Introduction to Part 4: The Early Modern World

As we begin a new chapter, both in the book and this class (World History 2 in that case!), we welcome a new topic. The focus of the upcoming chapters would be on the Modern Era.

The start of the Modern era begins around roughly 1450 and ends at around 1750. What we will first focus on is an era historians refer to "the early modern era". This was because we can find some initial signs or markers of the modern world. The beginning of genuine globalization, elements of distinctly modern societies, and a growing European presence in world affairs.

The most obvious expression of Globalization lays in the journeys of European explorers and the European conquest and colonial settlements of the Americas.

To guide our future discussions, here is a list of the Chapters and topics that we will be discussing in the future posts:
Chapter 13
- Spain's American empire
- Britain's thirteen colonies
- Islamic penetration of Europe
- Ottoman Empire
- Mughal Empire
- Chinese imperial expansion
- Tokugawa shogunate

Chapter 14
- North American fur trade
- Potosi silver mines
- Slave trade
- Brazil/ Portuguese Empire
- Russian Empire/ fur trade
- The Spanish Philippines
- Kongo
- Dutch Colonial settlement
- British East India Company
- Dutch East India Company

Chapter 15
- Spain's American Empire
- Britain's thirteen colonies
- Brazil/ Portuguese Empire
- Scientific revolution
- Protestant revolution
- Wahhabi Islam

Although the introduction serves as background information and an overview of the upcoming chapters to be discussed, there are important pieces of information for us to be able to get both a bigger picture and a deeper understanding of the early modern period.

In the next post, we will begin by discussing Chapter 13: Political Transformations Empires and Encounters.