15世紀末以來，以地理大發現、宗教改革、民族國傢的崛起為標志，歐洲進入近代時期。 。近代包括從中世紀到工業革命為止的三個世紀，大約從1500至1800年，或者從1492年發現新世界到1789年法國大革命為止。
這個時期的特點是科學的重要性上升，技術進步突飛猛進，世俗公民政治和民族國傢異軍突起。資本主義經濟從意大利北部諸共和政體如熱那亞等開始萌芽發展。近代也見證了重商主義經濟理論的發展及占據主導。自然，近代也代表了在大部分歐洲地區封建社會、農奴製以及羅馬天主教會的權威的衰落與最終消失。這一時期也包括了新教改革、災難性的三十年戰爭、歐洲對美洲殖民和歐洲獵殺女巫活動。
The Early Modern period spans the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, roughly from 1500 to 1800, or from the discovery of the New World in 1492 to the French Revolution in 1789. The period is characterized by the rise to importance of science and increasingly rapid technological progress, secularized civic politics and the nation state. Capitalist economies began their rise, beginning in northern Italian republics such as Genoa. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period represents the decline and eventual disappearance, in much of the European sphere, of feudalism, serfdom and the power of the Catholic Church. The period includes the Protestant Reformation, the disastrous Thirty Years' War, the European colonization of the Americas and the European witch-hunts.