Significant political, economic, and cultural changes in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries allowed for extensive European colonial expansion to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The medieval order was in a state of collapse; the concept of Christendom, a Europe united by the force of Christianity, was giving way to the rise of humanism and secularism. As Christian Europe split into ideological factions, nation-states emerged. France, England, Spain, and, for a brief period,... więcej

Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2023. 7p.