History is a specific matter for discussion but it is, at the same time, easy because it does not acknowledge any subjunctive moods or suppositions. History deals with facts, names and dates only that is why it is considered to be the most precise science among all. History of the mankind is full of controversial events and figures, but if we take time to look closely at those events and to examine them in more details, we will undoubtedly find the rules and laws according to which the history develops.
Scientists have different opinions as for the issue of the main motive power of history. Some of them keep to the point of view that history is developing as a chain of incidental events that cause each other but do not have any logical explanation or connection. Others claim that these are personalities who create the history, meaning that prominent political leaders, warriors and charismatic people act according to their own will and the masses of people can do nothing but obey. One more opinion is that religions and traditions are the factors that predetermine the development of this or that nation. Finally, the fourth point of view consists in acknowledging that human society and every civilization that ever lived or will live on Earth develops due to such fundamental things as money, production, and trade that constitute the phenomena of economics. And if we take into consideration the Western Civilization we will see that the latter approach is absolutely applicable here (Hunt, 2008, pp. 3 – 45).
Western Civilization is a materialistic one, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that its development was predetermined by the economic factors. From the very beginning of the Western Civilization history the means of production were the major factor that determined the ruling class of the society. The Marxists claimed that only material production made a human out of a monkey and connected all the stages of the historical development with the levels of the development of economy. They explained their materialistic approach saying that a human being needs food and clothes before he or she starts thinking about politics, culture, etc. And if we take a look at the development of Western Civilization we can see the evidence of this idea (Lualdi, 2008, pp. 23 – 32).
In the Ancient Greece international trade was the factor that promoted the development of all other fields of human activity including art of waging wars, poetic and visual arts and the development of the Greek Civilization on the whole (Hunt, 2008, pp. 44 – 67). During the epoch of the Roman Empire it was economic development that made a powerful state out of an Italian city. Governing such a territory demanded great rates of production and international trade for the prosperity of the Empire and it was powerful until its economic relations broken up (Hunt, 2008, pp. 120 – 161).
The Barbarian tribes came to the spotlight after the decline of Roman Empire and they would have still been only tribes without the development of the economic relations with each other and with other countries. Powerful states, known nowadays as France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, etc., were formed out of those tribes, and again due to the economic processes and relations with other countries (Hunt, 2008, pp. 162 – 212). For example, Great Britain’s predominance on sea in the Middle Ages was impossible without economic growth of this country. Developed trade gave money for developing industry and demanded new markets for its carrying. This led to the Colonization of African, Asian and American territories, ruling over which also was the cause an effect of economic relations. Finally, the English Revolution of 1648 was the product of the economics because the bourgeoisie was not satisfied with the influence and money they had (Hunt, 2008, pp. 246 – 273). As we can see economic, and namely money, trade and production, were the major factors of the historic development of the Western Civilization.
Works Cited
Hunt, Lynn & Martin, Thomas. 2008. The Making of the West (Peoples and cultures): Chapter 1, pp. 3 – 45. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Hunt, Lynn & Martin, Thomas. 2008. The Making of the West (Peoples and cultures): Chapter 2, pp. 46 – 67. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Hunt, Lynn & Martin, Thomas. 2008. The Making of the West (Peoples and cultures): Chapter 4, pp. 120 – 161. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Hunt, Lynn & Martin, Thomas. 2008. The Making of the West (Peoples and cultures): Chapter 5, pp. 162 – 212. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Hunt, Lynn & Martin, Thomas. 2008. The Making of the West (Peoples and cultures): Chapter 7, pp. 246 – 273. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Lualdi, Katharine. 2008. Sources of The Making of the West, Volume I: To 1740: Peoples and Cultures. Bedford/St. Martin’s.