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Major Factors Effecting Western Civilization Since the beginning of modern man there has been continuous progress and advancement in how we as a race live and interact. It can be argued that since man became cognizant of his ability to overcome difficulty and improve the quality of life with the use of reason that this progress moved forward ceaselessly. History is filled with examples of incredible advancements, technological, educational, governmental, and societal. Some are attributed to a specific invention and other are to a period in time and each of these are complex enough to warrant a doctoral thesis. The Renaissance was evolving into an ideal and materialistic society, where education becomes more available-individual achievements in science, art, philosophy, and literature continues to this date. With the development of the printing press, the availability of books to all class stratification with the writings of William Shakespeare, with creation of characters such as Romeo and Juliet and Othello.
No one-individual new human nature as William Shakespeare did. Literary undertakings of Thomas Moore, with his writing of Utopia, where the inhabitants work only six-hour days, so that they may all have leisure for intellectual pursuits, such stories were not found prior to the Renaissance, but are in effect in now in libraries and institutions all over the world. Scientific accomplishments of the Renaissance period are international in scope with great art works of Michael Angelo and the Sistine chapel. Leonardo da Vinci and his visions of machines, with his tremendous talents as an illustrator allowing him to draw his mechanical ideas with clearness, five hundred years after they were put on paper, many of his sketches can easily be used as blueprints to create perfect working models of today. As much as the Renaissance has made contributions towards western civilization so has The reformation. A division of European religion; it gave to western civilization the diversity in choice of religion that was not available from the past medieval strong hold of the Catholic Church.
It gave rise to nation-states and a chief factor in the evolution of royal absolutism, which still remains in some European countries. Germany, the original home of the Reformation, was reduced to a state of distress by the Thirty Years War, and the German Empire was thereby dislodged from the leading position which it had for centuries occupied in Europe. The Reformation also brought upon one of the greatest peace treaties ever developed in the modern world. The Westphalia peace treaty (1643 - 1648), the major significance that this has on western civilization that it brought about the emergence of many independent city-state and borders that are in Europe currently. Westphalia pronounced the dissolution of the old order in the empire of Germany; it facilitated the growth of new powers in its component parts, especially Austria, Bavaria, which Europe has today.
The treaty was recognized as a fundamental law of the European nations. If not for the Westphalia Treaty, Europe as we no it at present might not have the multiplicity that we no of. The Reformation encouraged a wider range of independent thought with knowledge. The Scientific Revolution advanced the observational science and free enquiry rather than appeals to the classics.
Far from emphasis on the Bible being limited on scientific thought, it is remarkable how many top scientists had a Protestant background. Scientist quickly abandoned any genuine biblical approach to their discipline. The movement, which followed, came in the aftermath of the devastating seventeenth century wars of religion, which had sunk the legal and moral authority of religious institutions and functionaries to recede. The Scientific revolution stressed the importance of reason and the critical reassessment of existing ideas and social institutions. Man witnessed significant scientific advances, notably theory of planetary motions discovered by Copernicus and the telescope by Galileo. Which has brought 20 th century man into the exploration of space.
Engineering of nature to benefit mans life with knowledge - Bio- technology in which nature is out of the hands of God. The Scientific revolution has established modern day man to manage the workings of society to create better order and harmony, as in cities like New York and Paris thriving with business and edict. Western civilization of today has the inheritance of secular humanism, which has generally persisted as a dominant world-view. The effect of this historical process was to leave a rational environment in which the Church of the 20 th century had lost all scientific influence. This further prepared the ground for the revolution that changed the minds of millions and set the stage for the intellectual pursuit. The Enlightenment was both an end result and a new beginning.
Fresh currents of thought were wearing down institutionalized traditions. New ideas and new approaches to old institutions were setting the stage for great revolutions to come. The main figures at the time were Descartes with mathematical method used globally in the present day Pascal, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau's. They did not discover the natural rights theory, but they made it the foundation of the ethical and social way of thinking.
They introduced natural rights into practical politics that we use in the present day. Montesquieu gave to our founding fathers the foresight of checks and balances, natural rights, and the dynamic force, which revealed its explosive energy of the separation of power and division of power. Liberty of the person, security of property and freedom of discussion were less rooted in abstract reason than in commonsense views of fundamental human needs, impulses and inclinations brings us to face yet another advancement in western civilization The making of machines to make machines was one of the most important aspects of all human history. The Industrial Revolution was not a sudden event that happened in a particular year, as most revolutions do. It was instead the beginning of a dynamic, ongoing process that carries on for centuries. Its immediate effect was the factory system of manufacture, in contrast to the earlier guild system in the cities or cottage industries in rural areas.
Necessity was the mother of invention. Technological change in the factory system: new steam-, water-, and wind-power systems and new machines for manufacturing. Waterbury was a perfect example of this era, with its pride as the Brass capitol of the world. A main ingredient was the division of labor in industry. The early Industrial Revolution produced transportation there were new kinds of ships and paved infrastructure, and railroads were invented and the prosperity of cities had been greater than ever since.
Another important factor that exist today from the industrial revolution is the gaining of rights, the right of private property, was a requisite for the emergence of the factory system and a new business class. Property rights made possible such types of ownership as joint stock companies and corporations, which exploded during the Gilded era in America. Finally a stage of industrialism materialized in the second half of the 20 th century with an information revolution, underpinned by computer technology and robotics. The American Revolution has done for western civilization, 200 years of economic growth under the same government and brought out the worlds freest society. There is no country in the world where the law limits itself more carefully and it is to guarantee everyone liberty and property. As a result there is no country in that the social order seems to rest on a more established institution.
This is why we, as Americans, understand freedom and democracy in the United States. Where each person is cautious with a compassionate care to remain his own master. It is by good quality to freedom that the poor hope to come out from poverty, and that the rich hope to save their riches. As a nation we have observed the democratic system that has brought the people to a point of enterprise, security, fairness which each person can in full confidence dedicate his capitol and his labor to production. We do not have to fear that our plans will be upset from one instant to another within our government. The French Revolution was followed by political unsteadiness, including three revolutions, a directorate, a Reign of Terror, a dictatorship, a restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy, another monarchy, and who knows how many republics.
Today, socialism has a greater hold on France than it does in America. Even though the French and the American Revolution were close in time it was the French Revolution that set the pattern for the Russian Revolution and other modern revolutions, not the American. The world saw the French Revolution establish a system of liberty and new strength. History has demonstrated that man as a race has continually made progress. Mans ability to reason sets him apart from the rest of the inhabitants of the planet. Progress has been demonstrated and recorded through at the ages.
There are common traits in these exciting time periods. We today are experiences another exciting revolution, the Internet. This creation had fueled progress more rapidly than any other single invention in history. In the span of less than a decade, man has changed every aspect of life, how we communicate, conduct commerce, how we obtain information. The Internet Revolution will be something that future generations will be studying as we today study modern civilization. But the same will hold true, progress will continue and another invention will reshape society.
Free research essays on topics related to: industrial revolution, western civilization, french revolution, 20 th century, scientific revolution
Research essay sample on 20 Th Century Western Civilization
