page_title: History of Europe
section_title: Early Modern Europe
hierarchical_section_title: History of Europe / Early Modern Europe
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Handelswege der Republiken Venedig und Genua English: Genoese (red) and Venetian (green) maritime trade routes in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Français&#160;: Routes commerciales maritimes Génoises (rouge) et Vénitiennes (vert) dans la Méditerranée et la mer Noire. Italiano: Rotte di commercio marittimo dei Genovesi (in rosso) e dei Veneziani (in verde) nel Mediterraneo e nel Mar Nero.
context_page_description: The history of Europe concerns itself with the discovery and collection, the study, organization and presentation and the interpretation of past events and affairs of the people of Europe since the beginning of written records. During the Neolithic era and the time of the Indo-European migrations Europe saw human inflows from east and southeast and subsequent important cultural and material exchange. The period known as classical antiquity began with the emergence of the city-states of ancient Greece. Later, the Roman Empire came to dominate the entire Mediterranean basin. The fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476 traditionally marks the start of the Middle Ages. Beginning in the 14th century a Renaissance of knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology. Simultaneously, the Protestant Reformation set up Protestant churches primarily in Germany, Scandinavia and England. After 1800, the Industrial Revolution brought prosperity to Britain and Western Europe. The main European powers set up colonies in most of the Americas and Africa, and parts of Asia. In the 20th century, World War I and World War II resulted in massive numbers of deaths.
context_section_description: The Early Modern period spans the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, roughly from 1500 to 1800, or from the discovery of the New World in 1492 to the French Revolution in 1789. The period is characterised by the rise to importance of science and increasingly rapid technological progress, secularised civic politics and the nation state. Capitalist economies began their rise. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period represents the decline and eventual disappearance, in much of the European sphere, of feudalism, serfdom and the power of the Catholic Church. The period includes the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the disastrous Thirty Years' War, the European colonisation of the Americas and the European witch-hunts.
caption: Genoese (red) and Venetian (green) maritime trade routes in the Mediterranean and Black Sea
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