The early modern and modern era (late 15th to 19th century) was the transition from traditional agrarian society to industrial society. The great voyages of discovery linked the world, the Reformation broke the Church's dominance, bourgeois revolutions overthrew absolutism, and the Industrial Revolution opened the age of factories and railways. Exams focus on key dates (1492, 1517, 1640, 1776, 1789, 1815, 1861, 1871), matching countries with events, and cause-and-effect questions.
§1. The Age of Discovery, the Renaissance and the Reformation
Causes of the discoveries: the Ottomans controlled the overland trade routes to the East, demand for spices and gold was rising, and shipbuilding (the caravel), the compass and cartography had advanced.
1492 — Christopher Columbus (in Spanish service) reached America
1498 — Vasco da Gama sailed round Africa and opened the sea route to India
1519–1522 — Magellan's expedition made the first voyage round the world (Magellan himself was killed on the way), proving in practice that the Earth is round
Consequences: a colonial system (Spain, Portugal, later England, the Netherlands, France), the "price revolution", and the shift of trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic; the peoples of the Americas (Aztecs, Inca) were conquered and the African slave trade began. The Renaissance — a culture of humanism that began in Italy and put the human being at the centre: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael; Shakespeare, Cervantes. Gutenberg's printing press (mid-15th century) helped ideas spread quickly. The Reformation:
1517 — Martin Luther published his 95 Theses against indulgences
Protestant branches: Lutheranism, Calvinism (John Calvin), the Church of England.
1555 — the Peace of Augsburg: "whose realm, his religion".
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) ended with the Peace of Westphalia, which established the principle of state sovereignty.
§2. Bourgeois revolutions and the Enlightenment
The Dutch Revolt (second half of the 16th century) — a struggle against Spain that produced the Dutch Republic. The English Revolution:
Cause: King Charles I tried to raise taxes without Parliament; merchants, manufacturers and the new gentry resisted.
Course: the revolution began in 1640; Oliver Cromwell's army won the civil war; in 1649 the king was executed and a republic proclaimed.
Outcome: the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Bill of Rights of 1689 created a constitutional monarchy: the king could not make laws or levy taxes without Parliament.
The Enlightenment (18th century) — ideas of reason and natural rights: John Locke (rights to life, liberty and property), Montesquieu (separation of powers: legislative, executive, judicial), Voltaire, Rousseau (*The Social Contract*, popular sovereignty). American independence:
The 13 British colonies in North America resisted taxes imposed by the mother country (the Boston Tea Party, 1773).
4 July 1776 — the Declaration of Independence (drafted by Thomas Jefferson); commander-in-chief — George Washington
By the Treaty of Paris (1783) Britain recognised US independence; the Constitution was adopted in 1787 and Washington became the first president.
§3. The French Revolution and Napoleon
Causes: absolute monarchy, a privileged First (clergy) and Second (nobility) Estate, the entire tax burden on the "Third Estate", and a financial crisis.
14 July 1789 — storming of the Bastille in Paris; in August — the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
1792 — republic; 1793 — execution of Louis XVI; the Jacobin dictatorship (Robespierre) and the Terror.
1799 — General Napoleon Bonaparte's coup; in 1804 he became emperor and introduced the Civil Code.
The 1812 invasion of Russia ended in disaster; 1813 — the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig.
1815 — Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo; the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) set up a new European order
Significance: estate privileges were abolished; ideas of equality before the law and civil rights spread across Europe.
§4. The Industrial Revolution and mid-19th-century change
The Industrial Revolution was the shift from hand labour to machine production; it began in Britain in the late 18th century.
Spinning and weaving machines in textiles.
The steam engine improved by James Watt — factories no longer depended on rivers.
Transport: George Stephenson's locomotive and, in 1825, the first public railway; steamships.
Social consequences: rapid urban growth (urbanisation), the rise of the industrial bourgeoisie and the wage-earning working class; harsh conditions gave rise to the labour movement (trade unions, Chartism) and socialist ideas (1848 — Marx and Engels' *Communist Manifesto*). 1848–1871:
1848 — a wave of revolutions across Europe.
1861 — abolition of serfdom in Russia.
1861–1865 — the American Civil War (North vs South); President Abraham Lincoln; slavery abolished.
1861 — the Kingdom of Italy formed (Garibaldi, Cavour); 1871 — the German Empire (Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, "blood and iron", after the Franco-Prussian War).
1868 — the Meiji Restoration in Japan: modernisation. Wars of independence in Latin America (Simón Bolívar).
§5. The countries of the East in the early modern period
While Europe was changing rapidly, the great states of the East were at first powerful, but in the 18th–19th centuries they fell behind technically and militarily and became targets of European colonial expansion. Exams present this as a cause-and-effect question: "why did they fall behind?"
The Ottoman Empire reached its height under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566). The siege of Vienna in 1683 failed, and after that the empire began to retreat in Europe.
In Iran the Safavid dynasty came to power in 1501 (Ismail I), and Shia Islam became the state religion.
1526 — the Battle of Panipat: Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur defeated the Sultan of Delhi and founded the Mughal (Baburid) state in India
The Mughal state grew stronger under Akbar (1556–1605), who pursued a policy of religious tolerance. In the 18th century it weakened, and India gradually passed into the hands of the English East India Company. After the Sepoy (Indian) Rebellion of 1857–1859, India came under the direct rule of the British Crown.
In China the Manchu Qing dynasty ruled from 1644. Because Britain would not stop shipping opium into China, the First Opium War (1840–1842) broke out; it ended with the Treaty of Nanking (1842): China opened its ports and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.
In Japan the Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 and the country almost closed itself off from the outside world. In 1853–1854 an American squadron (Commodore Perry) forced Japan to open its ports; this spurred the later Meiji reforms.
Conclusion: weakening central power, a traditional economy and technical backwardness allowed the European powers to subordinate the countries of the East; Japan, by contrast, carried out reforms in time and not only kept its independence but became a great power itself.
Worked example
"Match the thinker and the idea: 1) Montesquieu; 2) Rousseau; 3) Locke. a) popular sovereignty; b) separation of powers; c) rights to life, liberty and property."
Montesquieu — *The Spirit of the Laws*, three branches of power: 1b.
Rousseau — *The Social Contract*, supreme power belongs to the people: 2a.
Locke — natural rights: 3c.
Worked example
"Order: Waterloo; the US Declaration of Independence; the Glorious Revolution; the storming of the Bastille."