The birth of modernity: The influence of the Renaissance, the enlightenment and the French Revolution

Abstract

While the emergence and global spread of modernity is a complex phenomenon, it is known that certain political, economic, and social developments led to its rise and spread. Looking closely at these factors, it is possible to say that the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and capitalism in the Western world are the five main historical developments that shaped modernity. On a historical continuum, these developments are interrelated. Some of them gave modernity its soul. Others made it much more influential and global. In this regard, it is arguable that the first three developments gave modernity its soul, while the last two gave it a much more effective scope. This study examines the first three historical developments using the descriptive research method based on these premises. It considers the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution as the developments that gave birth to modernity and gave it its soul. At the same time, this study argues that these are moments or developments that are intrinsically supportive of each other, seeing these historical moments as moments of rupture and crisis in the Western world. These moments and developments are crucial components of the problems and phenomena we currently discuss today. No literary, aesthetic, philosophical, or political criticism of the 20th century can be analyzed without taking these developments into account. In this respect, this study reconsiders, within a historical continuum, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, which shaped modernity and its philosophy, modernism.