Between 1450 and 1750 Western Europe underwent profound economic and social change. One of the most important agents of this change was overseas expansion. Several factors drove this expansion, including population growth, the search for direct access to African and Asian trade goods, the aims and needs of the centralizing state, and the religious crusading tradition. Technological innovations-e.g. the gunned sailing ship-enabled Europeans both to drive Arab and Asian rivals from the eastern seas and to maintain permanent trading settlements. The Portuguese were the first to expand overseas, building a commercial empire based on gold, spices, sugar, and slaves that broke the old Venetian and Genoese monopolies. After Columbus' discoveries Spain began to build its empire, conquering vast portions of Central and South America to exploit gold and silver deposits. The landless aristocracy, fired by crusading zeal, played a role in Portuguese expansion but were especially important to Spanish imperialism. These early empires decimated native populations, primarily through disease, and established the Atlantic slave trade that persisted through the eighteenth century.

Another force of expansion was the price revolution, caused mainly by population growth after 1450 and the later influx of silver from the New World. By raising the price of food, this revolution provoked changes in agricultural practice. The traditional open-field system gave way to enclosure in England, where a primogeniture put more land into the hands of productive landlords and yeomen. In Holland, traditional agriculture was displaced by convertible husbandry later adopted in England and France. As western demand for eastern European crops grew, Baltic landlords also enclosed land, changing peasants' traditional tenure into serfdom.

The price revolution also encouraged the growth of trade and industry. Enclosure created cheap peasant labor, prompting merchant capitalists in crucial industries-e.g. textiles-to adopt the putting-out system and to capitalize cottage industry. Innovations in business practice spread, including improved accounting methods, more sophisticated banking, and maritime insurance-innovations that, in turn, spurred bolder business ventures. England and the Netherlands, where commercial interests received social approval and political support, enjoyed the greatest economic expansion during this period. In France and Spain strong aristocratic values discouraged commercial activity. Finally, the price revolution encouraged consumerism and prompted governments to stimulate economic activity. Together, these trends fostered the growth of mercantile capitalism.

During this period the relationship between the elites and the masses significantly changed. Traditional popular culture involved varieties of ritual misrule associated with religious festivals. After 1500 the elites came to view such rituals as sources of unrest and immorality among the masses. Consequently, the bureaucratic state joined religious authorities to reform popular culture according to Reformation, Counter Reformation, and/or Christian humanist principles. The elite attack on popular culture struck most vigorously at witchcraft. The witch craze, during which women suffered most, continued until the late seventeenth century, when changing attitudes made witchcraft a taboo subject.