INTRODUCTION.
Modern history as a whole, in contrast with mediæval, is marked by several plainly defined characteristics. They are such as appear, however, in a less developed form, in the latter part of the Middle Ages.
1. In the recent centuries, there has been an increased tendency to consolidate smaller states into larger kingdoms.
2. There has been a gradual secularizing of politics. Governments have more and more cast off ecclesiastical control.
3. As another side of this last movement, political unity in Europe has superseded ecclesiastical unity. The bond of union among nations, in the room of being membership in one great ecclesiastical commonwealth, became political: it came to be membership in a loosely defined confederacy of nations, held together by treaties or by a tacit agreement in certain accepted rules of public law and outlines of policy.
4. In this system, one main principle is the balance of power. This means that any one state may be prevented from enlarging its bounds to such an extent as to endanger its neighbors. We have seen the action of such a principle among the ancient states of Greece. Even in the Middle Ages, as regards Italy, the popes endeavored to keep up an equilibrium. They supported the Norman kingdom in Southern Italy, or the Lombard leagues in the North, as a counterpoise to the German emperors. In the sixteenth century, there were formed combinations to check the power of Charles V., king of Spain and emperor of Germany, and afterwards to restrain his successor on the Spanish throne, Philip II. In the seventeenth century, there were like combinations against Louis XIV. of France, and, over a century later, against the first Napoleon.
5. The vast influence and control of Europe, by discovery, colonization, and commerce, in other quarters of the globe, is a striking feature of modern times.
6. With the increase of commerce and the growing power of the middle classes, there has arisen the "industrial age." Interests connected with production and trade, and with the material side of civilization, have come into great prominence.
7. Both the pursuits of men, and culture, have become far more diversified than was the case in the Middle Ages.
8. The influence of Christianity in its ethical relations—as an instrument of political and social reform, and a motive to philanthropy—has become more active and conspicuous.
PERIOD I. FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE REFORMATION (1453-1517):