This Programming Historian lesson introduces agent-based modeling as a method for historical research, using the Python package mesa. Learners build a simulation of early modern letter-exchange networks — the Republic of Letters — starting from the basic concepts (what a simulation is; agents, space, time, and experimentation) and working step by step from agents that send letters to spatial dynamics, data collection, and interactive visualization, ending with pointers for extending the model and for the methodological questions that come with simulating history.
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- Authors: Jascha Schmitz, Malte Vogl, Aleksandra Kaye, and Raphael Schlattmann
- Venue: Programming Historian (2025), English edition
- DOI: 10.46430/phen0122