Page 243 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

Early Modern World

Earthquakes
Eastern Europe

Economic Growth,
Extensive and Intensive
Ecumenicism
Education

Egypt—State Formation

Egypt, Ancient
Einstein, Albert
Early Modern
Electricity

Elizabeth I World

Empire
istorians sometimes refer to the era between the
Energy
Hpremodern (or medieval) and late modern eras as
Engines of History the “early modern world.” The world during this era was

Enlightenment, The increasingly united by the projection of European power
abroad, especially in the Americas. Although early mod-
Equatorial and Southern ern Europeans still had little knowledge of, let alone hege-
Africa, 4000 BCE–1100 CE mony (influence) over, the inland regions of Africa and
Erosion Asia, the links created and dominated by Europeans
made all the world a stage for fundamental historical
Esperanto
processes.
Ethnic Nationalism Historians debate, or pass over in silence, the problem
of determining the precise starting and ending dates of
Ethnicity
the early modern world and have produced only the
Ethnocentrism vaguest consensus. Roughly, the era of the early modern
Eurocentrism world began during the fifteenth century with the Timurid
(relating to the Turkic conqueror Timur) and Italian cul-
Europe tural renaissances.The year 1405 serves as a convenient
European Union starting date because it marks not only the death of
Timur, the last great central Asian conqueror to join farm-
Expansion, European
ers and nomads into a single empire, but also the first of
Expeditions, Scientific the Chinese admiral Zheng He’s (c. 1371–1435) naval
expeditions to the “Western Oceans.” The era might be
Exploration, Chinese
taken to end in the late eighteenth century with the
Exploration, Space French and Industrial revolutions, both European events

Extinctions of global consequence in the late modern world. The
uncertainty of this periodization derives in part from the
concept of an early modern Europe, with its own uncer-