Chapters

1. History’s Story
2. Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C.
3. The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 B.C. to A.D. 135
4. Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146
5. Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 B.C. to A.D. 300
6. The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 B.C. to A.D. 1453
7. From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000
8. The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500
9. Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648
10. Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815
11. Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914
12. The Westerner’s Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918
13. Rejections of Democracy: The InterWar Years and World War II, 1917 to 1945
14. A World Divided: The Cold War, 1945 to 1993
15. Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1991 to the Present

• Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?

Chapter 9

Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation,
1400 to 1648

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The Purse of Princes
Many dynastic rulers in the transition period between the Later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period became monarchs of territorial states.

Man as the Measure
The revived interest in the culture of classical Greece and Rome created the intellectual revolution of the Renaissance.

Heaven Knows
The Protestant Reformation divided Western Latin Christianity.

Fatal Beliefs
Further divisions among Western Christians led to wars, which, ironically, largely ended religion as a cause for war in the West.

God, Greed, and Glory
Various goals motivated Europeans to launch ocean voyages, creating new colonial empires.