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    Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire
    Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire
    Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire
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    Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire

    By Captivating History

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    About this ebook

    Explore the Captivating History of Early Modern Europe
     
    The beginning of modern Europe was a time of confusion, excitement, suspicion, hope, despair, and ideas. It was a time of a lot of change spread out over just a few hundred years, but the end result was a completely different world than the one that had come before it.
     
    This book includes details of the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern era, where Europe saw significant shifts across the continent in phases. The years following the 30 Years War until the 1800s are treated as a transition between the early and current modern eras. The unrest that started at the end of the Middle Ages exploded following the Thirty Years' War, and it marked the change to many of the thought processes widely accepted as true today.
     
    In  Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire, you will discover topics such as:

    -  The World Leading to the Modern Era 
    -  The European Power Dynamic 
    -  The Age of Discovery 
    -  Sanctioned Piracy – Ruling the High Seas 
    -  Religious Corruption and Upheaval 
    -  The Inquisition 
    -  The Protestant Reformation 
    -  The Thirty Years' War 
    -  Witch Hunts – Including the Infamous Salem Witch Trials 
    -  The Italian Renaissance 
    -  Johannes Gutenberg – One Invention to Change the World 
    -  The Slow Transition to Today 
    -  And much, much more!  
     So if you want to learn more about Early Modern Europe, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button! 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCaptivating History
    Release dateApr 13, 2019
    ISBN9798223244073
    Early Modern Europe: A Captivating Guide to a Period in European History with Events Such as The Thirty Years War and The Salem Witch Hunts and Political Powers Such as England and The Ottoman Empire

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      Book preview

      Early Modern Europe - Captivating History

      Introduction

      With a few exceptions, the world changes at a relatively slow pace. Ideas roll around in the social consciousness, and people begin to question tradition and power, but these ideas often take decades or centuries to emerge as a completely different way of thinking. The people in power always work to suppress these kinds of new ideas because questioning the norm almost always signals the end of the reign of those currently in power. There are obvious exceptions, but even great changes often do not happen as quickly as they appear when you look back over history.

      The beginning of modern Europe started several hundred years ago. Some people point to the Renaissance as the beginning of the changes, but it was more of an example of the changes that had started 100 years earlier. Some put the dates from the start of the Italian Renaissance (14th through 17th centuries), and others date the era from the 12th or 13th century until the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648). It will be centuries before historians can come to any agreement though. This book includes details of the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern era, where Europe saw significant shifts across the continent in phases. The years following the Thirty Years’ War until the 1800s are treated as a transition between the early and current modern eras. The unrest that started at the end of the Middle Ages exploded following the Thirty Years’ War, and it marked the change to many of the thought processes widely accepted as true today.

      Early modern Europe is actually the first time when Europe seemed to act more cohesively, as large swaths of the continent under Roman rule had done previously. There were still countries and patriotism, but the vast majority of the people in Europe did not have as much loyalty to a country or leader as they once had. Under the feudal system, simply surviving was incredibly difficult (things like famine and illness were constant threats) —they didn’t much care who the lord or master of their region was. As survival became easier and people found opportunities that were unavailable during the Middle Ages, people’s perceptions began to evolve. This began long before Martin Luther’s theses and the genius of the men of the Renaissance.  

      One of the most intriguing and romanticized aspects of the early modern era was the strong desire of some nations to explore the world, especially faraway places. One of the primary interests in exploration was to find an easier way to trade with the Far East, but as soon as people realized that there were two entirely new continents, the powerful European nations sought something else. With the change in social structures, many of the people who could not find advancement by remaining in Europe or who felt their beliefs should be allowed to flourish sought new lives. The beginning of colonialism would carry on for centuries, only ending when there was nowhere new left to explore or when the people rose up against the leaders of the countries where they lived. Many revolutions would be a result of this early period in modern Europe, but they indicate more of a transition from the early modern era to the current. They were the fruit of the changes in thinking and beliefs that began during the early modern era.

      This allowed for another highly romanticized and intriguing career: piracy. Those who could not find wealth through traditional means, who lived difficult lives, or who did not feel a deep connection to any particular country or region could acquire wealth through piracy. One of the most interesting things about pirates was that there were pirates for particular countries. Some of the most famous Englishmen from early modern Europe were pirates, including Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, although many people don’t realize they were, in fact, pirates. Then there were more the traditional pirates who terrorized the Caribbean, taking the wealth stolen from the New World and merchants for their own. Piracy had a far more diverse purpose, and some pirates could be used as mercenaries. However, most could not be bought or sold.

      We like to think of modern Europe as being civilized, cordial, and peace-loving. However, that is not the history of the continent (and it isn’t true of any human civilization). The start of modern Europe was steeped in blood. Considering the fact that it hasn’t been 100 years since the last World War, the bloody beginnings have carried on throughout the modern era, making it the rule more than the exception. Much of the bloodshed began because those in power sought to stay in power. More often than not, horrific acts were carried out by nations with the backing of the Catholic Church. The cruel tactics used by the Catholic Church to retain power ultimately ended up contributed to the rise of opposition. One of the most notable examples was the Spanish Inquisition. The rise of the Inquisition showed how people were beginning to question the Church, and its response was extreme in an attempt to retain power. Everyone was suspect during these times because there was just so much change.

      One of these changes was improvements in agriculture which led to the rise of towns and more specialized jobs. As men sought a better life and different way of thinking, it was clear that women were not to be included as a part of the equality that lower-class men were pushing for. The exclusion of women from these changes was the most evident in the witch trials that were common during much of this period. Although men were also tried and found to be witches, the vast majority of those who underwent religious trials were women, particularly women with strong opinions or who dared to speak out. Few of these sham proceedings are as infamous as the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in the British colonies. And the struggles between countries were no less intense. As ideologies clashed, wars were inevitable. The Thirty Years’ War is one of the clearest examples of how countries and ideologies could clash to create more chaos.

      As with every other major shift, science and technology played a definitive role in pushing thinking and beliefs into entirely new and different areas. Men like Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo looked to the stars and saw more than just what they had been told by the Church their entire lives. Science called into question religion, which was the primary power structure across Europe and one of the few things that most of Europe had in common during the Dark Ages. Science would question the teachings of Christianity, but it was the revolutionary printing press that would give everyone the opportunity to think for themselves. Books are something we take for granted today, but Gutenberg’s invention was one of the most notable events during this time, not only because it made it easier to make books, but because it made books cheap to print and sell. For the first time in history, books were no longer something exclusive to the Church, monarchs, and wealthy. The general population began to learn to read and write, which entirely changed the course of history.

      The beginning of modern Europe was a time of confusion, excitement, suspicion, hope, despair, and ideas. It was a time of a lot of change spread out over just a few hundred years, but the end result was a completely different world than the one that had come before it.

      Chapter 1 – The World Leading to the Modern Era

      History has seen a lot of changes, with many of the changes being gradual. Then an invention will arrive that completely changes everything or a revolutionary way of thinking emerges to change social structures. The transition from the Middle Ages (often called the medieval period) into early modern Europe was long and arduous, marked with a lot of bloodshed.

      There aren’t exact dates for what is considered to be the dawn of the modern era because there was no single event or small cluster of events in sequence that started a chain of events. It was, instead, the shifting in ideas, political structures, religious beliefs, and societal structures. Several hundred years of upheaval and clashing ideologies were the foundation for our modern world, with some of the most notable events in European history occurring during this time. The changes were gradual, largely linked to the movement from rural settings to towns which increasingly grew, creating larger cities as more people sought better lives.

      Ultimately, it was a growing discontentment with a stagnant lifestyle where survival was difficult that led to early modern Europe.

      The Power Dynamic

      One of the things that people did not have to worry about during

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