Introduction
Expansion of European overseas led to the increase of the colonial empires giving rise to Columbia exchange. Linking of resource inflows from the Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution and New World all gave rise to a new economy in relation to manufacturing rather than subsistence agriculture (Keating, 61).
The Black Death has been marked as one of the worst natural disasters in the world up to date. It was one of the most devastating pandemics that struck Europe in early 14th century. The enlightenment refers to sprawling philosophical, intellectual and cultural movement that spread worldwide, and Scientific Revolution is the way people perceive the world. It is an intellectual revolution that changed man’s process of thinking.
The renaissance brought enlightenment and rebirth. The period resulted to the break off of the modern era from the past medieval era. Europe rose up due to renaissance and became what it is today. In addition, translation of the bible to different languages resulted into the Protestant Reformation (Wirtschafter, 50). Decentralization refers to the process of spreading decision making governance to citizens and people (Del and Snell, 7).
Impacts of events on the creation of a modern world
Social impacts of the Black Death
The Black Death brought many long term consequences in the social realm. It is during this time that the Jews were viciously attacked with false accusations. In addition, the lepers and the outsiders were deliberately accused of poisoning the air and water. All the lepers were persecuted and singled out while the victims of skin diseases like psoriasis or acne were considered to be lepers.
People with leprosy were considered to be an outward sign of having inner defects of the soul. This made them to be isolated and exterminated from the entire Europe. Later, the Jews were subjected to weeks of fearful tension. They were rounded up and drowned in marches or burnt (Keating, 61).
Cultural impacts
The Black Death also affected the European culture greatly. The European culture turned very morbid. People developed a mood of pessimism while the arts turned dark to represent death. The painters and the sculptors started to portray the dying and the dead with images of the grim and death reapers. The attitude of people towards art and music started to change as they began seeing the depression atmosphere around them (Keating, 61).
Political impacts
The plagues forced the governments to adjust to the social disruption and hence modernization. There were increases in spending in towns as the merchants and the land owners were forced to pay increased wages, as they got less profit after selling their products. Those who survived in the rural areas ran away leaving their crops and fields. Ruling was very hectic due to drastic changes in the population and the economy (Keating, 61).
Impacts of renaissance
Social impacts
Renaissance brought about weakening of the Roman Catholic Church. The policy which the church officials used in keeping the population of the manor under control was weakened by feudalism. This paved way for secular beliefs and institutions bringing modernization to Europe (Wirtschafter, 59).
Cultural impacts
The artistic expression forms would be tolerated or even encouraged at certain times, something that was not there before (Wirtschafter, 76). The Medici family which controlled the flow of money had a lot of impact on the renaissance. The sexual culture and art gained roots from the support given by the Medici. This was one form of modernization. The churches were very much against this and therefore, the vanities began bonfire. This was in the fight of abolishing the sexual art and culture.
Political impacts
The renaissance resulted to increased use of money instead of land which was used for long as a medium of exchange. People learnt how to use money as a reliable way of doing transactions and transformed from the traditional methods where they could exchange valuable goods for land. This brought modernization to Europe. In addition, the number of serfs who were living as freedmen grew while nation states formed monarchies in order to reduce the power of feudal lords (Wirtschafter, 57).
Impacts of the Protestant Reformation
Social impact
The Protestant Reformation brought about the philosophy of equality for every one. It had brought about the formation of other religions such as Pietism, Calvinism and Moravian Brethren. The religion united people because it encouraged social work, literacy and education which forced people to work together (Keating, 61).
People like Martin Luther and John Calvin initiated the reformation. Martin Luther, came up with 95 theses to propound central believes. He said that humans could reach salvation through their faith and not deeds, and that; the bible is the centre of religious authority.
Cultural impacts
As part of modernization, many books were published in native languages while others were published in national languages. This made people embrace their cultures well as they were forced to attend rituals which brought more understanding. Translating the bible from Latin made people comprehend and practice the word which brought peace, love and harmony to communities (Keating, 69).
Political impacts
The Protestant Reformation resulted to formation of one official religion which was to be followed by people and the country at large. The upper classes were forced to follow the religion and the law was to be set for masters students to follow it. In Sweden, more schools were established and the law was set to allow equality to all citizens (Keating, 71). This also brought modernization to Europe.
Impact of the Columbian Exchange
Social impacts
The Columbian Exchange resulted to expropriation of farmland, killing and driving off of game, alcoholism and white brutality. Indigenous people suffered greatly from brutality of the white people. Those who contracted the disease were isolated due to fear of infecting the rest (Del and Snell, 15).
Cultural impacts
The Columbian Exchange led to crossing of crops from one country to the other. This made the culture of people living in those countries to change. As part of modernization, new crops arrived making them change their diets and even their economic activities. Germs from imported crops and animals made people change their traditional way of living in order to adapt to the new changes (Del and Snell, 15).
Political impacts
Crossing of the animals and crops resulted to political understanding amongst nations as well modernization. The leaders of different countries came together to form common trading areas which would ease the movements of the goods exchanged. Selling and buying of the new crops, animals and products generated a lot of revenue to these countries marking the beginning of economic growth (Del and Snell, 15).
Impacts of the Scientific Revolution
Cultural impacts
People who had been deeply rooted to their traditional customs adopted the modern lifestyle. Native speakers learnt foreign languages and also changed their dressing codes. The morals were depleted and replaced by many immoral lifestyles which were developed from the recent advancing technology (Wirtschafter, 50).
Social impacts
Scientific Revolution led to interaction of many people around the world. The advancing technology led to introduction of many ways of communication amongst communities making people to socialize. This contributed to modernization.
Political impacts
The Scientific Revolution made the way of leadership change. This was a sign of modernization. The leaders learnt many and new ways of ruling leaving the traditional methods. For many years, the leadership was left to certain families or clans but after Scientific Revolution, this was replaced with election and other forms of choosing the desired leader (Wirtschafter, 50).
The impact of the enlightenment
Social impacts
The enlightenment opened a path independent thought which resulted to philosophical discussions among nations. This made many people become educated and later managed to share the enlightenment resulting to industrial revolution (Wirtschafter, 59).
Cultural impacts
The enlightenment greatly permeated the lifestyles of many around the world. People no longer lived in their traditional thoughts for they leant that; thoughts had the power to incite real change in their lives (Wirtschafter, 59). This also brought modernization to Europe.
Political impacts
After the enlightenment, the leaders changed their mode of leadership. They became more enlightened in knowledge and skills resulting to improvement of the policies used in their governance. They also became wiser when handling political and economical issues (Wirtschafter, 59).
The Centralization of political power into nation states
Social impacts
Most of the European countries were able to mobilize their citizens since all the communities were looked into. The communities that were long forgotten were given attention resulting to unity between them and the leaders. Decentralization of resources from areas with many resources to areas without reflected great concern to all citizens within a country (Del and Snell, 7).
Cultural impacts
Small communities managed to mobilize sufficient organizational and political resources. They were able to launch ambitious projects resulting into modernization. They also became strong and fit to be partners able to negotiate with officers in the regional states (Del and Snell, 7).
Political impacts
Government institutions were designed to act on many geographical levels. This resulted to de-concentration of functions out of many geographical scale so as to attain high efficiency. It also made the governments to decentralize some of their functions to sub national governments supporting their legitimacy and contributing to modernization (Del and Snell, 7).
Conclusion
Reasons why “modernism” arose in Europe
According to me, the term ‘modernism’ stands for extreme modernity and also suggests extreme relativism. It is a political responsibility within reactionary or anarchic agenda. In my opinion, it moved in Europe as well as the entire world as the cultural and intellectual movement called enlightenment. The post modern thinking coincided with the increase of local and interest group politics which took place long time ago. It has resulted from the breakdown of great ideologies and systems.
I believe that, all the religions are equal because they are republications of nature’s original religion. This is because the nature’s original religion is clearly revealed. In addition it tried to reconcile historical Christianity using the findings of modern philosophy and science. Modernization arose from people when they thought that they could discover the secrets of the universe and also solve mankind’s problems.
Works Cited
Del, Loewenthal and Robert Snell. Post-modernism for psychotherapists: a critical reader. London: Psychology Press, 2003. Print.
Keating, Michael. The New Regionalism in Western Europe. Territorial Restructuring and political change. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998. Print.
Wirtschafter, Elise. The Play of Ideas in Russian Enlightenment Theater. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003. Print.