Early developments in the [[history of electromagnetism]] included research into the relationship between [[electricity]] and [[magnetism]], the development of the [[electrostatic generator]], and the discovery of [[Coulomb's law]] in 1784, which described the force between electric charges.<ref>{{cite book |last=Heilbron |first=John L. |title=Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics |year=1979 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>

In the [[social science]]s:
*[[Historical linguistics]] began in the late 18th century, with [[William Jones (philologist)|William Jones]] identifying the common origin of what are now called [[Indo-European languages]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Robins |first=Robert H. |title=A Short History of Linguistics |year=1997 |publisher=Longman |pages=160–163}}</ref>
* The fields of [[anthropology]] and [[paleoanthropology]] emerged in the 18th century, but much of early modern anthropology is now considered [[scientific racism]].
*[[Adam Smith]]'s work, such as his seminal book ''The Wealth of Nations'', has been interpreted as the foundation of [[classical economics]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Heilbroner |first=Robert |title=The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers |year=1999 |publisher=Simon & Schuster}}</ref>

===Technology===
{{main|Renaissance technology}}
Inventions of the early modern period included the [[Floating dock (impounded)|floating dock]], [[lifting tower]], [[newspaper]], [[grenade musket]], [[lightning rod]], [[bifocals]], and [[Franklin stove]]. Early attempts at building a practical [[electrical telegraph]] were hindered because [[static electricity]] was the only source available.

=== Enlightenment and reason ===
{{Main|17th century in philosophy}}
{{further|Atheism during the Age of Enlightenment|Philosophical skepticism}}
[[File:Encyclopedie frontispice full.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|"If there is something you know, communicate it. If there is something you don't know, search for it." An engraving from the 1772 edition of the {{lang|fr|[[Encyclopédie]]}}; [[Truth]] (center) is surrounded by light and unveiled by the figures to the right, [[Philosophy]] and [[Reason]].|alt=]]

The [[Age of Enlightenment]] is also called the Age of Reason because it marked a departure from the medieval tradition of [[scholasticism]], which was rooted in Christian dogma, and from [[Renaissance philosophy]]'s occultist approaches. Instead, reason became the central source of knowledge, initiating the era of [[modern philosophy]], especially in [[Western philosophy]].<ref>Israel, Jonathan I. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750. Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0198206088.</ref> This period in Europe was characterized by system-builders—philosophers who established unified theories of [[epistemology]], [[metaphysics]], [[logic]], [[ethics]], and sometimes even [[politics]] and the [[physical sciences]].<ref>Outram, Dorinda. The Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0521546812.</ref>

Early 17th-century philosophy is often referred to as the Age of Rationalism, succeeding Renaissance philosophy and preceding the Enlightenment. Some consider it the earliest part of the Enlightenment, stretching over two centuries. This era includes the works of [[Isaac Newton]] (1643–1727), such as [[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]] (1687), and the development of Descartes' famous proposition [[Cogito, ergo sum]] (1637).<ref>Gaukroger, Stephen. Descartes: An Intellectual Biography. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0198239949.</ref> The first major advancements in modern science included Newton's theory of [[gravity]], which, along with the contributions of [[John Locke]], [[Pierre Bayle]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], and others, fueled the Enlightenment.<ref>Jacob, Margaret C. The Scientific Revolution: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. ISBN 978-0312539481.</ref>

The 18th century saw the rise of [[secularization]] in Europe, notably following the [[French Revolution]]. [[Immanuel Kant]] classified his predecessors into two philosophical schools: [[Rationalism]] and [[Empiricism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/kantmeta.htm#H1|title=Kant, Immanuel: Metaphysics – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=4 July 2011|archive-date=27 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627205028/http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantmeta/#H1|url-status=live}}</ref> The former was represented by figures such as [[René Descartes]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], and [[Gottfried Leibniz]].<ref>Gardner, Sebastian. Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason. Routledge, 1999. ISBN 978-0415119099.</ref> [[Roger Williams]] established the colony of [[Providence Plantations]] in New England on the principle of [[separation of church and state]] after being exiled by the [[Puritans]] of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].<ref>Barry, John M. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul. Viking, 2012. ISBN 978-0670023059.</ref>

French [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] culture played a key role in spreading Enlightenment ideas, culminating in the influential [[Encyclopédie]] (1751–72), edited by [[Denis Diderot]] with contributions from thinkers such as [[Voltaire]] and [[Montesquieu]].<ref>Proust, Jacques. Diderot et l'Encyclopédie. A. Colin, 1962.</ref> The [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns]] stirred debate within the [[French Academy]], elevating contemporary knowledge over classical Greek and Roman wisdom. Enlightenment thought also significantly influenced [[German philosophy]], fostered by [[Frederick the Great]], with [[Immanuel Kant]] emerging as a leading figure. These developments also had profound impacts on the [[Scottish Enlightenment]], [[Russian Enlightenment]], [[Enlightenment in Spain]], and [[Enlightenment in Poland]].<ref>Porter, Roy. The Enlightenment. Palgrave, 2001. ISBN 978-0333964500.</ref> The Enlightenment flourished until around 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to [[Romanticism]] and the growing influence of [[Counter-Enlightenment]] movements.<ref>Berlin, Isaiah. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Princeton University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0691090269.</ref>

=== Humanism ===
{{Main|Humanism}}With the adoption of large-scale printing after 1500, Italian [[Renaissance Humanism]] spread northward to France, Germany, Holland and England, where it became associated with the Reformation.

Developing during the Enlightenment era, [[Renaissance humanism]] as an intellectual movement spread across Europe. The basic training of the humanist was to speak well and write (typically, in the form of a letter). The term ''umanista'' comes from the latter part of the 15th century. The people were associated with the ''[[studia humanitatis]]'', a novel curriculum that was competing with the ''[[quadrivium]]'' and [[scholastic logic]].<ref>[[Paul Oskar Kristeller]], ''Humanism'', pp. 113–114, in Charles B. Schmitt, [[Quentin Skinner]] (editors), ''The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy'' (1990).</ref>

In France, pre-eminent Humanist [[Guillaume Budé]] (1467–1540) applied the [[philology|philological]] methods of Italian Humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on [[Corpus Juris Civilis|Justinian's Code]]. Although a royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian ''umanisti''), Budé was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] and helping to found the [[Collège de France|Collège des Lecteurs Royaux]] (later the {{lang|fr|Collège de France|italic=no}}). Meanwhile, [[Marguerite de Navarre]], the sister of Francis I, herself a poet, novelist and religious mystic,<ref>She was the author of ''[[Miroir de l'âme pécheresse]]'' (''The Mirror of a Sinful Soul''), published after her death, among other devotional poetry. See also "Marguerite de Navarre: Religious Reformist" in Jonathan A. Reid, [http://www.brill.nl/print.aspx?partid=210&pid=18212 ''King's sister—queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) and her evangelical network''] {{dead link|date=October 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} (''Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, 1573–4188''; v. 139). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009. (2 v.: (xxii, 795 p.) {{ISBN|978-90-04-17760-4}} (v. 1), {{ISBN|978-9004177611}} (v. 2)</ref> gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including [[Clément Marot]], [[Pierre de Ronsard]] and [[François Rabelais]].

== Death in the early modern period ==
=== Mortality rates ===
During the early modern period, thorough and accurate global data on mortality rates is limited for a number of reasons including disparities in medical practices and views on the dead. However, there still remains data from European countries that still holds valuable information on the mortality rates of infants during this era. In his book ''Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700–1900'', Tommy Bengtsson provides adequate information pertaining to the data of infant mortality rates in European countries as well as provide necessary contextual influences on these mortality rates.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book| last=Bengsston| first=Tommy| title=Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700–1900| publisher=The MIT Press| year=2004| isbn=978-0262025515| chapter= 12: Infant and Child Mortality}}</ref>

==== European infant mortality rates ====
Infant mortality was a global concern during the early modern period as many newborns would not survive into childhood. Bengsston provides comparative data on infant mortality averages in a variety of European towns, cities, regions and countries starting from the mid-1600s to the 1800s.<ref name=":4" /> These statistics are measured for infant deaths within the first month of every 1,000 births in a given area.<ref name=":4" />

For instance, the average infant mortality rate in what is now Germany was 108 infant deaths for every 1,000 births; in [[Bavaria]], there were 140–190 infant deaths reported for every 1,000 births.<ref name=":4" /> In France, [[Beauvaisis]] reported 140–160 infants dying per every 1,000 babies born.<ref name=":4" /> In what is now Italy, [[Venice]] averaged 134 infant deaths per 1,000 births.<ref name=":4" /> In [[Geneva]], 80–110 infants died per every 1,000 babies born. In Sweden, 70–95 infants died per 1,000 births in [[Linköping]], 48 infants died per 1,000 births in [[Sundsvall]], and 41 infants died per 1,000 births in [[Vastanfors]].<ref name=":4" />

==== Causes of infant mortality ====
Bengsston writes that climate conditions were the most important factor in determining infant mortality rates: "For the period from birth to the fifth birthday, [climate] is clearly the most important determinant of death".<ref name=":4" /> Winters proved to be harsh on families and their newborns, especially if the other seasons of the year were warmer. This seasonal drop in temperature was a lot for an infant's body to adapt to.

For instance, Italy is home to a very warm climate in the summer, and the temperature drops immensely in the winter.<ref name=":4" /> This lends context to Bengsston writing that "the [Italian] winter peak was the cruelest: during the first 10 days of life, a newborn was four times more likely to die than in the summer".<ref name=":4" /> According to Bengsston, this trend existed amongst cities in different parts of Italy and in various parts of Europe even though cities operated under different economic and agricultural conditions.<ref name=":4" /> This leads Bengsston to his conclusion on what may have caused mortality rates in infants to spike during winter: "The strong protective effect of summer for neonatal deaths leads us to suppose that in many cases, these might be due to the insufficient heating systems of the houses or to the exposure of the newborn to cold during the [[baptism]] ceremony. This last hypothesis could explain why the effect was so strong in Italy".<ref name=":4" />

=== Capital punishment ===
{{Main|Capital punishment#Modern era}}
During the early modern period, many societies' views on death changed greatly. With the implementation of new torture techniques, and increased public executions, people began to give more value to their life, and their body after death. Along with the views on death, methods of execution also changed. New devices to torture and execute criminals were invented.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Laqueur|first=Thomas|title=The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains|publisher=Princeton University|year=2015|isbn=978-0691157788}}</ref> The number of criminals executed by [[gibbeting]] increased,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Ward|first=Richard|year=2015|title=Introduction to A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse|doi=10.1057/9781137577931|doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |pmid=27559562|isbn=978-1137577931|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/95831/1/Ward2015_Chapter_Introduction.pdf|access-date=3 September 2020|archive-date=28 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028005638/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/95831/1/Ward2015_Chapter_Introduction.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> as did the total rate of executions during the early modern period.<ref name=":3" />

== See also ==
* [[Cuisine in the early modern world]]
* [[Early modern warfare]]
* [[Periodization]]
* [[Price revolution]]
* [[Proto-globalization]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

===Works cited===
* {{Citation |last1=Bose |first1=Sugata |author-link1=Sugata Bose |last2=Jalal |first2=Ayesha |author-link2=Ayesha Jalal |year=2003 |title=Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/modernsouthasiah00bose |edition=2nd |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-30787-2 }}

== External links ==
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pgc.asp?page=mod/modsbook.html Internet Modern History Sourcebook], fordham.edu
* [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmhint.html Discussion of the medieval/modern transition] from the introduction to the pioneering ''[[Cambridge Modern History]]'' (1902–1912)
* [http://www.rensoc.org.uk/ Society for Renaissance Studies]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110925084220/http://emc.eserver.org/ Early Modern Culture] (archived 25 September 2011)
* [http://earlymodernweb.org/ Early Modern Resources]

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{{Succession box|title=[[History by period]]|before=[[Postclassical Era]]|after=[[modern period]]|years=about 1500–1800 CE}}
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