The Modern Period lasted from
the 15th to the 18th century. In Europe, it began with the fall of Constantinople (Istanbul) an ends in 1789 with the beginning of
the French Revolution.
· The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and
political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers"), who supported the king Charles I. 
Charles, like his father James I, he believed in the divine right of the
king, whose government came directly from God. This belief was what confronted
Carlos versus the parliament.
When Charles became king in 1625 started a fight
versus the parliament on his rights to: prison people who were against him,
impose religion and collect taxes.
In 1629 he dissolved the parliament and during 11
years he tried
to govern alone, he tried to impose Anglican customs
to the Scots. The Scots rebelled and organized and army which, in 1640, occupied part of North
England.
In 1642 a war broke out across the country, the king made
Oxford its capital and its forces took advantage, but the parliament with the
Scots eventually proved to be superior.
The king surrendered in 1646,
after Oxford fell at the hands
of the Roundheads. He was put
in prison and in 1649 Oliver Cromwell kill him.
·
Formation of First British
Empire (between the 16th and early 18th
centuries)
In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a
patent to Humphrey Gilbert for
discovery and overseas exploration. That year, Gilbert sailed
for the Caribbean with
the intention of engaging in piracy and
establishing a colony in North America, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the
Atlantic. In 1583 he embarked on a second attempt, on this occasion to the
island of Newfoundland whose harbor he formally claimed for England, although no settlers
were left behind. Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England, and
was succeeded by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, who was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584. Later that year,
Raleigh founded the Roanoke Colony on the coast of present-day North Carolina, but lack of
supplies caused the colony to fail.
In 1603, James VI, King of Scots, ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the Treaty of London, ending hostilities with Spain. Now at peace with its main rival, English attention shifted from preying on other nations' colonial infrastructures to the business of establishing its own overseas colonies. The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement of North America and the so alert islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of joint-stock companies, most notably the East India Company, to administer colonies and overseas trade. This period, until the loss of the Thirteen Colonies after the American War of Independence towards the end of the 18th century, has subsequently been referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire".