Early Modern Transformation
Oceans connect the world. States centralize. Empires expand. New science, trade, and violence remake everyday life.
1200 CE → 1750 CE
In one minute..
The mental model for this era
is when the world becomes one system. Long-distance navigation links continents; gunpowder states scale up; empires extract wealth; and new knowledge institutions change how people explain nature and power. Modern globalization begins here, alongside its darkest costs.
Why this era matters
- Global trade networks integrate continents, creating new wealth—and new inequalities.
- States and empires centralize power through taxation, bureaucracy, and military revolution.
- New knowledge systems (printing, science, accounting) accelerate innovation and coordination.
- Colonization, slavery, and disease reshape populations and ecologies at planetary scale.
What to watch for
- What new ‘tools of power’ appear: ships, cannon, ledgers, maps, and bureaucracy
- How religions and ideologies justify conquest—and spark internal conflict
- How everyday diets change (new crops) and how disease shapes outcomes
- How trade networks create winners and losers inside societies
Key transitions
Regional Worlds → Global System
oceans become highways; prices, crops, and power connect across continents
City Taxes → Fiscal-Military States
governments expand by funding standing armies and navies
Manuscripts → Print Publics
printing spreads ideas faster and creates new ideological conflict
Exchange → Extraction
empires reorganize land and labor to move value to imperial centers
Where this era is most active
Europe
Region
State consolidation, religious wars, and maritime expansion reshape politics and the global balance.