Intro to Part 4 - The Early Modern World (1450-1750)

"For the sake of clarity and coherence, historians often characterize a particular period of time in a brief phrase -- the age of First Civilizations, the age of empires, the era of revolutions, and so on. Though useful and even necessary, such capsule descriptions leave a lot out and vastly oversimplify what actually happened. Historical reality is always more messy, more complicated, and more uncertain than any shorthand label can convey."

It's interesting to me that the author would start the beginning of chapter 4 with this, because it definitely is true! We like to label certain events, which makes it easy to remember but those labels leave out a lot of information. This is especially true when speaking about The Early Modern World. 

The Early Modern Era, was spanning from the years 1450 - 1750. It's during these times that we can find signs of the modern world; "the beginnings of genuine globalization, elements of distinctly modern societies, and growing European presence in world affairs." But, just like the author mentions in the quote about that is what The Early Modern Era is remembered for. But what about all the other events that happened that people don't often mention, or talk about? What about all the Atlantic Slave Trade, The Great Dying, The Conquest of land in the Americas. These are just some of the things that happened but no one really thinks of when they think of The Early Modern World, which is truly disheartening.

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