CHANGES IN EARLY MODERN AGE
Social changes
Privileged estates
Consisted of the nobility and clergy.
Unprivileged
Worked land
Were serfs or day labourers working for a lord.
Urban population
Grew during this time thanks to the development of craft, trade and the cities.
Women's roles
Continued to have a lower social status. However, women's situations varied depending on their social status.
Economic changes
Primary sector
Agriculture and livestock farming continued to be the main economic activity and the most important crops were cereals.
Secondary sector
In the cities, artisans' guilds established and controlled prices, production techniques and access to the prefession.
Trade
The development of the primary and secondary sectors resulted in surplus production and this increased trade.
Finance: the birth of the capitalism
Banks
Merchants needed money for their trading companies.
Bills of exchange
There were documents that guaranteed a bank would pay a merchant in a specific place on a specific date.
Limited companies
These allowed people to invest in bussinesses with limited risk.
Insurance companies
These allowed merchants to minimise their risks.
Political changes
Wealth and icome from taxation rose thenks to the increased in agricultural and craft production.
A royal goverment
Thanks to the increased in trade and the more general economic recovery.
A royal army
Monarch estabilished permanent armies of mercenaries, who paid with taxes they collected.
A diplomatic corps
This institution allowed monarchs to stablish alliances with other states or kingdoms.
Cultural changes
At the start of the Early Modern Age there were significants in thought and science.
A renewed interest in Classical culture
Became the point of refence for for intellectual and artistic activity.
Anthropocentrism
Humans became the centre of philosophical reflection and artistic creation.
Optismism and creativity
Humanists believed in a better life and their creativity resulted in many inventions.
The desire for knowledge
Due to their intellectual curiosity.
Critical thinking
Previous sources of knowledge were tradition, the great scholars and sacred texts.
Individual reflection
Reason
Extensinsive studies
research
Practical demonstrations
experimentation
Main historical events
Many major events caused Europe to change around the start of the 16th century, starting with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the fall of Muslim Spain and the discovery of the Americas in 1492, and Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in 1517.