Up to the year 1860, history has been split into three distinct eras namely the ancient, medieval and the modern. Through the medieval epoch, Romans are associated with the rise of laws and governments while Greeks are largely known for bringing about philosophies, science and the reason.
Western civilization has its roots traceable to Europe and the Mediterranean. These civilizations are connected to Roman Empire owing to its large size and population too. Civilization brought about the explosion of transformative episodes such as Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, Industrial revolution and also the scientific revolution. Development of democracies can also be linked to this era.
Medieval civilization period signifies a period characterized by multiple crisis and upheavals linked to desperate opposition of deep-running ideas and institutions. The city of Rome was the larges
t in the world between 100BC and 400 AD. It was inhabited by an estimated 20% of the world’s population at the time. During those early years, Rome’s administration changed from monarchy into a governance system where men used to vote in their representatives. This form of governance came to be despite the struggles and resistance from wealthier and older families known as patricians. The upheavals went on and gradually the plebeians continued to win more rights along the way until Rome became a republic. Women were subordinates to men. They were not allowed to vote or hold public office.
Christianity was a model of governance that was deemed to bring in efficiency in the systems. It was legalized by a ruler known as Constantine. Early Christians who blatantly refused to worship the emperors were persecuted and their heroism contributed largely to the new religion.
Centralization of
politics, economic expansion and secularization foreshadowed the transition from medieval age to the modern world. This age is much characterized by explorations as secular ideals, banking and flourishing of bourgeois class grew and offered support to the monarchies that were ever expanding. Intellectual modernity forerun the renaissance; the new humanism. Renaissance is a period that happened in Europe and bridged middle ages to modern history. The period started in Italy and later spread to the rest of Europe.
The basis of renaissance was from the discovery of Greek philosophy. There was new thinking in art, architecture, science, literature and even politics. European intellectuals studied and improved the world through revival of ideas and approaches to thought.
When Constantinople was overpowered by the Turks, Greek scholars fled to Italy and their ideas and thoughts found root too. As a result, this new knowledge started to impact on the people there and they started to question the ruling elites. The knowledge asserted people’s dignity and individual personalities. Freedom and liberality of ideas became of great interest. People were not ready to take suppression without resistance.
Humanism spirit spread modern learning wave. People like Erasmus, through their writing influenced people intensely. Christian churches dominated in fields like art and science. Renaissance was seen to promote spirit of individualism and also help free the people from the vicious grip of the church. People adopted the spirit of critically inquiring about issues which later on precipitated the freedom from the tutelage. Reformation was accelerated by factors such as federalism, invention of printing press and the now increased bible circulation. The movement aimed at reforming practices of the Catholic Church. This is the period
that the protestant churches came into existence.
Shaping of Modern Europe (Growth of Capitalism, Transition to Modern State, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment)
Development of capitalism was due to the reformation although the signs are seen much earlier. A minority section of the society grabbed the surpluses created by the rest of the society. Previously, the ruling elites simply coerced the extortion and grabbing of the surplus from the society but in this epoch, the ruling class simply bought off peoples’ ability to work. The theme underlying capitalism is the utilization of wealth to create more wealth. This is seen when the Catholic Church was attached to lending money or leasing in biblical terms.
Merchants, partnerships and wealthier families practiced capitalism and had their tentacles spread in banking and other transactions across Europe. Underpaid workers staged strikes in cloth industry for the reason that they wanted to share in the benefits enjoyed by their masters.
Scientific revolution formed the basis on which people changed how they thought about the physical world. It was fueled by the same spirit that propelled the renaissance. The inquisitive nature of people drove them to start questioning traditional beliefs and how the universe worked. People like Copernicus, Galileo and Isaac Newton were the main players in this transformative era. Peoples’ way of thinking was greatly changed and the utilization of scientific methods brought great discoveries in biology, physics and also medicine. The enlightenment changed the way people took workings of governments and society and started rejecting traditional ideologies. Purposes of governments, its description and the best way of forming one was looked into by thinkers like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau.
American Revolution arose out
of growing tensions amongst residents of Great Britain’s colonies and the American colonies. It followed attempts by the British trying to assert more control over the colonial statuses. These control included a raft of measures against tighter taxation and other trade controls. It was an outright rejection of British aristocracy. It afterward became a global war as other states joined in. As a result of this war, thousands of people died from exposure to diseases and also in prisons controlled by the British. Slavery was abolished in some states and other people held in slavery escaped.
Written constitutions were adopted and they guaranteed freedoms in religion. Progressive tax systems and inheritance laws owe their existence to this epoch. French revolution was influenced by the enlightenment of ideas specifically the sovereignty and inalienable facts. All of its goals were not achieved though the movement was critical in shaping modern republics. Certainly, the revolution has successfully projected immense power of the will of the people.
France’s involvement in American Revolution was a costly affair that near depleted the country’s coffers to near bankruptcy. Unending unrests by the poor peasant farmers and the urban poor characterized the revolution. This was occasioned by heavy taxation and the failure to provide reliefs of the intense rioting and looting.
French Revolution brought about ideas that transformed the world. It destroyed the foundations of old regimes such as absolutist politics, inequalities within the legal systems and creation of visions that advocated for political tolerance.
In the first eras, empires were man’s way of gaining power from others and exercising the same to the subjects. The ages of commerce saw the end of empires acquiring land and
started building walls to seclude themselves. Expansion of Europe to overseas brought the rise of colonial empires. Political changes were spurred by French Revolution. Roman Empire saw its disintegration at the beginning of 5th century as immigrants exerted pressure to be assimilated. People with dubious loyalty living in Rome cause the Empire to begin disintegrating.
History of the world cannot be complete without Western Europe’s civilization period. This is a period associated with a lot of activities, interventions, discoveries and other major things that shape up the modern world. From the medieval times, through the epoch of renaissance and reformation discoveries and other political changes have also impacted on modern governance and the way society views itself. All these civilizations are connected to Roman Empire and is responsible for the explosive period of upheavals, unrests and revolutions. Democracies that later transformed to republics can also be traced to this era. These civilizations began in more populated and large cities. The fact that Rome sat astride Europe and Asia positioned it strategically to become the epicenter of theses revolutions.
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