The Season 3 Preview

Ladies and gentlemen, the Season 3 Premiere is only HOURS away. Darkness lies on the horizon for many societies at this very moment. Therefore, without any further delay, here is your Season 3 Preview! Season 3 (or the Early Modern Period, as scholars generally refer to it as) will focus on developments between 1450 and 1750. A new range of global interconnections will be the most important change of the period. But new activity by Western Europe will be an important component as well, and some of this will be prepared by new innovations in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Western Europe's emergence as an increasingly important actor on the world stage between 1300 and 1500 will depend on several developments: new technologies, in part gained by previous contacts with Asia (such as explosive powders and the compass); acute international trade problems and fear of Muslim power, which prompted Europeans to seek new routes to Asia and also sources of gold that would give them greater bargaining power; and changes within European society itself, including greater rivalries among monarchs and within the Christian church. New international positions will continue the process of change within Europe, helping to promote new attitudes toward science. Western Europe's power at the same time will affect other societies, particularly in the Americas, which will soon be open to growing European control. Elsewhere, the impact of Western contacts, higher levels of international trade, and the foodstuffs available from the Americas will have diverse results, ranging from altered commercial patterns in Africa to deliberate imitation in Russia to controlled contact along with growing trade in East Asia. Other developments will shape the early modern centuries as well, including the formation of vigorous new empires (the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal) in the Middle East and India, both of which will extend Muslim power. Renewed political strength in China will be another vital Asian development, as European influence and new global trading patterns will have only selective impact on the largest continent during the early modern centuries. Finally, Japan will face the dilemma of doing business with the west and risking takeover, or isolating itself from the west and risking falling behind the rest of the world. The big question, though, that remains is this: WITH THE ERA OF NOMADIC POWER OVER, WILL THE EARTH EXPERIENCE A GROWING PEACE WITH "CIVILIZED" SOCIETIES TAKING BACK FULL CONTROL, OR WILL THE CIVILIZED PEOPLES OF THE WORLD CREATE THE MOST VIOLENT WORLD WE'VE SEEN YET? Stay tuned for the Season 3 Premiere!