4 What were the features of the early modern period?

What do historians identify as the important features?

How does your knowledge of early modern Europe compare with the accounts of the period given by historians?

The first thing to note is that historians’ understanding of what characterises early modern Europe has changed over time. If you look at an old textbook, you will find that the early modern (as the name suggests) was seen as a forerunner of the modern period: a time of transition between the medieval and the modern. Historians looked for changes that foreshadowed important aspects of modern life, such as the rise of democracy, the tolerance of a range of religious beliefs and the movement of people from the countryside into towns (a process known as urbanisation). This approach has now been abandoned. The problem with reading history backwards – looking for the origins of later change – is that it gives a skewed picture which emphasises those features that are seen as important in modern life, but ignores other developments which might have been significant in the lives of early modern people. Historians now try to study the early modern as a period that was important in its own right, different from, but with some continuities with, both medieval and modern times.

The quickest way to gain a sense of what present-day historians see as the distinctive features of the early modern is to turn to recent textbooks. You are not expected to read a textbook at this point – all you need is a quick overview, and the best way to get that is by using a technique called ‘gutting’ a book. This is an extremely useful skill. As an example, you’ll look at Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks’ Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789, a textbook which is used on many university courses. Looking at the contents pages (one of which is reproduced in Figure 2), you can see she has chosen to split the period into two (1450–1600 and 1600–1789) but to use the same chapter titles in each half. These give a good sense of the areas of history that she thinks are important in the early modern. The subheadings give a more detailed sense of the important topics and events of the period. There is also an opening chapter which gives a starting point, but you can leave that aside.

Professor Wiesner-Hanks identifies six key areas of study in the early modern; below is a summary of the events or topics that come under each heading. Don’t worry if there are some terms you don’t understand at present.

• Individuals: stages of the life cycle – childhood, marriage and so on – family, health, society and self-expression (through diary writing).
• Politics and power: military power, government, styles of ruler – absolute and enlightened monarchs – explored in different countries.
• Cultural and intellectual life: education, art, music, literature, political theory, science, the Enlightenment.
• Religious reform, consolidation and renewal: the Reformation, religious wars, Protestant churches, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, witchcraft, church and state.
• Economics and technology: population growth, agriculture, manufacturing, banking, capitalism, industry, urban life, poverty.
• Europe in the world: exploration and colonies in Asia, Africa and the Americas.