The early modern period is a historical period that is part of the modern period 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 timeline may vary depending on the area of history being studied. In general, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries (about 1500–1800). In a European context, it is defined as the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the advent of modernity, sometimes defined as the "late modern period". In the context of global history, the early modern period is often used even in contexts where there is no equivalent "medieval" period.
Historians in recent decades have argued that, from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its spreading
secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of nation states
.
Definition
The early modern period is a subdivision of the most recent of the three major periods of
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.[4]
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.
As the Age of Revolution dawned, beginning with revolts in America and France, political changes were then pushed forward in other countries partly as a result of upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on thought and thinking, from concepts from nationalism to organizing armies.[6][7][8] The early period ended in a time of political and economic 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 Final Act of the Congress of Vienna[9] and the peace established by the Second Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars.[10]
In the Americas,
Columbian Exchange that linked the Old World and the New World, greatly altered the human environment. Notably, the Atlantic slave trade and colonization of Native Americans began during this period.[11] The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa.[12]
In the
Safavid, and 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, culture, and 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.[13] By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region.[14]
Various Chinese dynasties controlled the East Asian sphere. In Japan, the
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 Toungoo Empire along with Ayutthaya experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia,[15][16] with the Nguyen and Trinh lords[17] 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.
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 ethnically HanMing 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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21]
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.[22] 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.[23]
China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels.
Japanese Invasion.[26] 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 restricted shipments of exports from Acapulco, the Japanese cut off all trade with Macau, and the Dutch severed connections between Goa and Macau.[27]
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
dynasty of China. The Qing ruled from 1644 to 1912, with a brief, 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.[28] The Manchus were formerly known as the 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,
"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."[29]
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 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 Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and valuable refined sugar.[citation needed]
artisans, and traders ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the Sakoku policy.[31] Literacy among the Japanese people rose in the two centuries of isolation.[31]
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
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.[citation needed
]
Korean dynasty
In 1392, General
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 Korean alphabet.[citation needed
]
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 ships. 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.[34] 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 was forced to surrender to the Qing forces, and was ordered to send princesses as concubines to the Qing Prince Dorgon.[35]
After invasions from Manchuria, Joseon enjoyed nearly 200 years of peace. However, whatever power the kingdom recovered during its isolation further waned as the 18th century came to a close, and Korea was faced with internal strife, power struggles, international pressure and rebellions at home. The Joseon dynasty declined rapidly in the late 19th century.[citation needed]
South Asia
Indian empires
On the
Southern India, but its power was diminished after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara.[citation needed
becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power,[38] with a nominal GDP that valued a quarter of world GDP, superior than the combination of Europe's GDP.[13][39]
The "classic period" ended with the death of Mughal EmperorAurangzeb,[40] although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. 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 Empire was located in the south west of present-day India and expanded greatly under the rule of the Peshwas, the prime ministers of the Maratha empire. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederacy of Maratha states.[citation needed]
demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear.
The Dutch East India Company (1800) and British East India Company (1858) were dissolved by their respective governments, which took over the direct administration of the colonies. Only Thailand was never colonized by a European power, although it was greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers. Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia. While the colonial powers profited much from the region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent. Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based economy developed rapidly during this period.[citation needed]
Southeast Asia
At the start of the modern era, the
Sultanate of Johor was established by a Malaccan prince to succeed Malacca.[citation needed
Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, fought several campaigns against the Safavids.[55]
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.[56]
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
.
Europe
Main article:
Early Modern Europe
European events and dates
The beginning of the early modern period is not clear-cut, but is generally accepted as in the late 15th century or early 16th century. Significant dates in this transitional phase from medieval to early modern Europe can be noted:
Battle of Bosworth in 1485.[58][59] 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.
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 and European countries took advantage of it and were the first to create the classic firearms.[20] 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.[60]
. 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,[61] 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 sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.
Archduke of Austria. A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from the Empire[76]) 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).[77] The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance.[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[79]) and patron, was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy.[80][81] In military area, he introduced the Black Army, one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force.[82][83]
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),[84]Chevalier de Bayard (1476–1524),[85]Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523)[86] and Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562).[87] Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being the last medieval epic poet[88]) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare[89][90][91] and communications,[92]among others), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons)[90] and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status.[93][94][90]
Christianity was challenged at the beginning of the modern period with the
Counter Reformation
.
End of the Crusades and unity
The
Hussite
warriors were basically infantry, and their many defeats of larger armies with heavily armored knights helped effect the infantry revolution. In totality, the Hussite Crusades were inconclusive.
The last crusade, the Crusade of 1456, was organized to counter the expanding Ottoman Empire and lift the
Christian world
to this day.
Nearly a hundred years later, the
sovereign national state
was born. The Corpus Christianum has since existed with the modern idea of a tolerant and diverse society consisting of many different communities.
friar Martin Luther became professor of philosophy there in 1508. At the same time, he became one of the preachers at the castle church of Wittenberg.
On 31 October 1517, Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the
Presbyterians. The process of reform had decidedly different causes and effects in other countries. In England, where it gave rise to Anglicanism, the period became known as the English Reformation
. Subsequent Protestant denominations generally trace their roots back to the initial reforming movements.
The Diet of Worms in 1521, presided by Emperor Charles V, declared Martin Luther a heretic and an outlaw (although Charles V was more preoccupied with maintaining his vast empire than with arresting Luther). As a result of Charles V's distractions in East Europe and in Spain, he agreed through the Diet of Speyer in 1526 to allow German princes to effectively decide themselves whether to enforce the Edict of Worms or not, for the time being. After returning to the empire, Charles V attended the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 to order all Protestants in the empire to revert to Catholicism. In response, the Protestant territories in and around Germany formed the Schmalkaldic League to fight against the Catholic Holy Roman Empire. Charles V left again to handle the advance of the Ottoman Turks. He returned in 1547 to launch a military campaign against the Schmalkaldic League and to issue an imperial law requiring all Protestants to return to Catholic practices (with a few superficial concessions to Protestant practices). Warfare ended when Charles V relented in the Peace of Passau (1552) and in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which formalized the law that the rulers of a land decide its religion.
Of the late Inquisitions in the modern era, there were two different manifestations:[96]
Russia experienced territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of
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 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.
spices. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands previously unknown to them. This factor in the early European modern period was a globalizing character; the 'discovery' of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe was an important historical event.[citation needed
]
The search for new routes was based on the fact that the
lateen sail that made ships far more maneuverable. By translating the Arab versions of lost ancient Greek geographical works into Latin, European navigators acquired a deeper knowledge of the shape of Africa and Asia.[citation needed
Mercantilism was the dominant school of economic thought throughout the early modern period (from the 16th to the 18th century). This led to some of the first instances of significant government intervention and control over the economy, and it was during this period that much of the modern capitalist system was established. Internationally, mercantilism encouraged the many European wars of the period and fueled European imperialism. Belief in mercantilism began to fade in the late 18th century, as the arguments of Adam Smith and the other classical economists won out.[citation needed]
The
Commercial Revolution was a period of economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism that lasted from approximately the 16th century until the early 18th century. Beginning with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities rare in Europe. This development created a new desire for trade, which expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages. European nations, through voyages of discovery, were looking for new trade routes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which allowed the European powers to build vast, new international trade networks. Nations also sought new sources of wealth. To deal with this new-found wealth, new economic theories and practices were created. Because of competing national interest, nations had the desire for increased world power through their colonial empires. The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of non-manufacturing pursuits, such as banking, insurance, and investing.[citation needed
]
Trade and the new economy
In the Old World, the most desired trading goods were gold, silver, and spices. 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.
In terms of shipping advances, the most important developments were the creation of the
Monetarists believe the main reason the Age of Exploration began was because of a severe shortage of bullion in Europe. The European economy was dependent on gold and silver currency, but low domestic supplies had plunged much of Europe into a recession. Another factor was the centuries-long conflict between the Iberians and the Muslims to the south.[citation needed
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 buccaneering period covers approximately the late 17th century. The period is characterized by Anglo-French seamen based on Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. A sailing route known as the Pirate Round was followed by certain Anglo-American pirates at the turn of the 18th century, associated with long-distance voyages from Bermuda and the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The post-Spanish Succession period extending into the early 18th century, when Anglo-American sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the American eastern seaboard, the West African coast, and the Indian Ocean.[citation needed]
European states and politics
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 polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".[101][102]
The Peace of Westphalia resulted from the first modern 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.
Absolutism
The
state power, unification of the state laws, drastic increase in tax revenue collected by the monarch, and a decrease in the influence of nobility.[citation needed
The Songhai Empire took control of the trans-Saharan trade at the beginning of the modern era. It seized Timbuktu in 1468 and 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.[104]
Around the beginning of the modern era, the
Benin Kingdom was an independent trading power in the southeastern coastline of West Africa, blocking the access of other inland nations to the coastal ports. Benin may have housed 100,000 inhabitants at its height, spreading over twenty-five square kilometres, enclosed by three concentric rings of earthworks. By the late 15th century Benin was in contact with Portugal. At its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries, Benin encompassed parts of southeastern Yorubaland and the western Igbo
.
In the
Oromo
ended in the contraction of both Adal and Abyssinia, changing regional dynamics for centuries to come.
The
Osman Mahamuud during its golden age, it controlled much of northern and central Somalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The polity had all of the organs of an integrated modern state and maintained a robust trading network. Along with the Sultanate of Hobyo ruled by Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, the Majeerteen Sultanate was eventually annexed into Italian Somaliland
in the early 20th century, following the military Campaign of the Sultanates.
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.
Christopher Columbus came to the Americas in 1492. Subsequently, the major sea powers in Europe sent expeditions to the New World to build trade networks and colonies and to convert the native peoples to Christianity. Pope Alexander VI divided newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a north–south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). The division was never accepted by the rulers of England or France.[citation needed]
administrative reforms Rio de la Plata (southeastern South America) and New Granada (northern South America).[citation needed
]
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.[106]
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
The Thirteen Colonies, in lower British North America, rebelled against British rule in 1775, largely due to the taxation Great Britain was imposing on them. The British colonies in Canada remained loyal to the crown, and a provisional government formed by the Thirteen Colonies proclaimed their independence on July 4, 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.[107]
A recent development in early modern history is the creation of Atlantic World as a category. The term generally encompasses Western Europe, West Africa, and the Americas. It seeks to show both local and regional development and the connections between the various geographical regions.[citation needed]
during the mid-16th to mid-17th centuries. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, involving ecclesiastical or structural reforms as well as a political dimension and spiritual movements.
New religious orders were a fundamental part of this trend. Orders such as the
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.
Scientific Revolution
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
modern science replaced older methods of studying nature – European research methods that mainly involved reading texts by ancient writers. By the time of the Revolution, these methods resulted in accumulation of knowledge that overturned ideas inherited from Ancient Greece (primarily Aristotelian physics
, which includes the modern domains of physics, chemistry, biology) through the Middle Ages and Islamic scholars. Major changes of the Scientific Revolution and the 18th century included:
The ancient
heliocentric model (Earth and other planets circle the Sun). Known as the Copernican Revolution, the 1543 publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which was influenced by Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi and was based on detailed astronomical observations) is often used to mark the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. Heliocentrism was resisted by the Catholic Church because it contradicted the Bible; the Catholic Inquisition imprisoned Galileo Galilei
(sometimes called the "father of modern science" for his many empirical discoveries) for promoting this theory.
. The discovery of modern chemical elements would not begin until the 19th century in the late modern period, followed by experimental confirmation of atoms.
Finally overcoming the difficulties of using human corpses to perform dissections, the anatomical descriptions of the 2nd century
Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s and probably also by Athanasius Kircher in the 1640s. Though microorganisms were (correctly) proposed as the cause of infectious diseases as soon as they were discovered, this theory was generally dismissed. Though scientific investigation undermined humorism in medicine, miasma theory remained dominant throughout the early modern period. The germ theory of disease
was not widely accepted until the 1880s, in the late modern period.
Modern geology began to take shape mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Early on, Nicolas Steno proposed the law of superposition in 1669, and various writers in the history of geology began to question the notion derived from the Christian Bible that the Earth was only about 6,000 years old and relatively unchanged over time. Steno and James Hutton are often considered founders of the modern field. The study of fossils and rock types became systematic.
Early 17th-century philosophy is often called the Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed Renaissance philosophy and precede the Age of Enlightenment, but some consider it as the earliest part of the Enlightenment era in philosophy, extending that era to two centuries. This era includes Isaac Newton's Principia and René Descartes' "I think therefore I am" (1637). The 18th century saw the beginning of secularization in Europe, rising to notability in the wake of the French Revolution.
The French and German developments were further influential in
Polish
philosophy.
The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.
In France, pre-eminent Humanist Guillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied the philological methods of Italian Humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on 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 and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of Francis I, herself a poet, novelist and religious mystic,[110] 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.[111]
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.[111] These statistics are measured for infant deaths within the first month of every 1,000 births in a given area.[111]
For instance, the average infant mortality rate in what is now Germany was 108 infant deaths for every 1,000 births; in
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".[111] 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.[111] 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".[111] 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.[111] 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".[111]
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.[112] The number of criminals executed by gibbeting increased,[113] as did the total rate of executions during the early modern period.[113]
The end of the early modern period is usually associated with the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain around 1750, but began to make substantial changes in many European countries by around 1800.
in 1815 marked the end of this period of political upheaval and frequent war, with the rise of new concepts of nationalism and reorganization of military forces. 1815 is the latest year commonly reckoned as the end of the early modern period.
Toward the middle and latter stages of the Age of Revolution, the French political and social revolutions and radical change saw the French governmental structure transform. It was previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy. It changed to forms based on Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. The first revolution led to government by the National Assembly, the second by the Legislative Assembly, and the third by the Directory.
The changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, which included the trial and execution of Louis XVI, vast bloodshed and repression during the Reign of Terror, and the French Revolutionary Wars involving every other major European power. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires.
from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
^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]
'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.
. 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 (...)
^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 (Dreyer, 1953, pp. 135–148; Linton, 2004, p. 39).
from the original on 16 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
^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
from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
^Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kreis Kaiserslautern, Historischer Verein der Pfalz (1984). Jahrbuch zur Geschichte von Stadt und Landkreis Kaiserslautern (in German). Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kreis Kaiserslautern, Historischer Verein der Pfalz. p. 197. Archived from the original on 15 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
; 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"
^Paul Oskar Kristeller, Humanism, pp. 113–114, in Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner (editors), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (1990).
Parker, Charles H. (2010). Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800.
Pomeranz (2000). The great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy. Princeton University Press. A highly influential statement.
Scott, Hamish, ed. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350–1750. Vol. I: Peoples and Place. excerptArchived 2023-07-02 at the Wayback Machine.
Scott, Hamish, ed. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350–1750. Vol. II: Cultures and Power. excerptArchived 2023-07-02 at the Wayback Machine.
Wong, R. Bin (1997). China Transformed; Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience. Cornell U.P.