Early modern Europe

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Abraham Ortelius: Map of Europe, 1595.




The early modern period was characterized by profound changes in many realms of human endeavor. Among the most important include the development of science as a formalized practice, increasingly rapid technological progress, and the establishment of secularized civic politics, law courts and the nation state. Capitalist economies began to develop in a nascent form, first in the northern Italian republics such as Genoa and Venice and in the cities of the Low Countries, later in France, Germany and England. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period is often associated with the decline and eventual disappearance (at least in Europe) of feudalism and serfdom. The Protestant Reformation greatly altered the religious balance of Christendom, creating a formidable new opposition to the dominance of the Catholic Church, especially in Northern Europe. The early modern period also witnessed the circumnavigation of the earth and the establishment of regular European contact with the Americas, India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia. The ensuing rise of global systems of international economic, cultural and intellectual exchange played an important role in the development of capitalism and represents the earliest phase of globalization.




  • 1450
  • 1453
  • 1485
  • 1492
  • 1494
  • 1513
  • 1517
  • 1526
  • 1545




Elizabethan period[edit]


This period refers to England 1558–1603. The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and is often considered a golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance, and saw the flowering of English literature and poetry. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre grew. William Shakespeare, among others, composed plays that broke away from England's past style of plays. It was an age of expansion and exploration abroad. At home the Protestant Reformation was established and successfully defended against the Catholic powers of the Continent.


The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century movement to reform the Catholic Church in Europe. The Reformation was started on 31 October 1517 by Martin Luther, who posted his 95 Theses criticizing the practice of indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, commonly used to post notices to the University community. In November he mailed them to various religious authorities of the day. The Reformation ended in division and the establishment of new church movements. The four most important traditions to emerge directly from the Reformation were Lutheranism, the Reformed (also called Calvinist or Presbyterian) tradition, Anglicanism, and the Anabaptists. Subsequent Protestant churches generally trace their roots back to these initial four schools of the Reformation. It also led to the Catholic or Counter Reformation within the Roman Catholic Church through a variety of new spiritual movements, reforms of religious communities, the founding of seminaries, the clarification of Catholic theology as well as structural changes in the institution of the Church.

Age of Enlightenment[edit]


Difference between 'early modern' and the Renaissance[edit]



Religion in early modern Europe[edit]

The Antichrist, by Lucas Cranach the Elder – 1521, commissioned by Martin Luther

The time between 1550 and 1650 is commonly described as age of religious wars.[2] The Protestant Reformation had divided western Christianity into Catholicism and Protestantism. The divide between the new denominations was deep. Protestants commonly alleged that the catholic Pope was the Antichrist. Conflict between Christian factions reached its height in France with the French Wars of Religion and the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Outbreaks against Catholics also occurred in Protestant countries, leading to endemic conflicts in some areas, such as Ireland, where the British government imported Protestants and expelled Catholic landowners following a long period of conflict over control of the island.

Catholic countries[edit]

Only in Italy, Spain and Portugal did the Catholic authorities manage to suppress Protestantism completely.[3] After a "few dozen" Protestants had been executed in Spain in the 1550s, Protestantism failed to gain a foothold there[4] and the conflict between the Christian denominations did not become an issue within the country. Nevertheless, the Spanish Inquisition continued its work until the 19th century.

Goa Inquisition[edit]

Main article: Goa Inquisition

During the period of Colonial Conquest, Portugal also established the Inquisition in the part of India which was part of Portuguese Empire. The Goa Inquisition discriminated against Hindus who were living in the area as well as persecuting Hindus, Muslims and Jews who had converted to Catholicism but were suspected of continuing to practise their old faiths in secret.

Protestant Martyrs under Queen Mary[edit]

Many Protestant Christians were burnt at the stake or otherwise killed in the reign of Queen Mary I of England, including Thomas Cranmer and two bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the Oxford Martyrs.[5] Historians have noted, however, that Queen Elizabeth I had dozens of Catholics put to death during her reign, despite later history's depiction of her as supporting a "via media" in church polity.

Expulsion of the Salzburgers from Austria[edit]

On October 31, 1731, the Catholic ruler of Salzburg, Austria, archbishop Leopold von Firmian, issued an edict expelling as many as 20,000 Lutherans from his principality. Many Lutherans, given only eight days to leave their homes, froze to death as they wandered throughout the winter seeking shelter. The wealthier ones who were allowed three months to dispose of their property fared better. Some of these Salzburgers reached London, whence they sailed to the Province of Georgia. Others found new homes in the Netherlands and East Prussia.

Persecution of Huguenots by Catholics[edit]

The slaughter of Huguenots (French Protestants) by Catholics at Sens, Burgundy, in 1562 occurred at the beginning of more than thirty years of religious strife between French Protestants and Catholics. These wars produced numerous atrocities. The worst was the notorious St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris on August 24, 1572. Thousands of Huguenots were butchered by Roman Catholic mobs. Although an accommodation between the two sides was sealed in 1598 by the Edict of Nantes, religious privileges of Huguenots eroded during the seventeenth century and were extinguished in 1685 by the revocation of the edict. Perhaps as many as 400,000 French Protestants emigrated to various parts of the world, including the British North American colonies. Persecution was resumed under Louis XV, 1724–1764, gradually subsiding in the decades leading up to the triumph of laïcité in France.

Protestant countries[edit]

Execution of Mennonites in the Netherlands[edit]

The executions of David van der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins.

In the Netherlands, David van der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins, described variously as Dutch Anabaptists or Mennonites, were executed by Catholic authorities in Ghent in 1554. Strangled and burned, van der Leyen was finally dispatched with an iron fork. Thieleman J. van Braght's Martyrs Mirror is considered by modern Mennonites as second only in importance to the Bible in perpetuating their faith.

Massacres of Civilian Populations in Germany[edit]

Throughout the Thirty Years' War, Protestant and Catholic armies took advantage of weakened civilian populations, committing numerous recorded acts of violence and atrocities. Catholic forces loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor carried out the notorious Sack of Magdeburg, while Protestant Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus ransacked their fellow Lutherans' villages in northern Germany. By the end of the war, Germany's population had been reduced by one third.

Persecution and Executions of Catholics in Great Britain[edit]



Sir Thomas More was put to death by his former student, Henry VIII, for his refusal to recognize Henry as the head of the church. Saint Margaret Clitherow was put to death via crushing during the reign of Elizabeth I, along with Anne Line, who was hanged. Both women were killed for the crime of harboring Roman Catholic priests. These two, along with 38 others, are named in the Catholic Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Massacres of Catholics in Ireland[edit]

Thousands of Catholic residents were massacred by Oliver Cromwell's Protestant troops at Drogheda, Wexford, and Waterford, during the Irish campaign of autumn and winter 1649. All of the survivors of Drogheda and many from other places were sold as slaves to the West Indies. In 1652, all Catholic-owned estates east of the River Shannon were confiscated, and their residents were evicted en-masse amid plague and famine that killed an even greater number. Approximately 600,000 people, nearly half the Irish population, died during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[6] The penal laws of 1690 caused still more destitution and emigration.

Massacres of Religious Minorities in Scotland and Civil War[edit]

As part of the broader political conflict in the British Isles brought on by religious war, The Killing Time was characterized by a Scottish civil war between Presbyterian dissenters (Covenanters) and Charles II's and James VII's episcopal Anglican church policy. Lowland Covenanters were massacred in droves by Highlanders loyal to the crown, and the most radical Covenanter Calvinists committed corporal atrocities against any non-Presbyterians. One of the most notorious examples included the nailing of tongues to doors--a punishment designed to display the non-Presbyterian's lack of good doctrine and "lies."

Political powers[edit]

See also[edit]


  2. ^ Kaplan 2007:2
  3. ^ Kaplan 2007:3
  4. ^ Coffey 2000: 212
  5. ^ Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
  6. ^ BBC The curse of Cromwell

Referred literature[edit]


Further reading[edit]

    • Scott, Hamish, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750: Volume II: Cultures and Power (2015).

External links[edit]