Advanced History

Era guide, 1450 to 1750

The early modern world: timeline and study guide

Between 1450 and 1750, ocean voyages joined the hemispheres, print spread new ideas, and large land empires in Asia rose alongside European colonial powers.

Timeline of the early modern world

The early modern world, 1450 to 1750
  1. Gutenberg Bible printedc. 1455
  2. Columbus reaches the Caribbean1492
  3. Luther’s Ninety-five Theses1517
  4. Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire1519 to 1521
  5. Reign of Suleiman1520 to 1566
  6. Mughal Empire1526 to 1857
  7. Copernicus publishes1543
  8. Council of Trent1545 to 1563
  9. Tokugawa shogunate1603 to 1868
  10. Thirty Years’ War1618 to 1648
  11. English Civil War1642 to 1651
  12. Reign of Louis XIV1643 to 1715
  13. Qing dynasty1644 to 1912
  14. Newton’s Principia1687

On a small screen, swipe the timeline sideways to see all of it.

Why historians call it early modern

Historians use "early modern" for the centuries when several features of the modern world first appeared together: global sea trade, printed books, standing armies, stronger central states and new methods in science. The label started in European history, and world historians now apply it more widely, noting that powerful states in Asia were growing at the same time.

Major developments to know

  • Print: Johannes Gutenberg's press with movable metal type, used for his Bible in the 1450s, made books cheaper and faster to produce in Europe.
  • Ocean voyages: Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492, Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498, and the expedition begun by Magellan sailed around the world between 1519 and 1522.
  • The Columbian Exchange: plants, animals, people and diseases moved between the Americas and the rest of the world. Smallpox and other diseases killed a large share of Indigenous Americans.
  • Conquest and slavery: Spain conquered the Aztec and Inca empires. The Atlantic slave trade forcibly carried millions of Africans to the Americas, a central topic in any study of the period.
  • The Reformation: Martin Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church in 1517 split western Christianity. The Catholic Church responded with reforms, including the Council of Trent.
  • Gunpowder empires: the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires used firearms and strong bureaucracies to rule large territories.
  • East Asia: the Ming dynasty gave way to the Qing in 1644. In Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate brought more than two centuries of internal peace from 1603.
  • The Scientific Revolution: from Copernicus's sun-centered model in 1543 to Newton's laws of motion in 1687, scholars built new ways of testing ideas about nature.

Themes that run through the era

State-building. Rulers raised taxes and armies on a new scale. Compare how Louis XIV of France and the Ottoman sultans controlled their nobles and provinces.

Global trade and silver. Silver mined in Spanish America, especially at Potosí, flowed to Europe and on to China, which demanded silver for taxes. This is a strong example of a connection that spans continents.

Religious conflict and settlement. The Thirty Years' War ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, often cited in discussions of the modern idea of state sovereignty.

Sources and how we know

Print means far more sources survive from this period: pamphlets, sermons, maps, trading company records, legal cases and letters. Accounts of the Americas written by Europeans need careful sourcing. Where they survive, Indigenous accounts, such as records compiled after the conquest of Mexico, give another view.

Practice questions

  • Compare how the Ottoman and Mughal empires governed religiously diverse populations.
  • Evaluate the effects of the Columbian Exchange on the Americas and on Afro-Eurasia.
  • To what extent did the printing press cause the spread of the Reformation?

Previous era: the medieval world. Next era: the age of revolutions, 1750 to 1900.