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AP^® PERIOD ONE

The historical era from the middle of the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth century is the first half of what is often referred to as the “early modern” period. That term was developed by historians seeking to refine an intellectual model first devised during this very period, which saw European history as divided into three parts: ancient (to the end of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century), medieval (from the fifth century to the fifteenth), and modern (from the fifteenth century to the historians’ own time). In this model, the break between the Middle Ages and the modern era was marked by the first voyage of Columbus (1492) and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (1517), though some scholars, especially those who focused on Italy, set the break somewhat earlier with the Italian Renaissance. As the modern era grew longer and longer, historians began to divide it into “early modern” (from the Renaissance or Columbus to the French Revolution in 1789) and what we might call “truly modern” (from the French Revolution to whenever they happened to be writing). They also saw a break in the middle of the early modern period, with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War (1648). That treaty ended more than a century of wars over religion. After this, wars in Europe were primarily fought for territorial gain and political power rather than religion, and Westphalia also ushered in a new system of diplomacy based on the notion of a “balance of power” that was supposed to lessen the frequency of war.

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There were continuities across all these breaks, however. The voyages of Columbus may have marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization, but there were plenty of earlier contacts between Europeans and other cultures, and Columbus himself was motivated more by religious zeal — generally regarded as “medieval” — than by a “modern” desire to explore the unknown. The Protestant Reformation did bring a major break in Western Christianity, but Martin Luther was seeking to reform the church, not split it, just like medieval reformers, of which there were many. Other developments traditionally regarded as marks of modernity, such as the expansion of capitalism, the growth of the nation-state, or increasing interest in science and technology, also had earlier precedents, and their impact was slow in coming. Many basic social structures established before 1450 endured: most people lived in villages and made their living by farming, the family remained the primary unit of production and consumption, nobles remained the dominant social group, and whether one was born male or female shaped every life experience and every stage of life.

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