Early modern Europe: an introduction

# Introduction

The early modern period, stretching from 1500 to 1780, is one of the most engaging periods of history. Beginning with the upheavals of the Reformation, and ending with the Enlightenment, it was a time of fundamental change in society, religion, ideas and everyday life, but also one of strong continuities with earlier times. This free course, Early modern Europe: an introduction, provides an introduction to the early modern period in Europe, exploring how historians have defined and approached the period, and analysing the key aspects of the time.

Please note that terms in bold are defined in the glossary at the end of the course.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A223 Early modern Europe: society and culture, 1500 to 1780 .

OpenLearn - Early modern Europe: an introduction
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.