1450 - 1750

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No other era is as easy to summarize as the EARLY MODERN (1450-1750) era.  This is the era the Europeans “wake up”, expand, and build empires. I’m not talking about Charlemagne here. I’m talking about the British Empire. I’m talking about the Dutch East India Trading Company. I’m talking about the Spanish Empire. This is a new Europe. This isn’t Marco Polo. These Europeans will come to your land and stay there. They will take over most of the world in this era (if not, in the next). Beyond the Maritime empires (and the effect of their establishment), many huge land empires emerged (most notably the Islamic Mughal and Ottoman Empires. Of course, China is important… It always is. So, here is the Early Modern Period…

The interconnection of the Eastern and Western hemispheres made possible by transoceanic voyaging marked a key transformation of this period. Technological innovations helped to make transoceanic connections possible. Changing patterns of long-distance trade included the global circulation of some commodities and the formation of new regional markets and financial centers. Increased trans-regional and global trade networks facilitated the spread of religion and other elements of culture as well as the migration of large numbers of people. Germs carried to the Americas ravaged the indigenous peoples, while the global exchange of crops and animals altered agriculture, diets, and populations around the planet.

Contextualizing the Time Period (1450 to 1750) ⛵

Before 1450, regional trade was all the rage as the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean network, and Trans-Saharan routes exploded with more merchants and goods flowing. By 1450, Europeans were set on finding a faster route to Asia. Relying on overland trade was too slow and you couldn’t bring all that many goods with you on a camel’s back. Maritime trade would prove to be far more economically efficient. But as of yet, the fastest way to Asia was through the Mediterranean, which was monopolized by the Byzantines followed by the Ottomans. Was there a faster route going west? Maybe. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Essential Questions for Students

Use the following essential questions to guide you when you’re thinking about this particular time period.

1. How did new technology lead to changes in trade & travel?
2. What were the motivations and consequences of exploration?
3. What were the causes and impacts of the Columbian Exchange?
4. How did Maritime (sea-based) Empires exert and expand their power?
5. How was the development of Maritime Empires influenced by ethnic divisions and racist institutions?
6. What were the challenges to state power and expansion?
7. How did social hierarchies change in this time?

Dates to Know from 1450 to 1750

The beginning of the early modern period

So when does the early modern period begin and end? The beginning of the early modern and thus the end of the medieval period (also called the Middle Ages) is associated with a group of fundamental changes that occurred in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

• In the field of ideas, this time saw a rebirth of interest in the writings of scholars from ancient Greece and Rome and a new emphasis on the use of observation as the basis of knowledge. This series of developments, called the Renaissance, in turn led to new ideas such as the model of the solar system with the sun at the centre while the planets revolved around it, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543).
• The spread of these new ideas was aided by the development of printing using movable type, devised by Johannes Gutenberg (c.1398–1468) in the 1450s.
• There was also a significant change in the economy, with a decline in the number of people holding land under the feudal system. Instead of getting access to land in return for military service or unpaid labour, farmers paid rent in goods or money.
• In religion, the power of the Catholic Church was challenged through criticism of its theology and practices, which ultimately led to the emergence of new Protestant churches.
• Finally, around the same time, Europeans discovered cultures beyond Europe; the best-known voyage was that led by Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) which began the colonisation of the Americas.

OVERVIEW/BREAKDOWN/RUN-DOWN/SYNOPSIS

Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its spreading globalizing character. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states and maritime republics, particularly Genoa, Venice, and Milan in the west, and in India’s Bengal in the east. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism.

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 Native Americans began during this period. The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of the West Asia and North Africa. 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.

In the Islamic world, after the fall of the Timurid Renaissance, powers such as the Ottoman, Suri, 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, signalling the period of proto-industrialization.

Various Chinese dynasties and Japanese shogunates controlled the 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.

This is a bit of a longer video, but well worth watching. It covers a lot and is a great review.

The Emergence of the First Global Age in Asia

The end of the early modern period

The end of the early modern period and the beginning of the modern is associated with two major developments. The French Revolution, a period of major political upheaval lasting from 1789 to 1799, threatened to overturn the traditional structure of society, where power was concentrated in the hands of the monarch, the nobles, and the church. While the social order was not destroyed, the French Revolution did open the door to the creation of a new political culture in the nineteenth century, with the expectation that ordinary people had some representation in government.

Around the same time, the old power sources for all forms of work – the muscle power of men, women, and animals (mainly horses) – were gradually replaced by engines powered by steam. This allowed the creation of machines and the production of goods on a scale never before imagined. The Industrial Revolution, entailing the shift of production from households and small workshops to large factories, brought with it huge social changes, including the rapid growth of towns. While historians generally agree that the fundamental change brought about by these events marked the boundaries of the early modern period, they differ on exactly which developments belong to the early modern.

I use 1780 as its endpoint, as I believe that the upheavals of the French and Industrial Revolutions belong in the modern period. But other historians opt for a slightly later end date and include the beginnings of industrialization, the establishment of political freedoms following the French Revolution, and the expansion of mass communication as part of the early modern period.