Modern era

For other uses, see Modern era (disambiguation).

The term Modern Times is used by historians to loosely describe the period of time immediately following what is known as the Early Modern Times. It is to be distinguished from the term of Modernity.

1. The Early Modern Times lasted from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 18th century, circa 1450 (moveable type printing press etc) and 1492 (start of Europian Colonialism) to 1750 (the Enlightenment) and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
2. Modern Times are generally regarded as the period from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century and continuing up to today. The documentation of this time period is often called Modern history.
3. Modernity, based on Modernism, explores the changes of society due to the industrial age.
4. Postmodernity, Postindustrialism are theories to apply the art movement term of postmodernism (below) to social and cultural history, or to refer to the change of the industrial society during the past fifty years when the industry was no longer the most predominant basis of economy and society; the prefix "post-" implies a reaction to modernity and in that sense does not cover all contemporary history.

Modernity on the other hand, describes large-scale developments of society (including literature and philosophy). Modernism describes an art movement. Neither applies to political, social, or series of events since either the fin de siècle or World War I in a strict sense.

Terminology, Periodisation, and Early Modern

These terms are never to be used in strict terms, centuries are the most narrow time frame possible. In the English language, history was not a scientific subject until the Enlightenment (and the American and French Revolutions of that period, 1750-1800), so the "Modern Age" was their present time; that said, the term "modern" was coined shortly before 1585 to describe the beginning of a new era. For that reason, there is no distinction into Early and "Late", as in eg. in German, whose periodisation "Ancient-Medieval-New" was constructed after the millenarianist book on world history by Christoph Cellarius in 1707, and Hegel, who continued the tradition. There, it led to the, literally, "Late Newer" Times (Späte Neuzeit), which is essentially Modern Age. The term "Early Modern" was introduced in the English language during the Enlightenment to distinguish the time between what we call Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment (1800) (when the term Modern Ages was shaped in our contemporary form), a distinction that originated in the 1930s.

The similar terms Modern Period, ~ Age, or ~ Era, are also commonly (and synonymously) used. "Modern Times" and "Early Modern Times" refers to political or religious events like the English, the industrial, the American, and the French revolutions, while Modernity refers to the development of concepts like industrialisation and revolutions in the ways of thinking like individualism, democratic participation and nationalism. Still, both terms might often be used synonymously.

The European Renaissance (about 1420-1630) is an important transition period beginning between the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times.

"Postmodernism", coined 1949, on the other hand, would describe rather a movement in art than a period of history, and is usually applied to arts, but not to any events of the very recent history. This changed, when postmodernity was coined to describe the major changes in the 1950s and 1960s in economy, society, culture, and philosophy.

It is important to note that these terms stem from European History; in worldwide usage, such as in China, India and Islam, the terms are applied in a very different way, but often in the context with their contact with European culture in the Age of Discoveries.

Characteristics

The concept of the modern world is distinct from an ancient or mediaeval world rests on a sense that the modern world is not just another era in history, but rather the result of a new type of change. This is usually conceived of as progress driven by deliberate human efforts to better their situation.

Advances in all areas of human activity—politics, industry, society, economics, commerce, transport, communication, mechanization, automation, science, medicine, technology and culture—appear to have transformed an Old World into the Modern or New World. In each case, the identification of a Revolutionary change can be used to demarcate the old and old-fashioned from the modern.

Much of the Modern world replaced the Biblically-oriented value system, revalued the monarchical government system, and abolished the feudal economic system, with new democratic and liberal ideas in the areas of politics, science, psychology, sociology, and economics.

Events of Modern Times

Some events, though born out of context not entirely new, show a new way of perceiving the world. The concept of modernity interprets the general meaning of these events and seeks explanations for major developments; Historians analyse the events taking place in Modern Times, ie. since the so-called "Middle Ages" (that take their name from being in the middle between Modern and Ancient Times).

Events of Early Modern Times (15th to 18th century)

• Gutenberg's moveable type printing press (1450s): information age and newspapers.
• Discovery of America (1492): Age of Discovery.
• Martin Luther challenges the Church on 31 October 1517 with the 95 Theses: Reformation.
• Fall of the Spanish Armada 8 August 1588 enabled the Rise of the British Empire
• Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 in Central Europe decimated the population by up to 20%.
• The treaties of the Peace of Westphalia are signed in 1648, which ended several wars in Europe and established the beginning of sovereign states.
• Louis XIV r. 1643-1715, "roi soleil".
• The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht marked the change from Spanish to British naval supremacy.

Events of Modern Times (18th to 21st century)

For a thorough article on this period, see Modern history.

• Inventions of the Steam Engine (1764) and Spinning Jenny (1769) (one of the peak events influencing Romanticism).
• Rejection of monarchy and absolutism: Declaration of Independence by the British Colonies in America, then USA, 1776, influencing the French Revolution of 1789
• Storm on the Bastille 1789
• Napoleon defeated by the alliance of many nations in the Peoples' Battle of Leipzig 1813
• World War I and the Spanish Influenza
• World War II
• Cold War

See also

• Modernism
• Modernity

External links

• China and Europe