Social Changes in Europe

Humans have always thought about their existence and their lifestyles. Such concepts are essential to ideology, religion, philosophy, and many other ways humans think about themselves and their world. So, the basic impulse that led to sociology, a discipline concerned with human behaviour, interaction, and organisation, is not new. Ancient philosophers such as Confucius, Aristotle, and Plato, as well as religious leaders and scholars, surely thought about some things modern sociology was interested in. After all, sociology is the systematic study of people’s everyday lives. 

Sociology developed from the Renaissance in Europe after centuries of apparent stagnation and miserliness. The Renaissance was a period of societal revolution and modernity. The early sociologists’ theories grew out of mediaeval Europe’s social, economic, and political realities and to understand the social changes in Europe. In this context, one must understand traditional Europe, that is, the period before the Enlightenment, which led to the beginning of sociology as a scientific discipline in European history.

The study of social connections, culture, and society is known as sociology. In the 1830s, Auguste Comte proposed a synthetic science that unified all human activity and knowledge. Academically, sociology is a social science.

European society before the Enlightenment

Pre-Enlightenment Europe was traditional, and its economy was dependent on land. There were landlords, feudal lords, and peasants. Religion was the foundation of society, and religious leaders decided what was moral. People valued family and kinship. Monarchy was deeply rooted in society, and the king’s rule was divinely ordained.

Renaissance period social changes

Commerce and trade expansion

Between 1450 and 1800, the mediaeval European economy had changed from subsistence to a dynamic and global economy. A massive increase in trade and commerce started in the 15th century. Before the foreign discoveries and conquests, Europe traded with nations like India and China through land routes; sea routes eventually replaced these. It was the dawn of colonialism and trade expansion. The new business organisation and banking system growth aided the process.

Rise of the middle class

This period saw the growth of the middle class—merchants, bankers, and ship owners with economic power. At the end of the 17th century, middle-class influence spread over nearly all Western European nations.

Science and the growth of scientific thought

Mediaeval society had a feudal system. Nothing could challenge the Church’s dogmas, and it was the centre of power, authority, and learning. The “Scientific Revolution” began during the Renaissance. In the field of science, it challenged authority and broke with the past. The 16th-17th-century Scientific Revolution inspired the Enlightenment. According to 18th-century thinkers, Newtonian physics was the Scientific Revolution’s symbolic peak.

Nicholas Copernicus’ work was the first significant break from ancient thought. The Copernican revolution shattered the old world. Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and later Isaac Newton transformed science. They emphasised the experimental method, challenged old ideas, and suggested new ones. 

Thus, scientific methods became the most accurate and objective. Dissection of the human body revealed its functions, leading to reconsideration of established ideas; this impacted sociologists like Comte, Spencer, and Durkheim.

Charles Darwin (1809–1882), a British biologist, published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, creating a furore in society. Subsequently, Darwin examined human evolution in “Descent of Man” (1863). He said humans evolved from ape-like ancestors into modern men. This book caused controversy because Conservatives refused to accept that they could have descended from monkeys; they believed God made man in his image. Thinkers like Herbert Spencer later applied the concept of evolution to the social world, positing that societies, not just organisms, were continually “evolving” or developing.

Transition from feudalism to industrialism

The rise of the middle class and the Scientific Revolution sparked the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in late 17th-century England, it impacted people’s lives, first in England, then in other European countries, and later globally. The discovery of new territories, explorations, trade and commerce expansion, and consequent town growth increased the demand for commodities in Europe, particularly England. New tools and techniques that facilitated large-scale production were developed, and factory production began. As a result, the economy changed from feudal to industrial and capitalist, and the capitalist class controlled this industrial system.

Social changes in society: migration and urbanisation

Several social changes followed the economic transformation. A new industrial worker, manager, and capitalist class emerged. Urban communities based solely on new factories started to emerge. The factory system pushed large numbers of people to cities, and women and children began working in factories. With the advent of nuclear families, family relations transformed. Religion lost its importance, and ideological commitments replaced family ties. Women’s positions changed. Finally, the monarchy collapsed.

The French Revolution brought in liberal democracy

Europe’s changes gave birth to a new liberal democratic system. The rise of science and industrialisation required a more tolerant political system, and the political developments in Europe resulted in the French Revolution in 1789. This was a turning point in the human struggle for freedom and equality, and it ended the period of feudalism and brought in a new society. This revolution changed French society, splitting it into feudal “estates”. The “Three Estates” were the clergy, mediaeval French nobility, and peasants. The situation of the peasants was very different from that of the clergy and nobility, and they had to pay extremely high taxes. The middle classes, which included merchants, bankers, attorneys, and manufacturers, were better off than the peasants. While the peasantry was the third estate, it had no social status.

Sociology as a scientific discipline emerged during a period of powerful social, political, economic, and cultural change in Europe. These changes resulted from modernity embodied in the French and Industrial Revolutions influenced by the Commercial and Scientific Revolutions. These revolutions gave ideological content to modernity, bringing profiteering, new markets, mass production, the desire to build empires in other countries, and industrialism. The Enlightenment period symbolises the spirit of a new awakening among 18th-century French philosophers.

Like other absolute monarchies, France adopted the theory of the divine right of kings. The Bourbon family ruled France for almost 200 years, and the king’s rule gave ordinary people no personal rights; they only served the king and his nobles. From Louis XIV onwards, French rulers fought costly wars that bankrupted the country. Instead of recovering, Louis XV kept borrowing from bankers.

France’s intellectual developments sparked the revolution. In the 18th century, like other European nations, France entered the era of reason and rationalism. Some of France’s most influential philosophers were rationalists who believed reason could prove everything true. A few were Montesquieu, Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau. French thinkers such as these and others introduced key ideas that stuck in the French people’s imagination. These concepts of liberty and equality impacted the middle class.

The French Revolution dismantled the feudal system and advocated a democratic society and political system.

Conclusion

Social change is the evolution of human interactions, behavioural patterns, relationships, and cultural standards. Changes in cultural and social institutions, beliefs, and rules will inevitably have long-term effects on society. These changes and revolutions are neither good nor bad but profound. We may not notice social change as it takes place; it might take years, or even centuries, to see its impact.

It is crucial for students and members of a fast-changing society to think about past social developments and how they affect us today. Anyone may now study—even online and free at the University of the People. That’s why social change is essential, and society cannot progress without it.