Developement Of Europe Essay Research Paper Development

Developement Of Europe Essay, Research Paper

Development of Europe

The notions of modernity, modernization, and modernism play an important role in better understanding the development of Europe. These three concepts can be applied to a range of transformations in the areas of politics, socio-economics, and culture respectively. The three concepts are connected, yet each has its own unique qualities that are useful in understanding the changes across Europe in this period. These ideas are crucial to the better comprehension of the creation of the Europe of today.

To understand the significance of the terms, it is important to first understand the terms themselves. Modernity was a term used around the French Revolution as a term of abuse. However, in the later part of the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century it became associated more with improvement and advancement. Modernization refers to the processes political, economic, and social that made a society modern. An example of this would be industrialization. Finally, modernism is a reference to a high cultural movement and was used to relate to changing attitudes. It is basically a celebration of the notion of progress.

Modernity during the French Revolution was used as a term of abuse. At this time, during the Reign of Terror in particular, France was moving toward a more republican form of government. During their attempt at the Republic of Virtue Catholicism was a focal point of attack. These attacks ended up fueling divisions that in the end proved to be fatal for the republican government. What some people saw as the future, others disliked and associated it with modernity. Hence, the concept of modernity s use as an abusive phrase. However, at the close of the French Revolution, modernity took on a new use. In the nineteenth century and beyond, modernity became a term associated with good things.

Unlike modernity, modernization has always been a fairly neutral term. It has always described the processes that actually made the society modern. As mentioned before, a perfect example of this would be industrialization. The best place to see modernization is England during the Industrial Revolution. In England during the nineteenth century, industrialization began with the movement from agrarian and home based work driven by human and animal power to work in factories driven by steam power. This change was by all means not lightning fast, and along with it came a change in the way the people lived their lives.

The common workers were forced to move from the country into the cities where they could find work in the factories. This notion of the movement from country life to urban life epitomizes modernization. This movement shows that things are modernizing. Up until this point most of the worlds population existed in the country and as people moved into the city the world including England became more modern like today, with the majority of the population in urban regions. The processes of industrialization lead to and basically are what modernization is defined as. By understanding the process of industrialization, modernization can be better seen and understood.

Finally, modernism is predominantly a term referring to a cultural movement. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was a cultural celebration of the notion of progress. People were rejecting the superficial, material excess and looking down inside themselves. This rejection of the material excess is embodied by many of the authors and artists of the time. For instance, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen s character of Nora in his play A Doll s House is the perfect example. Nora s rejection and leaving of her loveless and oppressive marriage shows the shrugging off of the will of the society in exchange for one s own happiness. Another good example is the Dutch-born painter Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh s lack of intense color when painting the bleak outskirts of industrialized cities where often the desperately poor lived showed his emotion and sympathy as opposed to the stark realities of the realism painters. This artistic movement all over Western Europe was the embodiment of modernism and its move away from petty materialism.

Modernity, modernization, and modernism are all very useful in understanding changes across Europe. First of all, all three of these terms give further insight into periods of turmoil or transition. This insight allows a historian to better imagine what people actually thought at that specific time. Understanding modernization is just like understanding the people and processes of, for example, the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, much like a primary source, the understanding of the three concepts is like freezing a moment in time and then having the chance to study it. On the whole, these ideas are very important in grasping the development of Europe and the issues therein.

These three concepts are each unique, except still connected in the establishment of modern day Europe. Modernity having its roots in the political side of society gives comprehension to the developing politics. Modernization, on the other hand, gives insight to the processes that make a society modern. Finally, modernism covers the cultural movement of the late nineteenth century s every modernizing society. The historical implications of these three terms are very impo