La Edad Moderna es el tercero de los periodos históricos en los que se divide convencionalmente la historia universal, comprendido entre el siglo XV y el XVIII. Cronológicamente alberga un periodo cuyo inicio puede fijarse en la caída de Constantinopla (1453) o en el descubrimiento de América (1492), y cuyo final puede situarse en la Revolución francesa (1789). Existen personas que marcan su fin en la década previa, tras la independencia de los Estados Unidos (1776). En esta convención, la Edad Moderna se corresponde al período en que se destacan los valores de la modernidad (el progreso, la comunicación, la razón) frente al período anterior, la Edad Media, que es generalmente identificado como una edad aislada e intelectualmente oscura. El espíritu de la Edad Moderna buscaría su referente en un pasado anterior, la Edad Antigua identificada como Época Clásica. Tras pasar el tiempo, la Edad Moderna se ha ido alejando de tal modo, que desde el siglo XX se le suele añadirse una cuarta edad, denominada como Edad Contemporánea, que no solo no se aparta, sino que también se intensifica extraordinariamente la tendencia a la modernización, ya que sus características sensiblemente diferentes, fundamentalmente porque significa el momento de éxito y desarrollo espectacular de las fuerzas económicas y sociales que durante la Edad Moderna se iban gestando lentamente: el capitalismo y la burguesía; y las entidades políticas que lo hacen de forma paralela: la nación y el Estado. En la Edad Moderna se encontraron los dos "mundos" que habían permanecido casi absolutamente aislados desde la Prehistoria: el Nuevo Mundo (América) y el Viejo Mundo (Eurasia y África). Cuando se consolide la exploración europea de Australia se hablará de Novísimo Mundo. La disciplina historiográfica que la estudia se denomina Historia Moderna, y sus historiadores, "modernistas".

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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the post-classical age (c. 1500), known as the Middle Ages, through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions (c. 1800) and is variously demarcated by historians as beginning with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, with the Renaissance period, and with the Age of Discovery (especially with the voyages of Christopher Columbus beginning in 1492, but also with Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to the East in 1498), and ending around the French Revolution in 1789. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its globalizing character. The period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in global trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World and the New World. The Columbian exchange greatly affected the human environment. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, and Milan. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, and spread Christianity around the world. The early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Feudalism declined in Europe, while the period also included the Protestant Reformation, the disastrous Thirty Years' War, the Commercial Revolution, the European colonization of the Americas, and the Golden Age of Piracy. By the 16th century the economy under the Ming Dynasty was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch, while Japan engaged in the Nanban trade after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Other notable trends of the early modern period include the development of experimental science, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, increasingly rapid technological progress, secularized civic politics, and the emergence of nation states. Historians typically date the end of the early modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the "modern" period.

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