The Reformation is usually dated from 1517, when Martin Luther published his:

Institutes of the Christian Religion

The late-19th-century partition of Africa among European powers was regularised at the:

Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885

World History Quiz

Modern World History

Modern world history is the story of how the world moved from the medieval order to the present, roughly from about 1450 to the late twentieth century. It is driven by a chain of connected transformations: the rebirth of learning in the Renaissance, the splitting of the Church in the Reformation, the European voyages that linked the continents, the scientific and intellectual revolutions, the great political revolutions in America and France, the Industrial Revolution, the age of empire, the two World Wars, and the Cold War and decolonisation that followed. These notes give the key events, causes and consequences of each of these ages at the factual level examinations test. A 20-question practice set follows.

The Early Modern Transformations

The modern age opens with a cluster of movements between about 1450 and 1650 that broke the unity of medieval Europe and connected the wider world for the first time. Learn each movement with its meaning and one or two landmark facts.

The Renaissance (about 1350 to 1600), meaning rebirth, was a revival of classical learning and art that began in Italy, especially Florence, and produced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, and the humanist emphasis on the individual.
The invention of the printing press with movable type by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 spread ideas cheaply and rapidly and made the later revolutions possible.
The Age of Exploration: Portuguese and Spanish voyages, Columbus reaching the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama reaching India by sea in 1498, linked the continents and began European colonial empires and the transatlantic slave trade.
The Reformation, begun in 1517 when Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses, split Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant and reshaped European politics; the Catholic Counter-Reformation responded.
The Scientific Revolution (16th to 17th centuries) replaced medieval authority with observation and experiment: Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre, and Galileo and Isaac Newton (the law of gravitation) founded modern science.
The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century applied reason to society, producing thinkers such as Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau, whose ideas of liberty, rights and the social contract fed the political revolutions.

The Age of Revolutions

Between 1776 and the mid-nineteenth century a wave of political and economic revolutions destroyed the old order of absolute monarchy and agrarian society and created the modern world of nations, citizens and industry.

The American Revolution: the thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain on 4 July 1776 and won it by 1783, creating the first modern republic founded on Enlightenment principles.
The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille; its Declaration of the Rights of Man proclaimed liberty, equality and fraternity, it abolished the monarchy, and it passed through the Terror before Napoleon rose to power.
Napoleon Bonaparte dominated Europe until his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815; the Congress of Vienna then tried to restore the old order.
The Industrial Revolution, beginning in Britain around 1760, replaced hand production with machines and steam power, created factories and industrial cities, and transformed how people lived and worked.
Key industrial advances: James Watt's improved steam engine, the mechanisation of textiles, and later the railway and the factory system.
The revolutions spread nationalism and liberalism across Europe, seen in the wave of uprisings of 1848 and in the unification of Italy and of Germany (completed in 1871 under Bismarck).

Imperialism and the World Wars

Industrial power drove Europe to dominate most of the globe, and the rivalries this created exploded into the two most destructive wars in history.

The New Imperialism of the late nineteenth century saw European powers colonise almost all of Africa and much of Asia; the Scramble for Africa was regularised at the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885.
The First World War (1914 to 1918) grew from militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism, and was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914; it ended the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought the Bolsheviks under Lenin to power and created the world's first communist state, the Soviet Union.
The harsh Treaty of Versailles of 1919, the Great Depression from 1929, and the weakness of the League of Nations opened the way to the dictatorships of Mussolini, Hitler and militarist Japan.
The Second World War (1939 to 1945) began with Germany's invasion of Poland; it became a global war of the Allies against the Axis, included the Holocaust, and ended with the defeat of Germany and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war killed an estimated 70 to 85 million people and left the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers.

The Cold War and the Modern World

The second half of the twentieth century was shaped by the rivalry of the two superpowers and by the collapse of the European empires, producing the world we live in now.

The Cold War (about 1947 to 1991) was a period of tension, arms racing and proxy wars between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union, without direct war between them.
Its landmarks include the division of Germany and the Berlin Wall, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race.
The United Nations was founded in 1945 to keep peace and cooperation, replacing the failed League of Nations.
Decolonisation: exhausted by war, the European powers withdrew from their empires, and dozens of new nations emerged in Asia and Africa, beginning with the independence of India in 1947 and spreading across Africa in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, leaving the United States as the sole superpower.
These decades also saw the civil rights movement, the founding of the European project, rapid technological change, and the beginnings of globalisation.

Key Terms

Renaissance: The revival of classical learning and art in Europe from about the 14th to the 16th century, beginning in Italy, marked by humanism and figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Reformation: The 16th-century religious movement, begun by Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses of 1517, that split Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant churches.
Industrial Revolution: The shift from hand production to machines and steam power that began in Britain around 1760, creating factories, industrial cities and the modern economy.
Cold War: The rivalry of tension, arms racing and proxy wars between the United States and the Soviet Union from about 1947 to 1991, ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

correct out of 20

The word Renaissance means:
- A.Reform
- B.Rebirth
- C.Revolt
- D.Reason
B. Rebirth — Renaissance means rebirth, the revival of classical learning and art.
The Renaissance is generally regarded as having begun in:
- A.England
- B.Italy
- C.Germany
- D.France
B. Italy — It began in Italy, especially Florence, before spreading across Europe.
The printing press with movable type was developed around 1440 by:
- A.Johannes Gutenberg
- B.Leonardo da Vinci
- C.Martin Luther
- D.Galileo Galilei
A. Johannes Gutenberg — Gutenberg's press spread ideas cheaply and rapidly across Europe.
Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in:
- A.1488
- B.1492
- C.1498
- D.1519
B. 1492 — Columbus reached the Americas in 1492; Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498.
The Reformation is usually dated from 1517, when Martin Luther published his:
- A.Ninety-five Theses
- B.Book of Common Prayer
- C.Institutes of the Christian Religion
- D.Social Contract
A. Ninety-five Theses — Luther's Ninety-five Theses of 1517 launched the Reformation.
Which scientist proposed that the Sun, not the Earth, is at the centre of the system?
- A.Isaac Newton
- B.Nicolaus Copernicus
- C.Francis Bacon
- D.Rene Descartes
B. Nicolaus Copernicus — Copernicus advanced the heliocentric model, developed further by Galileo and Kepler.
The Enlightenment thinker associated with the social contract and popular sovereignty is:
- A.Voltaire
- B.Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- C.Adam Smith
- D.Thomas Hobbes
B. Jean-Jacques Rousseau — Rousseau's The Social Contract argued for popular sovereignty; his ideas fed the French Revolution.
The American Declaration of Independence was adopted on:
- A.4 July 1776
- B.14 July 1789
- C.1 January 1776
- D.4 July 1783
A. 4 July 1776 — The thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain on 4 July 1776.
The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the:
- A.Palace of Versailles
- B.Bastille
- C.Tuileries
- D.Louvre
B. Bastille — The storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 is the symbolic start of the Revolution.
Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of:
- A.Austerlitz
- B.Waterloo
- C.Leipzig
- D.Trafalgar
B. Waterloo — Napoleon's final defeat came at Waterloo in 1815.
The Industrial Revolution began around 1760 in:
- A.France
- B.Britain
- C.Germany
- D.the United States
B. Britain — It began in Britain, driven by steam power and the mechanisation of textiles.
The improved steam engine central to industrialisation was developed by:
- A.George Stephenson
- B.James Watt
- C.Eli Whitney
- D.Richard Arkwright
B. James Watt — James Watt's improved steam engine powered factories and, later, railways.
The unification of Germany was completed in 1871 under the leadership of:
- A.Otto von Bismarck
- B.Giuseppe Garibaldi
- C.Kaiser Wilhelm II
- D.Count Cavour
A. Otto von Bismarck — Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, engineered German unification in 1871.
The late-19th-century partition of Africa among European powers was regularised at the:
- A.Congress of Vienna
- B.Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885
- C.Treaty of Versailles
- D.Yalta Conference
B. Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885 — The Berlin Conference set rules for the Scramble for Africa.
The First World War was triggered in 1914 by the assassination at Sarajevo of:
- A.Kaiser Wilhelm II
- B.Archduke Franz Ferdinand
- C.Tsar Nicholas II
- D.Franz Josef
B. Archduke Franz Ferdinand — The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off the chain of alliances into war.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought to power the Bolsheviks led by:
- A.Joseph Stalin
- B.Vladimir Lenin
- C.Leon Trotsky
- D.Karl Marx
B. Vladimir Lenin — Lenin led the Bolsheviks, creating the world's first communist state.
The Second World War began in 1939 when Germany invaded:
- A.France
- B.Poland
- C.the Soviet Union
- D.Czechoslovakia
B. Poland — Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 began the war in Europe.
The international organisation founded in 1945 to keep peace is the:
- A.League of Nations
- B.United Nations
- C.NATO
- D.Warsaw Pact
B. United Nations — The United Nations replaced the failed League of Nations after the Second World War.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, a peak of Cold War tension, occurred in:
- A.1949
- B.1962
- C.1972
- D.1989
B. 1962 — The 1962 crisis brought the superpowers close to nuclear war.
The Cold War is generally regarded as ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union in:
- A.1989
- B.1991
- C.1993
- D.1985
B. 1991 — The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ending the Cold War.

References

Encyclopaedia Britannica, history of Europe and the modern world — https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe
BBC History, world history — https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/world
Imperial War Museums, the World Wars — https://www.iwm.org.uk/history
United Nations, history of the UN — https://www.un.org/en/about-us/history-of-the-un
OpenStax, World History (free textbook) — https://openstax.org/subjects/humanities