Modern History

(M. AAMIR SULTAN)

Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline aIter the Middle Ages. Modern
history can be Iurther broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period aIter
the Great Divergence. Contemporary history describes the span oI historic events that are
immediately relevant to the present time.
The beginning oI the modern era started approximately in the 16th century. Many major events
caused the Western world to change around the turn oI the 16th century, starting with the Fall oI
Constantinople in 1453, the Iall oI Muslim Spain and the discovery oI the Americas in 1492, and
Martin Luther's Protestant ReIormation in 1517. Early modern European history is usually seen to
span Irom the turn oI the 15th century, through the Age oI Reason and Age oI Enlightenment in
the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning oI the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th
century.
Postmodern and Contemporary
"Postmodernism", coined 1949, on the other hand, would describe rather a movement in art than a
period oI history, and is usually applied to arts, but not to any events oI the very recent history This
changed, when post modernity was coined to describe the major changes in the 1950s and 1960s in
economy, society, culture, and philosophy. Sometimes distinct Irom the modern periods
themselves, the terms "modernity" and "modernism" reIer to a new way oI thinking, distinct Irom
medieval thinking. "Contemporary" is applied to more recent events because it means "belonging
to the same period" and "current".
Modern Era

SigniIicant Developments
The modern period has been a period oI signiIicant development in the Iields oI science, politics,
warIare, and technology. It has also been an age oI discovery and globalization. During this time
European powers and later their colonies, began a political, economic, and cultural colonization oI
the rest oI the world.
By the late 19th and 20th centuries, modernist art, politics, science and culture has come to
dominate not only Western Europe and North America, but almost every civilized area on the
globe, including movements thought oI as opposed to the west and globalization. The modern era
is closely associated with the development oI individualism, capitalism, urbanization and a belieI
in the possibilities oI technological and political progress.
The brutal wars and other problems oI this era, many oI which come Irom the eIIects oI rapid
change, and the connected loss oI strength oI traditional religious and ethical norms, have led to
many reactions against modern development. Optimism and belieI in constant progress has been
most recently criticized by postmodernism while the dominance oI Western Europe and North
America over other continents has been criticized by postcolonial theory.

The "Early Modern Period"
The modern era includes the early period, sometimes called the early modern period, which lasted
Irom c. AD 1500 to around c. AD 1800 (most oIten 1815). Particular Iacets oI early modernity
include:
O The Renaissance
O The ReIormation and Counter ReIormation.
O The Age oI Discovery
O Rise oI capitalism
Important events in the development oI early modernity period include:
O The Arrival oI the Printing Press
O The English Civil War
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The "Late Modern Period"
Modern Age Characteristics
The concept oI the modern world as distinct Irom an ancient or medieval world rests on a
sense that the modern world is not just another era in history, but rather the result oI a new
type oI change. This is usually conceived oI as progress driven by deliberate human
eIIorts to better their situation.
Advances in all areas oI human activitypolitics, industry, society, economics,
commerce, transport, communication, mechanization, automation, science, medicine,
technology, and culture appear to have transIormed an ld World into the Modern or
New World. In each case, the identiIication oI the old Revolutionary change can be used to
demarcate the old and old-Iashioned Irom the modern.
Portions oI the Modern world altered its relationship with the Biblical value system,
revalued the monarchical government system, and abolished the Ieudal economic system,
with new democratic and liberal ideas in the areas oI politics, science, psychology,
sociology, and economics. This combination oI epoch events totally changed thinking and
thought in the late modern period.
The Modernism worldview's emergence and the industrialization oI many nations was
initiated with the industrialization oI Britain.
Particular Iacets oI the late modernity period include:
O Increasing role oI science and technology
O Mass literacy and proliIeration oI mass media
O Spread oI social movements
O Institution oI representative democracy
O Individualism
O Industrialization
O Urbanization
O
Other important events in the development oI the late modern period include:
O The Revolutions oI 1848
O The Russian Revolution
O The First World War and the Second World War
Our most recent era Modern Times begins with the end oI these revolutions in the 19th
century, and includes the World Wars era (encompassing World War I and World War II) and the
emergence oI socialist countries that lead to the Cold War. The .ontemporary era Iollows shortly
aIterward with the explosion oI research and increase oI knowledge known as the InIormation Age
in the latter 20th and the early 21st century. Today's Postmodern era is seen in widespread
Digitality.

















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