This week in class 7 we made a mind map to summarize four important developments that kickstarted the Early Modern Period, namely the Renaissance, the invention of the printing press, the Reformation and Europe becoming more connected with the rest of the world through exploration, trade, colonization and conquest. I also added boxes to the mind map to describe in what way the developments influenced each other.

In the pictures you see the completed version of one of my students. She did a great job by describing the strong connection between the Reformation and the invention of the printing press. 

Before the invention of the printing press, books and other documents were copied by monks by hand. This had two effects. 

-1) Books were expensive. It took a long time to copy them. Therefore, it was hard to spread information. Besides, information was only accessible to scholars and the rich.

-2) Monks would censor any information that was sinful or harmful to the church. Therefore, revolutionary ideas or criticism of the church could quickly be silenced. 

The invention of the printing press solved both these issues. Books and documents became much faster and cheaper to make, which enabled ideas to spread quickly, and presses were owned by companies who cared less about what was written and did not censor the texts.

Martin Luther was not the first to criticize the Catholic church, but he was the first one to do so successfully. He owes a lot of his success to the printing press. Many people had preceded him, but could not spread their message quickly and were eventually killed by the church for heresy. 

The printing press, together with Renaissance and Reformation ideas, laid the foundation for the scientific revolution (16th/17th century), the Enlightenment (18th century) and the start of modern science (19th century). Scientists and philosophers were able to form scientific communities as they could share new (uncensored) ideas faster. 

Originally posted on Instagram on October 2, 2021