1500 said. At present, most scholars in the field of history hold this view. They believe that the modern history of the world is the history of the rise, development and global expansion of capitalism, which has had a great impact on the world. A series of changes and events leading to the rise and development of western capitalism are almost all closely related to the geographical discovery, especially the geographical discovery directly induced the commercial revolution and overseas colonial expansion of western European countries, which played the most powerful catalytic role in the industrialization of western European capitalism. The history of the rise and development of western capitalism is also the history of the world moving from regional isolation to unity. It is with the great geographical discovery, the overseas colonization of western countries and the formation of the world market that the relative isolation between countries and nations in the past has been gradually broken, and the whole world has gradually formed a closely linked, interdependent and contradictory whole in economy, politics and culture. The division between modern and ancient world history should be based on major economic changes of world significance. A series of major events around 1500, such as the great geographical discovery, the Renaissance and the religious reform, led to the development of western capitalism and caused major social and economic changes around the world. Therefore, it is in line with the principle of historical materialism to take 1500 as the upper limit of modern world history.