Western Civilization

It seems as though ever since the Cold War Europe is still divided amongst those same countries. Although a lot has changed since then the economic standpoint for countries whose gross domestic production rate is high still remains in countries like the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have remained strong.

The European Union is the wealthiest economy in the world but how did they get there?

Between the years of 1540 and 1660 a lot happened that caused lack of support and confidence in the authority of Europe, religious strife, warfare, rebellion and crisis in the economy. The search for western civilizations to find peace and reassurance in their political and social structures was pertinent. The European countries began to turn to their government in hopes to regain power and safety. Intellectuals such as Thomas Hobbes became involved in the movement to gain the protection of the government in the lives of the people, he believed man is inherently evil and the people must surrender their liberties in order to save their lives.

During this time King Louis XIV sought to find stability in “absolutist monarchs sought control of the state’s armed forces and its legal system and demanded the right to collect and spend the state’s fifinancial resources at will. To achieve these goals, they also needed to create an efficient, centralized bureaucracy that owed its allegiance directly to the monarch.”(pg 356) The King traded privileges for allegiance and implemented taxes. There were many countries that opposed these ideas such as England when they emerged with a constitutional monarchy where absolutism was not tolerated. During the Glorious Revolution John Locke(1632-1704) wrote The Contract Th...

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...ove Russian people's lives by giving them the vision through his “April Thesis” stating his ideas on taking over the intermediate government. He provided the leadership that was necessary during the revolution he knew that democratic centralism was necessary, which would be leading the revolution for the people. In 1917 the followers of Lenin called the Bolsheviks took control of the government ending the war with Germany. Later in 1920 after the civil war broke out between the White army and the Red Army, The Red army wins and Lenin seizes the opportunity and implemented his New Economic Policy. Lenin believing that a socialist revolution would be successful if there were multiple revolutions happening together all at once in Europe. Later after Karl Marx died his work was brought back by a man named Joseph Stalin. Stalin incorporated both Lenin and Marx's ideals by