Historical Eras and Transitions:
– Modern era began around 1500 AD due to events like the Fall of Constantinople, Gutenberg’s printing press, completion of the Reconquista, and Columbus’s voyage.
– Early modern era spanned from 1500 to 1800 and witnessed intellectual, political, and economic transformations.
– Late modern period began around 1800 post the political revolutions of the late 18th century.
– Transition from imperial powers to nation-states occurred after World War I and II in the late modern period.
– Contemporary history post-1945 includes the ongoing 21st century and is a sub-period of the late modern era.
Key Events and Movements:
– European Renaissance (1420–1630) marked an important transition from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Times.
– Age of Discovery, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and political revolutions characterized the early modern period.
– Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th century.
– Napoleonic Era marked significant political changes in France and Europe.
– Collapse of Spanish, Portuguese, Ottoman, Holy Roman, and Mughal Empires in the 19th century.
World Wars and Global Conflicts:
– World War I: Allied Powers led by British Empire, France, Russia, Japan, and the US.
– World War II: Began with Germany invading Poland in 1939, Allies included UK, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand.
– Cold War and its end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
– Major political events like world wars, Cold War, and decolonization.
– Rise of counterculture in the 1960s and technological advances like computers and the Internet.
Technological and Economic Developments:
– Industrial Revolution led to the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850.
– Technological advancements in the 21st century: Growth of Asia’s economic power, increasing demand for fossil fuels, expansion of data and internet usage.
– Fourth Industrial Revolution involves advanced technologies like AI, gene editing, and robotics.
– Global Internet Trends: Impact of nationalist movements, global pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
– COVID-19 Pandemic: Originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019, led to global lockdowns and economic disruptions.
Global Challenges and Shifts:
– Challenges in Developing Countries: Scale of tasks, rapid population growth, environmental protection, high costs, and impact on economic growth.
– Global Health Issues: Spread of viruses, prevalence of diseases like malaria and HIV, and need for disease control measures.
– Globalization and Cultural Shifts: Increased Americanization, anti-Western sentiments, English as the global language, and impact on disadvantaged populations.
– Security Concerns: Terrorism threats, spread of nuclear weapons, dictatorships, and nuclear ambitions.
– Population Growth: World population surpassed 8 billion in 2022, implications on resources and sustainability, shifts in population dynamics and demographics.
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The modern era or the modern period, also known as modern history or modern times, is the period of human history that succeeds the post-classical era (also known, particularly with reference to Europe, as the Middle Ages), which ended around 1500 AD, up to the present. This terminology is a historical periodization that is applied primarily to European and Western history.
The modern era can be further divided as follows:
- The early modern period lasted from c. AD 1500 to 1800 and resulted in wide-ranging intellectual, political and economic change. It brought with it the Age of Discovery, the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and an Age of Revolutions, beginning with the American War of Independence and the French Revolution and later spreading in other countries, partly as a result of upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars.
- The late modern period began around 1800 with the end of the political revolutions in the late 18th century and involved the transition from a world dominated by imperial and colonial powers into one of nations and nationhood following the two great world wars, World War I and World War II.
- Contemporary history refers to the period following the end of World War II in 1945 and continuing to the present. It is alternatively considered either a sub-period of the late modern period or a separate period beginning after the late modern period. It includes the currently-ongoing 21st century.
The modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of science, politics, warfare, and technology. It has also been an Age of Discovery and globalization. During this time, the European powers and later their colonies, began a political, economic, and cultural colonization of the rest of the world.
By the late 19th and early 20th century, 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 of as opposed to the western world and globalization. The modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization, and a belief in the positive possibilities of technological and political progress.
The brutal wars and other conflicts of this era, many of which come from the effects of rapid change, and the connected loss of strength of traditional religious and ethical norms, have led to many reactions against modern development. Optimism and the belief in constant progress have been most recently criticized by postmodernism, while the dominance of Western Europe and North America over the rest of the world has been criticized by postcolonial theory.
