Early Modernity, the Global Renaissance, and the Problem of Eurocentrism

It remains important to grapple with the problem of a teleology towards modernity implicit in the idea of the early modern. This article does so by considering the concept alongside that of the Global Renaissance. Early modernity can accommodate plural non-European perspectives better than heavily charged concepts like the Renaissance, because the period between c. 1450 and c. 1800 was also a period of early globalization. However, the recent emphasis on connections, here defined as commercial and cross-cultural interactions, must be complemented by a fresh comparative approach, one that considers long-term processes and integrates interactions as part of the comparison. Modernity is ultimately a relative concept, but the early modern centuries also have coherence as a period of both regional and global transformations. The global significance of the European Renaissance can best be appreciated by also considering how it invented an idea of the Middle Ages and led to ideas of modernity and progress.