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80-419: Kasugayama Castle extended over two ridges on the summit of 180-meter Mount Kasuga. The castle had no stone walls but consisted of many enclosures ( kuruwa ) with earthen or clay ramparts and dry moats built on terraces at various levels on the mountain. The core of the castle (or inner bailey ) was just below the peak, and contained a watch tower , Buddhist temple (and Uesugi Kenshin's residence) and garden. On

160-408: A connection between China's urgency for new discoveries being weaker than Europe's and China's inability to capitalize on its early advantages. Ronan believes that China's Confucian bureaucracy and traditions led to China not having a scientific revolution, which led China to have fewer scientists to break the existing orthodoxies, like Galileo Galilei. Despite inventing gunpowder in the 9th century, it

240-513: A crisis, and by the mid-15th century, crashed. The silver imports helped fill the void left by the broken paper money system, which helps explain why the value of silver in China was twice as high as the value of silver in Spain during the end of the 16th century. China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels. Despite isolationist policies

320-644: A founder of modern political science . Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince , a work of realist political theory . The Swiss Paracelsus (1493–1541) is associated with a medical revolution while the Anglo-Irish Robert Boyle was one of the founders of modern chemistry. In visual arts, notable representatives included the "three giants of the High Renaissance", namely Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo , and Raphael , Albrecht Dürer (often considered

400-504: A largely bloodless coup. Yi Seong-gye moved the capital of Korea to the location of modern-day Seoul. The dynasty was heavily influenced by Confucianism, which also played a large role to shaping Korea's strong cultural identity. King Sejong the Great (1418–1450), one of the only two kings in Korea's history to earn the title of great in their posthumous titles, reclaimed Korean territory to

480-407: A lesser number of kuruwa of larger area. The western equivalent is the motte-and-bailey . The shape and structure of a castle were important factors in determining the victor of castle sieges, and the castle layout, or nawabari ( 縄張 ) was arranged with the intention of giving the defender an insurmountable advantage. The kuruwa regions were planned for after the basic layout of the castle grounds

560-463: A result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. In 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) with

640-570: Is a subdivision of the most recent of the three major periods of European history : antiquity , the Middle Ages and the modern period. The term "early modern" was first proposed by medieval historian Lynn Thorndike in his 1926 work A Short History of Civilization as a broader alternative to the Renaissance . It was first picked up within the field of economic history during the 1940s and 1950s and gradually spread to other historians in

720-415: Is no exact date that marks the beginning or end of the period and its extent may vary depending on the area of history being studied. In general, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from around the start of the 16th century to the start of the 19th century (about 1500–1800). In a European context, it is defined as the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the advent of modernity; but

800-414: Is the centre of a defensive network consisting of many smaller forts in a two to six km, radius. There was an older castle on this site that dates to the 14th century, but there's no certain information about it. The Kasugayama Castle was probably built by Nagao Tamekage , and then was inherited by Nagao Harukage . Uesugi Kenshin , his younger brother who was originally named Nagao Kagetora , became

880-845: Is usually seen to span from the start of the 15th century, through the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. The early modern period is taken to end with the French Revolution , the Napoleonic Wars , and the Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire at the Congress of Vienna . At the end of the early modern period,

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960-642: The shōguns of the Tokugawa clan . The period gets its name from the capital city, Edo , now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration in the late Edo period (often called the Late Tokugawa shogunate ). Society in the Japanese " Tokugawa period " ( Edo society ), unlike the shogunates before it,

1040-459: The Age of Revolution dawned, beginning with revolts in America and France, political changes were then pushed forward in other countries partly as a result of upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on thought and thinking, from concepts from nationalism to organizing armies. The early period ended in a time of political and economic change, as a result of mechanization in society,

1120-820: The American Revolution , and the first French Revolution ; other factors included the redrawing of the map of Europe by the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and the peace established by the Second Treaty of Paris , which ended the Napoleonic Wars. In the Americas, pre-Columbian peoples had built a large and varied civilization, including the Aztec Empire , the Inca civilization ,

1200-467: The British and Russian empires had emerged as world powers from the multipolar contest of colonial empires , while the three great Asian empires of the early modern period, Ottoman Turkey , Mughal India and Qing China , all entered a period of stagnation or decline. When gunpowder was introduced to Europe, it was immediately used almost exclusively in weapons and explosives for warfare. Though it

1280-709: The Commercial Revolution and the Golden Age of Piracy . The globalization of the period can be seen in the medieval North Italian city-states and maritime republics , particularly Genoa , Venice , and Milan . Russia reached the Pacific coast in 1647 and consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century. The Great Divergence took place as Western Europe greatly surpassed China in technology and per capita wealth. As

1360-477: The Durrani Empire . The Songhai Empire took control of the trans-Saharan trade at the beginning of the modern era. It seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building the regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. The empire eventually made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars to Gao . Many major events caused Europe to change around

1440-640: The Jurchens . When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng 's peasant rebels in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor , the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus then allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing , which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule of China proper . Schoppa,

1520-592: The Malay Peninsula , Borneo , and eastern Indonesia, though the effectiveness of this influence remains debated. Majapahit struggled to control the rising Sultanate of Malacca , which dominated Muslim Malay settlements in Phuket, Satun, Pattani, and Sumatra. The Portuguese invaded Malacca's capital in 1511, and by 1528, the Sultanate of Johor was established by a Malaccan prince to succeed Malacca. During

1600-855: The Mataram Sultanate was the dominant power in Maritime Southeast Asia. The early modern period experienced an influx of European traders and missionaries into the region. In Early Modern times, the major nations of East Asia attempted to pursue a course of isolationism from the outside world but this policy was not always enforced uniformly or successfully. However, by the end of the Early Modern Period, China, Korea and Japan were mostly closed and uninterested in Europeans, even while trading relationships grew in port cities such as Guangzhou and Dejima . Around

1680-626: The Maya civilization and its cities, and the Muisca . The European colonization of the Americas began during the early modern period, as did the establishment of European trading hubs in Asia and Africa, which contributed to the spread of Christianity around the world. The rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe, in particular the Columbian Exchange that linked

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1760-824: The Old World and the New World , greatly altered the human environment. Notably, the Atlantic slave trade and colonization of Native Americans began during this period. The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa. In the Islamic world , after the fall of the Timurid Renaissance , powers such as the Ottoman, Suri , Safavid , and Mughal empires grew in strength (three of which are known as gunpowder empires for

1840-548: The Portuguese on Tanegashima Isle in 1543, the Japanese adopted several of the technologies and cultural practices of their visitors, whether in the military area (the arquebus , European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion ( Christianity ), decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a Western vocabulary ) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and valuable refined sugar. Central government

1920-686: The Sharifan dynasty . The Safavid Empire was a great Shia Persianate empire after the Islamic conquest of Persia and the establishment of Islam, marking an important point in the history of Islam in the east. The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501. From their base in Ardabil , the Safavids established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming

2000-643: The Third Battle of Panipat halted their expansion in 1761. The development of New Imperialism saw the conquest of nearly all eastern hemisphere territories by colonial powers. The commercial colonization of India commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey , when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the British East India Company, in 1765, when the company was granted

2080-733: The diwani , or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar , or in 1772, when the company established a capital in Calcutta , appointed its first Governor-General , Warren Hastings , and became directly involved in governance. The Maratha Confederacy, following the Anglo-Maratha wars , eventually lost to the British East India Company in 1818 with the Third Anglo-Maratha War . Rule by

2160-414: The ethnically Manchu Qing dynasty , which would be the last dynasty of China . The Qing ruled from 1644 to 1912, with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. During its reign, the Qing dynasty adopted many of the outward features of Chinese culture in establishing its rule, but did not necessarily "assimilate", instead adopting a more universalist style of governance. The Manchus were formerly known as

2240-466: The 16th century. Leaders also supported direct sea trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Persian carpet, silk, and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls, and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a spice in India. The main imports were spice, textiles (woolens from Europe, cotton from Gujarat), metals, coffee, and sugar. Despite their demise in 1722,

2320-682: The 17th century, Korea was invaded again, this time by Manchurians, who would later take over China as the Qing Dynasty. In 1637, King Injo was forced to surrender to the Qing forces, and was ordered to send princesses as concubines to the Qing Prince Dorgon . The rise of the Mughal Empire is usually dated from 1526, around the end of the Middle Ages. It was an Islamic Persianate imperial power that ruled most of

2400-532: The 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear. At the start of the modern era, the Spice Route between India and China crossed Majapahit , an archipelagic empire based on the island of Java . It was the last of the major Hindu empires of Maritime Southeast Asia and is considered one of the greatest states in Indonesian history. Its influence extended to Sumatra ,

2480-525: The Bold (or Rash) to his enemies, His early death was a pivotal moment in European history. Charles has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit, although in administrative affairs, he introduced remarkable modernizing innovations. Upon his death, Charles left an unmarried nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary of Burgundy , as his heir. Her marriage would have enormous implications for

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2560-749: The Company lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and following the Government of India Act 1858 , the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj . In 1819, Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in its rivalry with the Dutch. However, the rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From

2640-638: The Dutch, while Japan engaged in the Nanban trade after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the Azuchi–Momoyama period . Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the Toungoo Empire along with Ayutthaya experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia, with the Nguyen and Trinh lords de facto ruling the south and north of present-day Vietnam respectively, whereas

2720-674: The East Asian sphere. In Japan, the Edo period from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. In Korea, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the rise of the Joseon Dynasty to the enthronement of King Gojong . By the 16th century, Asian economies under the Ming dynasty and Mughal Bengal were stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and

2800-717: The Empire ) and France ensued, culminating in the Treaty of Senlis (1493) which gave the majority of Burgundian inheritance to the Habsburg (Mary already died in 1482). The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance. In Central Europe, King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), a notable nation builder, conqueror (Hungary in his time was the most powerful in Central Europe ) and patron,

2880-441: The Japanese cut off all trade with Macau , and the Dutch severed connections between Goa and Macau. The damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age , natural calamities, crop failure and sudden epidemics. The ensuing breakdown of authority and people's livelihoods allowed rebel leaders, such as Li Zicheng , to challenge Ming authority. The Ming dynasty fell around 1644 to

2960-603: The Ming economy still suffered from an inflation due to an overabundance of Spanish New World silver entering its economy through new European colonies such as Macau . Ming China was further strained by victorious but costly wars to protect Korea from Japanese Invasion . The European trade depression of the 1620s also hurt the Chinese economy, which sunk to the point where all of China's trading partners cut ties with them: Philip IV restricted shipments of exports from Acapulco ,

3040-480: The Safavids left their mark by establishing and spreading Shi'a Islam in major parts of the Caucasus and West Asia. In the 16th to early 18th centuries, Central Asia was under the rule of Uzbeks , and the far eastern portions were ruled by the local Pashtuns . Between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes, including the Kipchaks , Naimans , Kangly , Khongirad , and Manghuds . These groups were led by Muhammad Shaybani , who

3120-433: The Uesugi, and in 1600 he relocated his seat to Fukushima Castle near the coast and port of Naoetsu. By 1607, Kasugayama was deserted. A Shinto shrine , Kasugayama Shrine was founded in 1901 at the base of the mountain. The ruins of the inner bailey are located 180 m.a.s.l. , with view at the city of Jōetsu, Kubiki Plain, and the Sea of Japan , approximately 20 minutes on foot from the shrine. No structures survive within

3200-442: The area as Hindustan by the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. The empire dominated South Asia , becoming the largest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP valued at a quarter of the global economy, superior than the combined GDP of Europe. The empire, prior to the death of the last prominent emperor Aurangzeb , was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting its different provinces . All

3280-446: The beginning of the Age of Discovery . Its end is often marked by the French Revolution , and sometimes also the American Revolution or Napoleon 's rise to power . Historians in recent decades have argued that, from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its spreading globalizing character. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over

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3360-410: The beginning of the ethnically Han Ming dynasty (1368–1644), China was leading the world in mathematics as well as science. However, Europe soon caught up to China's scientific and mathematical achievements and surpassed them. Many scholars have speculated about the reason behind China's lag in advancement. A historian named Colin Ronan claims that though there is no one specific answer, there must be

3440-409: The beginning of the modern period with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and later by various movements to reform the church (including Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist), followed by the Counter Reformation . The Hussite Crusades (1419–1434) involved military actions against the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia , concluding with the Battle of Grotniki . These wars were notable for being among

3520-406: The castle grounds, but one gate has been preserved nearby at the temple of Rinsen-ji Temple, which also has a small museum. Also Jōetsu-shi Maizō Bunkazai Center (Historical museum) is near the castle. Kuruwa Kuruwa ( 曲輪 , くるわ) is a Japanese term for the walls of a Japanese castle , and the regions bounded by the arrangement of those walls. The term may also be written as 郭 , and

3600-405: The central kuruwa in some arrangements. demaru ( 出丸 ) refers to a kuruwa that is placed independent from the central kuruwa, and umadashi ( 馬出 ) refers to a kuruwa that is placed specifically to guard an important entrance. See below for more related terms. Most of the terms take the form -kuruwa or -maru , but specific terms may differ depending on region or time period. Castles that use

3680-399: The coming to power of Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa received the title of shōgun in 1603, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate . The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was a feudalist regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by

3760-427: The country, particularly smaller regions, daimyōs and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyōs might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As

3840-437: The country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty flourished over maritime trade with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Empires. The trade brought in a massive amount of silver, which China at the time needed desperately. Prior to China's global trade, its economy ran on paper money. However, in the 14th century, China's paper money system suffered

3920-422: The course of the period. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of mercantilism as an economic theory. Other notable trends of the period include the development of experimental science , increasingly rapid technological progress , secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of nation states . The early modern period

4000-415: The dates of these boundaries are far from universally agreed. In the context of global history , the early modern period is often used even in contexts where there is no equivalent "medieval" period. Various events and historical transitions have been proposed as the start of the early modern period, including the fall of Constantinople in 1453 , the start of the Renaissance , the end of the Crusades and

4080-426: The early Ming dynasty, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing , also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around

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4160-526: The early modern era, the Ottoman Empire enjoyed an expansion and consolidation of power, leading to a Pax Ottomana . This was perhaps the golden age of the empire. The Ottomans expanded southwest into North Africa while battling with the re-emergent Persian Shi'a Safavid Empire to the east. In the Ottoman sphere, the Turks seized Egypt in 1517 and established the regencies of Algeria , Tunisia , and Tripolitania (between 1519 and 1551), Morocco remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under

4240-483: The editor of The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History argues, "A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality'. It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." The Sengoku period that began around 1467 and lasted around a century consisted of several continually "warring states". Following contact with

4320-438: The first European conflicts where hand-held gunpowder weapons, like muskets , played a decisive role. The Taborite faction of Hussite warriors, primarily infantry, decisively defeated larger armies with heavily armored knights, contributing to the infantry revolution. However, the Hussite Crusades were ultimately inconclusive. The final crusade, the Crusade of 1456, was organized to counter the advancing Ottoman Empire and lift

4400-459: The first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, fought several campaigns against the Safavids . What fueled the growth of Safavid economy was its position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north. The Silk Road , which led from Europe to East Asia, revived in

4480-423: The following decades and became widely known among scholars during the 1990s. At the onset of the early modern period, trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Feudalism declined in Europe, and Christendom saw the end of the Crusades and of religious unity in Western Europe under the Roman Catholic Church . The old order

4560-456: The global inventor of the mechanical printing press . Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology (1543), which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ) began modern astronomy and sparked the Scientific Revolution . Another notable individual was Machiavelli , an Italian political philosopher, considered

4640-439: The greatest artist of Northern Renaissance), Titian from the Venetian school , Peter Paul Rubens of the Flemish Baroque traditions. Famous composers included Guillaume Du Fay , Heinrich Isaac , Josquin des Prez , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , Claudio Monteverdi , Jean-Baptiste Lully . Among the notable royalty of the time was Charles the Bold (1433–1477), the last Valois Duke of Burgundy , known as Charles

4720-427: The historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a rebellion of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Johannes Gutenberg is credited as the first European to use movable type printing , around 1439, and as

4800-407: The last medieval epic poet ) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare and communications, among others ), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons) and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status. Christianity was challenged at

4880-407: The lord of the castle in 1548. This castle was Uesugi Kenshin's departure point in his engagement with Takeda Shingen in the 1561 Battle of Kawanakajima . After his death in 1578, Uesugi Kagekatsu gained control of Kasugayama, after a brief series of battles with Uesugi Kagetora over the inheritance. Although Uesugi Kagekatsu was able to reunite the Uesugi clan, his forces were severely weakened by

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4960-419: The military technology that enabled them). Particularly in the Indian subcontinent , Mughal architecture , culture , and art reached their zenith, while the empire itself is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of Western Europe and worth 25% of global GDP. By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region. Various Chinese dynasties controlled

5040-419: The naming -maru were built during the early modern period . Many castles contain kuruwa named after particular people or places. Early modern period The early modern period is a historical period that is part of, or (depending on the historian ) immediately preceded, the modern period , with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity . There

5120-489: The north and created the Korean alphabet . During the end of the 16th century, Korea was invaded twice by Japan, first in 1592 and again in 1597. Japan failed both times due to Admiral Yi Sun-sin , Korea's revered naval genius, who led the Korean Navy using advanced metal clad ships called turtle ships . Because the ships were armed with cannons, Admiral Yi's navy was able to demolish the Japanese invading fleets, destroying hundreds of ships in Japan's second invasion. During

5200-411: The ongoing struggle against Oda Nobunaga and the Odawara Hōjō clan . The Uesugi eventually submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and in 1598 the clan was transferred by Hideyoshi to Aizu . Kasugayama Castle was turned over to Hori Hideharu , the son of Hori Hidemasa . Hideharu built a large water moat to surround the jōkamachi of Kasugayama as the local populace was highly upset over the departure of

5280-427: The political balance of Europe. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor secured the match for his son, the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , with the aid of Mary's stepmother, Margaret. In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria . A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from

5360-413: The significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterized by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Confederacy , founded in the southwest of present-day India, surpassed the Mughals as the dominant power in India from 1740 and rapidly expanded until

5440-524: The south ridge was the fortified residence of Uesugi Kagekatsu , the adopted son of Kenshin, below which was the residence of Kakizaki Kageie , one of Kenshin's most important retainers. On the north ridge was the residence of Naoe Kagetsuna , another important retainer. Immediately below the central area was the residence of Uesugi Kagetora , another adopted son of Kenshin. In addition to these major enclosures were many smaller enclosures for retainers and barracks for soldiers, as well as warehouses. The castle

5520-411: The start of the 16th century, starting with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the fall of Muslim Spain and the discovery of the Americas in 1492, and Martin Luther 's Protestant Reformation in 1517. In England the modern period is often dated to the start of the Tudor period with the victory of Henry VII over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Early modern European history

5600-434: The term maru ( 丸 ) is also used for castles built after the Edo period . The kuruwa serves as a defensive territory, provides space for additional castle facilities, and contains the living quarters for common soldiers, making it an important fixture of all Japanese castles. Most castles built during the Middle Ages contain many kuruwa of small area, while those built during or after the early modern period often contain

5680-415: The time, making armor obsolete, and as a consequence the heavy musket as well. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term musket which remained in use up into the 1800s. In the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor the first of which

5760-543: Was Otto I . The last was Francis II , who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars . Despite its name, for much of its history the Empire did not include Rome within its borders. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that began in the 14th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to

5840-485: Was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi . The daimyōs (feudal lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior -caste of samurai , with the farmers , artisans , and traders ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the Sakoku policy. Literacy among the Japanese people rose in the two centuries of isolation. In some parts of

5920-562: Was decided. The three basic kuruwa regions are the honmaru ( 本丸 ) ; the core of the castle, and the ninomaru ( 二の丸 , lit. "second circle" ) and sannomaru ( 三の丸 , lit. "third circle" ) , which serve as auxiliary areas. There are three major styles of kuruwa arrangement: Many castles use a combination of the above three styles, and may fit into multiple categories of arrangement. Some castles may not be categorizable at all. Smaller kuruwa regions called obikuruwa ( 帯曲輪 ) and koshikuruwa ( 腰曲輪 ) were sometimes placed around

6000-638: Was destabilized by the Protestant Reformation , which caused a backlash that expanded the Inquisition and sparked the disastrous European wars of religion , which included the especially bloody Thirty Years' War and ended with the establishment of the modern international system in the Peace of Westphalia . Along with the European colonization of the Americas , this period also contained

6080-678: Was in Europe that the classic handheld firearms, matchlocks, were invented, with evidence of use around the 1480s. China was using the matchlocks by 1540, after the Portuguese brought their matchlocks to Japan in the early 1500s. China during the Ming Dynasty established a bureau to maintain its calendar. The bureau was necessary because the calendars were linked to celestial phenomena and that needs regular maintenance because twelve lunar months have 344 or 355 days, so occasional leap months have to be added in order to maintain 365 days per year. In

6160-416: Was invented in China, gunpowder arrived in Europe already formulated for military use; European countries took advantage of this and were the first to create the classic firearms. The advances made in gunpowder and firearms was directly tied to the decline in the use of plate armor because of the inability of the armor to protect one from bullets. The musket was able to penetrate all forms of armor available at

6240-468: Was largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi–Momoyama period . Although a start date of 1573 is often given, in more broad terms, the period begins with Oda Nobunaga 's entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th, and ultimately final, shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate , and it lasts until

6320-688: Was the Khan of the Uzbeks. The lineage of the Afghan Pashtuns stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty. Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests, Pashtun ghazis (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Lodhi dynasty and Suri dynasty . Pashtun forces also invaded Persia, and the opposing forces were defeated in the Battle of Gulnabad . The Pashtuns later formed

6400-657: Was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy. In military area, he introduced the Black Army , one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force. Some noblemen from the generation that lived during this period have been attributed the moniker "the last knight", with the most notable being the above-mentioned Maximilian I (1459–1519), Chevalier de Bayard (1476–1524), Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523) and Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562). Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being

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