ABSTRACT
Most of the foundations of what is now fashionably called “modernity” can be located in the energetic, conflict-filled era of religious upheaval and cultural dynamism that began in the flowering of the Italian Renaissance after about 1500 and ended with the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-48. All the great European nation-states had their origins in this era, and so did the racism that grew up entwined with them. Vast empires built with the blood of conquest and the labor of slaves brought forth unimaginable wealth and unresolved human consequences that remained as permanent troubling leg acies. From County Antrim in Ireland to East Timor and Virginia, and wherever aggressive nation-states were formed, conquest and conflict set in motion human dramas that are still being played out. New institutional practices opened up spectacular vistas of opportunity, especially for the ascendant nonfeudal burghers and businessmen who mastered them. A great struggle for cultural authority, global hegemony, and political sover eignty was unleashed that has roiled the history of the next 500 years. The formation of personal and collective identity through cultural, geographic, ideological, religious, or simply political circumstances has made for con fusing and inconsistent human groupings. To paraphrase the great bard of this era: some were made what they are, some became what they are, and some have had what they are thrust upon them. Race and nation stand out as the most dynamic examples of this great transformation to modernity.
