religion duchy of burgundy
Early modern Europe is the period of European history between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century . Historians variously mark the beginning of the early modern period with the invention of moveable type printing in the 1450s , the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 , the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1487 , the beginning of the High Renaissance in Italy in the 1490s , the end of the " Reconquista " and subsequent voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 , or the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517 . The precise dates of its end point also vary and are usually linked with either the start of the French Revolution in 1789 or with the more vaguely defined beginning of the Industrial Revolution in late 18th century Britain . Christopher Columbus ( 20 May 1506 ) was an Italian explorer , navigator , colonizer , and citizen of the Republic of Genoa . Under the auspices of the ___MASK20___ Monarchs of Spain , he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean . Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World . The Duchy of Burgundy ( Latin : Ducatus Burgundiae , French : Duché de Bourgogne , Dutch : Hertogdom Bourgondië ) existed from 1032 as a successor of an ancient and prestigious patrimony and a large division of the lands of the Kingdom of the Burgundians . The duchy roughly conforms to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy , but its dukes came to own considerable possession of numerous French and Imperial fiefs further north in the Low Countries collectively known as the Burgundian Netherlands . In its own right , it was one of the larger ducal territories that existed at the time of the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe , reminiscent of the Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia . The French remnants of the Burgundian kingdom were demoted to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004 and in 1032 awarded to the House of Burgundy as a cadet branch inheritance via Salic law -- other portions had passed to the Imperial Kingdom of Arles and the Free County of Burgundy . From 1363 the duchy was ruled by a succession of the Valois Burgundy dukes . Their extinction with the death of Charles the Bold in the 1477 Battle of Nancy led to the absorption of the duchy itself into the French crown lands by King Louis XI , while the Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries passed to the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian I of Austria by his marriage with Charles ' daughter Mary the Rich . Even in its diminished size as it existed in the Early Modern Period , the Burgundian heritage that was divided between two heirs played a pivotal role in Europe ' s politics long after it lost its role as an independent political identity , due to marriages and wars over the territories between princes who were related to its former rulers . With the abdication of the Habsburg emperor Charles V ( Charles I as King of Spain ) in 1556 , the Burgundian Netherlands passed to the Spanish Empire of King Philip II . During the Dutch Revolt or Eighty Years War ( 1568 -- 1648 ) , the northern provinces of the Low Countries gained their independence from Spanish rule and formed the Dutch Republic ( today the Netherlands ) , while the southern provinces remained under Spanish rule and were known as the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands ( corresponding roughly to present day Belgium , Luxembourg , and the areas in France corresponding to the Nord department and part of the Pas - de - Calais department ) . The ( Spanish and Portuguese for the " reconquest ") is the period of history of the Iberian Peninsula spanning approximately 770 years between the Islamic conquest of Hispania in 710 and the fall of the last Islamic state in Iberia at Granada to the expanding ___MASK56___ kingdoms in 1492 . The " ended just before the European discovery of the Americas  the " New World " which ushered in the era of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires . The Protestant Reformation , often referred to simply as the Reformation ( from Latin " reformatio ", " restoration , renewal "), was a schism from the Roman ___MASK19___ initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin , Huldrych Zwingli , and other early Protestant Reformers in 16th century Europe . Timing most commonly used for this period is from 1517 ( the Ninety - five Theses are published by Martin Luther ) to 1648 ( Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years ' War ).