The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment period, or the Renaissance, was perhaps the most significant period in terms of changing perceptions, ideologies and beliefs or knowledge in the western history. The society and the societal structures had changed drastically and collective mindsets had altered significantly. The Enlightenment was the extension of the already started science revolution that carried on to the eighteenth century (Rothkrug 2015). This period laid an emphasis on reason, logic and rational thinking to perceive things and not simply believe in them because being told to. Religion and religious institutions were the prime target for the people who preached and sought knowledge. Church authority was replaced by reason. This era merged ancient Greek philosophies and brought them in alignment with the modern views and the new world. The social changes that occurred during the Enlightenment were significant and forever changed the European course of history. These changes were in stark contrast to the previous social structure or norms and they opened up an array of new ways to perceive different things and even ideologies were drastically altered (Kitromilides 2014).
Old orders and methods were being challenged by scientists like Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke, as early as the seventeenth century. Elementary laws of physics like gravity were being properly understood and described and the forces of nature were being given the recognitions that they needed, rather than further manifestations of blind belief, spiritual forces (Seidman 2016). Superstitions were being shattered and explanations for every phenomenon that the humans have feared or ignored were being explained. Knowledge was being revered to be supreme and simple faith was losing to logic and science.
Expansion of the central state administration was one of the most significant political structural changes that has ever happened in the western world. The concept that the government is a social contract between the people and the state was established during this period of time and this is the prime reason for the central hegemonic states to become more structured and a proper hierarchy was established within the state structure itself. This infrastructural changes led to many other social and political changes. In many ways, the Renaissance paved the ways for the Industrial Revolution that was to come in the eighteenth century.
Immanuel Kant aptly described the Enlightenment as “man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity”. The great thinkers and the philosophers of this era argued that reason alone is more than sufficient to bring about social reforms and also make sure that collective perceptions are altered for the better with a focus of making humans more dependent upon logical and critical thinking rather than accepting something simply because of blind faith (Hulliung 2017).
Since the society encompasses every aspect of the human life, it is vital to have a proper grasp on every minute details and consider every changes from the Church authority power shift to changes in the democratic structures are necessary properly fathom the dramatic social changes caused by the Enlightenment (Keohane 2017). The segregation of the Church and the State, the idea of a social contract had all been developed and established this way, which are still significantly apparent in today’s society across almost all the democracies in the world. Rousseau developed Locke’s ideas even further. The French Revolution was the direct event that was influenced by this concept. It must also be noted that the concepts of the ideas that were popularised in this era were already existing. The contemporary philosophes only presented them in a more coherent and easy manner, which was easily understood by most (Keohane 2017).
However, contradicting the teachings and beliefs of the era was the concept of Enlightened Despotism, which considered that the people were not competent to rule themselves all the time and would be needed to be governed by an enlightened and tolerant monarch, who would be ushering in freedom of speech and religious tolerance, rather than being a repressive king like Louis XIV. Kings and queens of countries like Prussia, Russia and Austria tried to follow enlightenment principles and attempted to rule their own countries according to the teachings of the philosophes like Voltaire.
Even though most of the philosophes of the time were Christians, they viewed the Biblical texts to act as a moral guidance for the people and not something that should have intrinsic values in the political structures. Thus, the separation of the state from the church were imminent. However, it must be noted that this perception was by no means first formulated in this time, rather they have existed and discussed about for many centuries before and after the Renaissance (Seidman 2016).
Thus, it can be concluded that the Enlightenment period was one of the most important times in the western history, that not only changed perceptions in the European countries, but rather directed the path the world would be following in the subsequent centuries to come, drastically changing both the social and the political framework and the collective views about almost everything.
The Industrial Revolution and the social changes
The industrial revolution was another significant decider of the fates of the European countries, and indirectly the world, for the years to come. The industrial revolution occurred between 1750 and 1914 and was started in Britain. The social changes had to occur due to the changes in the economic and political structures. The social changes that happened in this time had transcended temporal barriers (Hudson 2014). Wide-scale urbanisation and new social classes emerged. Perhaps the rise of the working class is the most important social aspect of the period as this segment of the social structure has led a number of social movements in the later decades and centuries. The new wage economy even altered the family structures that were prevalent before. Production and manufacturing of products also moved out of small family-based institutions to large-scale factories where mass production gave rise to the need to search for and expand to new markets. Imperialism, thus, was heavily induced by the industrial revolution. Even though it existed prior to the revolution, its intensity grew tenfold and new colonial policies had to be designed and implemented to pacify the pressure that was coming from the industrialists (Hartwell 2017). The rural population started to move to the cities to work in the factories, thus altering the demography of the entire continent. The previous segmentation of the society, the clergy, the nobility and the commoners, was shattered and the rise of the middle class or the bourgeoisie was brought about by the industrial revolution.
The nature of the labour force changed as well: the industrial revolution demanded the work schedule and traditional rhythm of the labours to be changed to meet the new requirements. The fact that most of the labours came from agrarian background meant that the entire nature of the work had to be changed and new methods had to be adopted.
Before the industrial revolution, family was the centre for production. Family economy was replaced by wage economy and the family structure itself was given a new form. Before the industrial revolution, women and children were an important part of the entire production process. After the revolution had occurred, they were rendered to become less important and the factories took over the process (Fukuyama 2014). Even though the women and the children actively participated in the manufacturing process before, after the revolution most of the rural to urban migration of the children was due to the rising needs for domestic help in the cities. The middle and the working classes started to generate massive income from working in the factories and this meant that domestic services could be more afforded by the people. Purchasing power had increased and a chain reaction was ignited that caused new products to be introduced to the market (Teitelbaum 2014). The rising market prices also meant that sending the daughters off to the cities to work as domestic maids could uplift some economic burden from the families, which also motivated them to do so.
The middle and the working classes also brought down the supreme control of the aristocrats over the other segments of the society and the fundamental changes rendered the privileges to be diversified, rather than being concentrated to only a select few.
As a major transition period industrial revolution ensured several changes and advancement form the technology aspects as well, manufacturing, agriculture, textile production, transportation are some of the aspects of the economy that gained from the developed technology. Some of the notable technological inventions that took place during this period are: telegraph machine, sewing machine, telephone, phonograph and aeroplane.
The black civil rights movement
During the middle of the 1950s, the African-American black civil rights movement came to prominence. Racial segregation was being rejected by people across the United States (Chong 2014). The fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries liberated the African slaves and basic human rights were given to them. However, they were still largely discriminated upon, and in most cases they were denied the rights and privileges that the very constitution stood for. The scenario started to change after the Second World War and the black rights movement gained momentum (Button 2016).
On 9th September, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This act gave the African-Americans the right to vote and heralded the federal government’s determination to abolish any form of racial segregation. The long and arduous process to achieve civil rights for the African-Americans however was not ended here. Despite the act being implemented, the actual condition did not change much for the African-Americans. The southern states continued to discriminate against the community for a long time and is even prevalent today. This bill established the Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department and resolved to look into any problems and disruptions that would be negatively affect the voting rights of the African-Americans (Button 2014). This was the first major amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This bill showed a concrete support of the federal government in favour of racial equality, which the result of the Brown decision made by the Supreme Court in 1954. Essentially, this act served as the first step towards a number of civil rights bills in the 1960s.
The photograph of Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan is one of the most important images of the black civil rights movement. The federal court ordered nine black students to be admitted to Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957. The legal actions that were taken by NAACP prompted the federal court to rule in favour of the black students. However, the racial bullying and apathy was still faced byElizabeth on her first day at school (Marable 2016). Hazel Bryan, despite her protests, did not spend a single day in the school with the nine newly enlisted black students. Her parents, becoming concerned about her sudden notoriety, decided to take her out of the school. The picture is one of the most powerful images that shows the fact that despite the court and the jurisdiction of the country ruling in favour of the black students, the general mass mentality still did not accept the judgement. Central was one of the first major southern cities to have accepted the equality rights and tried to move in favour of the court laws and judgements. However, the mass public was still agnostic and did not want the society to be changing. The Civil War had changed too less in terms of establishing the constitutional laws in the country and also failed to change the societal mentality towards accepting the black populace of the nation (Ling and Monteith 2014). This image shall forever remain as one of the most striking images in the history of the black civil rights movement.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were part of the civil rights protests that had been initiated by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. Alabama was a southern city that was riddled with racial problems. This image goes on to show how a group of people despite authority violence was determined to claim their voting rights. The protests and the procession were met with deadly violence from the local authorities (Lawson 2014). White vigilante groups were also present and the authority did not do much to stop these groups from inflicting injuries to the black protestors. The protest march explicitly drew attention to the fact that the black people faced discrimination and various other forms of troubles every day. The hostility that was demonstrated against the protestors paved the way for future protests and more support for the movement.
This revolutionary movement has a very significant impact on the American society, but the impact took place gradually. African-American citizens started receiving their due respect and got recognition in the country as citizens. Entry in educational institutions, transportations and public places were ensured for the African-American citizens. The movement resulted in issuing the civil right act 1964 which outlawed any prejudice in employment or businesses of public accommodation based on the race, color, religion, sex or national origin of a citizen.
References
Button, J.W., 2014. Blacks and social change: Impact of the civil rights movement in southern communities. Princeton University Press.
Button, J.W., 2016. Blacks and social change. Princeton University Pres.
Chong, D., 2014. Collective action and the civil rights movement. University of Chicago Press.
Fukuyama, F., 2014. Political order and political decay: From the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Hartwell, R.M., 2017. The Industrial Revolution and economic growth (Vol. 4). Taylor & Francis.
Hudson, P., 2014. The industrial revolution. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hulliung, M., 2017. The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the philosophes. Routledge.
Keohane, N.O., 2017. Philosophy and the State in France: the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Princeton University Press.
Kitromilides, P.M., 2014. The Enlightenment as social criticism: Iosipos Moisiodax and Greek culture in the eighteenth century. Princeton University Press.
Lawson, S.F., 2014. Running for freedom: Civil rights and black politics in America since 1941. John Wiley & Sons.
Ling, P.J. and Monteith, S. eds., 2014. Gender in the Civil Rights Movement. Routledge.
Marable, M., 2016. Beyond black and white: From civil rights to Barack Obama. Verso Books.
Rothkrug, L., 2015. Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of French Enlightenment. Princeton University Press.
Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons.
Teitelbaum, M.S., 2014. The British fertility decline: demographic transition in the crucible of the industrial revolution. Princeton University Press.
