Social Revolutions in History, Essay Example

Introduction

This paper examines the different social revolutions in history and the progressions that have been made in the intervening periods.  This is from the lens of sociology and has specific focus on social revolutions through to the industrial revolution.

The First Social Revolution – Domestication

The first social revolution, was based upon the domestication of plants and animals, which led to pastoral and horticultural societies. This led to the development of horticultural and pastoral societies and was considered the first major transformation of human society.  This transformation took place over a long period of time and as such was the first major successful efforts by humans to organise themselves into societies.  It was the control over the production and supply of food that made it possible for people to live in larger social communes. The most significant events of this period were:- (Henslin, J.M. 2010)

• The ability to generate more dependable food supplies;
• The organization of larger groups of people forming the basis of societies;
• The creation of a Food surplus;
• The creation of division of labour, trading and an accumulated value of goods;
• The creation of possessions resulted in disputes and led to slavery;
• The wealth was handed down in the families and this increased inequity amongst people;
• The rise of feudalism and the power of chiefs and kings in tribalism.

Industrial Revolution

The second industrial revolution was between 1870 to 1914.  This started off in Great Britain around 1850 but change had been taking place as far back as 1733with the invention of the spinning jenny and mass production of textiles. The three most important changes brought about by the industrial revolution were (i) The invention of machines that would replace human effort in labour (ii) The use of steam for driving machines and other power inventions (iii) the adoption of factories creating industrial societies and towns.

In many ways it was the industrial revolution in Great Britain that led to the building of a global empire. The industrial revolution transformed society over a couple of hundred years and as such this may be considered a gradual process of social transformation.  The pace of transformation really took hold in World War 1 when we discovered more inventive ways of killing one another with the use of sophisticated military machines.  This increased the pace of mechanization and World War 2 contributed further to the acceleration of the pace.

Technology Revolution

WW2 started the technological advancements with inventions like the Enigma coding Machine, Radar and Sonar and Rocket Science.  It was really from the 1950’s that technology started to really transform society. This was seen with a rapid alignment between communication technology i.e. the Internet and the development of computers and other sophisticated electronic machines.  The rest is history,  we have witnessed the most remarkable explosion of technological advancement in the last 60 years, achieving more than the several hundred years before.  This is changing the whole fabric of society and values of the human race. This pace is set to continue at a phenomenal rate of development.  It remains to be seen whether this will ultimately be to the benefit or detriment of human sociological development.

References

Henslin, J. M. (2010). Essentials of Sociology, A Down-to-Earth Approach (9th Edition. New York: Pearson.