In this course, we will explore the dynamics of western history in the later Middle Ages and the early modern era, which witnessed a profound centralization of power in individual European kingdoms, a corresponding decline in the political authority and prestige of the papacy, a complex set of cultural and intellectual phenomena known collectively as the Renaissance, the collapse of Christian unanimity during the Protestant Reformation, and a series of deep spiritual and institutional reforms within the Catholic Church. Other important themes will include European exploration and colonization in Asia and in the Western Hemisphere, European religious wars, and the Scientific Revolution that preceded the beginnings of the Enlightenment.