General Knowledge / Modern India

Modern history/ period / era are the linear, global, historiographical approach to the time frame after post-classical history.

Modern history can be further broken down into periods:
1. Early Modern Period
2. Late Modern Period
3. Contemporary History

Early Modern Period
It began in approximately the early 16th century and its historical milestones included the European Renaissance, the Age of Discovery, the Era of the Islamic gun powders, and the Protestant Reformation.

Late Modern Period
It began approximately in the mid-18th century; notable historical milestones included the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Divergence, and the Russian Revolution. It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world's population to reach 1 billion; the next billion came just over a century later, in 1927.

Contemporary history is the span of historic events from approximately 1945 that are immediately relevant to the present time.

The term modern was coined in the 16th century to indicate present or recent times (ultimately derived from the Latin adverb modo, meaning "just now"). The European Renaissance (c. 1420–1630), which marked the transition between the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern times, started in Italy and was spurred in part by the rediscovery of classical art and literature, as well as the new perspectives gained from the Age of Discovery and the invention of the telescope and microscope, expanding the borders of thought and knowledge.

In contrast to the pre-modern era, Western civilization made a gradual transition from pre-modernity to modernity when scientific methods were developed which led many to believe that the use of science would lead to all knowledge, thus throwing back the shroud of myth under which pre-modern peoples lived. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation, versus the historic use of reason and innate knowledge.

The term Early Modern was introduced in the English language in the 1930s to distinguish the time between what has been called the Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment (1800) (when the meaning of the term Modern Ages was developing its contemporary form). It is important to note that these terms stem from European history. In usage in other parts of the world, such as in Asia, and in Muslim countries, the terms are applied in a very different way, but often in the context with their contact with European culture in the Age of Discovery.

Contemporary History
Facets of early modernity include:

The Renaissance in Italy
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The Reformation and Counter Reformation
The Sengoku period
The Age of Discovery
The Spread of Islam in Indonesia
The Columbian Exchange and Colonization of the Americas
The Triangular Trade
The rise of mercantilism and capitalism
The Golden Age of Piracy

Important events in the early modern period include:
The spread of the printing press (c. 1440)
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) in Europe
The English Civil War (1642–1651), the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689), and the union of Great Britain (1707)
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) in Europe and North America
Development of the Watt steam engine (1763–1775)
The American War of Independence from the British Empire (1775–1783)
The Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars
The French Revolution (1789–1799) and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (1803–1815)
Latin American wars of independence (c. early 19th century)
Modern India History. Vasco da Gama when landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, marked the beginning of the European era in Indian history.

In the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the late modern world, the Information Age and computers were forefront in use, not completely ubiquitous but often present in everyday life. The development of Eastern powers was of note, with China and India becoming more powerful. In the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces recently developed. A concern for Western world, if not the whole world, was the late modern form of terrorism and the warfare that has resulted from the contemporary terrorist acts.

Modern India Periods Period
Early Modern Period 16th century
Late Modern Period mid-18th century
Contemporary History Before 19th
Historic Early 19th Century


Modern era significant developments
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 20th centuries, 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 west and globalization. The modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress.

Wars and other perceived problems 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 belief in constant progress has been most recently criticized by postmodernismwhile the dominance of Western Europe and Anglo-America over other continents has been criticized by postcolonial theory.

Facets of early modernity include:

The Renaissance in Italy
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The Reformation and Counter Reformation
The Sengoku period
The Age of Discovery
The Spread of Islam in Indonesia
The Columbian Exchange and Colonization of the Americas
The Triangular Trade
The rise of mercantilism and capitalism
The Golden Age of Piracy

Important events in the early modern period include:
The spread of the printing press (c. 1440)
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) in Europe
The English Civil War (1642–1651), the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689), and the union of Great Britain (1707)
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) in Europe and North America
Development of the Watt steam engine (1763–1775)
The American War of Independence from the British Empire (1775–1783)
The Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars
The French Revolution (1789–1799) and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (1803–1815)
Latin American wars of independence (c. early 19th century)


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