Early modern period
The early modern period is a 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. In a European context, it is defined as the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the advent of modernity, but there is no universal agreement on the dates of these boundaries. In the context of 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 in 1453, the start of the Renaissance, the end of the Crusades, the Reformation in 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 rise to power, with the advent of the second wave of modern colonization known as New Imperialism.
Historians in recent decades have argued that, from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was the spread of globalization. From this viewpoint, the Columbian contact and its newfound notion of a New World being added to the Old World is another marker of the start of the period. 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 experimental science, increasingly rapid technological progress, secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of nation states.
History of the concept
The concept of the early modern period originated in the study of European history, which since the time of Petrarch and other Renaissance humanists has traditionally been divided into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. The term early modern was occasionally used by historians in the early 20th century, but the vast majority of these instances use the term merely to refer to the early centuries of the modern period, not to denote a distinct period with defining features. The term early modern was first proposed to denote a distinct period of European history by medieval historian Lynn Thorndike. In his 1926 work A Short History of Civilization, Thorndike proposed the periodization 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. It was more popular among historians in North American than in Europe, where, according to Jerry H. Bentley, "Strong traditions of national historiography discouraged scholars from efforts to explore a larger European past".The first attempts to apply the periodization beyond Europe in a substantive manner came by the 1980s. Some scholars used the term while studying Asian societies that underwent developments similar or comparable to those in early modern Europe. Others argued that early modern Eurasia was distinguished by interconnections and common experiences, including such as territorial consolidation, demographic growth, inflation, and social mobility, among others. Joseph R. Fletcher, a historian of Central Asia and China, argued in 1985 that early modern Eurasian societies were all affected by "some of the same, interrelated, or at least similar demographic, economic, and even social forces", which included the rise of urban commercial classes, religious reform and revival movements, rural unrest, and the decline of nomadism. Fletcher also suggested the possibility of the periodization's applicability on a global scale. Another group of scholars has made the case for the early modern period as a recognizable era of world history, citing various processes that affected the entire world. Bentley has defined the early modern world as "the era about 1500 to 1800, when cross-cultural interactions increasingly linked the fates and fortunes of peoples throughout the world, but before national states, mechanized industry, and industrial-strength imperialism decisively changed the dynamics governing the development of world history." In Bentley's view, the early modern period should be defined mainly by the processes that intensified interaction and exchange between different parts of the world, producing varying impacts in different regions. He identifies the connection of the world by sea, global biological exchanges, and the creation of an "early capitalist global economy" as the three main processes that spurred the creation of the early modern world and led to other major developments that affected people around the world.
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 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.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. 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 Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and the peace established by the Second Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars.
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 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 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. The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa.
In the Islamic world, after the fall of the Timurid Renaissance, powers such as the Ottoman, Suri, Safavid, and Mughal empires grew in strength. 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. By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region.
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 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 Toungoo Empire along with Ayutthaya experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia, with the Nguyen and Trinh lords 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.