This work provides an amalysis of European capital cities and their impact in the early modern period. Capital cities were dynamic and influential, accounting for more than a third of all European city growth during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some were ancient cities, like Paris and London; a number were new expressions of royal power, such as Madrid and Berlin; other were colonial cities, offshoots of state empires, like Dublin or Naples.

Comparative urban history examines early modern economic and cultural achievements in Antwerp, Amsterdam, and London.

This volume surveys the crucial role of cities in shaping cultural exchange in early modern Europe.

This compact and highly accessible work of reference covers the broad sweep of events as Europe transformed during the period from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. This Companion examines the centuries that saw the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the expansion of Europe and the beginnings of imperialism and enormous changes in the way government and kingship were conducted. With a wealth of chronologies, tables, family trees and maps, this handy book is an indispensable resource for all students and teachers of early modern history.

Thoroughly updated edition of a best-selling, acclaimed book, placing early modern European history in a global and environmental context.

The issue of capital city relocation is a topic of debate for more than forty countries across the world. In this first book to discuss the issue, Vadim Rossman offers an in-depth analysis of the subject, highlighting the global trends and the key factors that motivate different countries to consider such projects, analyzing the outcomes and drawing lessons from recent capital city transfers worldwide for governments and policy-makers. Capital Cities studies the approaches and the methodologies that inform such decisions and debates. Special attention is given to the study of the universal patterns of relocation and patterns specific to particular continents and mega-regions and particular political regimes. The study emphasizes the role of capital city transfers in the context of nation- and state-building and offers a new framework for thinking about capital cities, identifying six strategies that drive these decisions, representing the economic, political, geographic, cultural and security considerations. Confronting the popular hyper-critical attitudes towards new designed capital cities, Vadim Rossman shows the complex motives that underlie the proposals and the important role that new capitals might play in conflict resolution in the context of ethnic, religious and regional rivalries and federalist transformations of the state, and is seeking to identify the success and failure factors and more efficient implementation strategies. Drawing upon the insights from spatial economics, comparative federalist studies, urban planning and architectural criticism, the book also traces the evolution of the concept of the capital city, showing that the design, iconography and the location of the capital city play a critical role in the success and the viability of the state.

This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims both to interrogate the notion of 'early modernity' itself and to survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity. Volume I examines 'Peoples and Place', assessing structural factors such as climate, printing and the revolution in information, social and economic developments, and religion, including chapters on Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam.