Advent and Development of Liberalism:
Main attributes / circumstances of birth (advent) and development of liberalism are as follows :
(1) Renaissance:
In the 14th century, the renaissance in Europe starting from Italy reached France, Spain, Germany, and as a result, the dominance of church in the field of art and culture ended, and in politics also, the common man got motivated. This changed the outlook of human beings whose impact was visible in philosophical, scientific, economic and technical fields.
(2) Religious Reformation Movement:
The main reason for the advent of liberalism is religious reformation movement. Prior to this movement, there was a dominance of church in whole of the Europe. The pope was equated to God, and in religious sphere, he was considered supreme and an individual was his ‘slave’. In the 16th century, Martin Luther objected to the autocracy of the pope. He has the concept that any person having faith in God can establish contact with him through the study of religious scriptures, and for that, there is no need for any mediator in the form of a pope of Catholic church. Luther’s movement come into existence in the form of “Protestant Religion”.
(3) Scientific Revolution:
As a result of scientific revolution in 16th and 17th century, one part emerged that the whole world is like a ‘loom’ (machine), which is omnipresent, self operative and is managed by unaffected rules. In this way, scientific methods got encouraged to find out the truth. This method became the foundation stone of liberalism.
(4) Intellectual Revolution:
In 18th century, the entire western world was swept over by an intellectual revolution, which changed the line of thoughts and view-points of the period. Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Montesque, Adam Smith, Getel, Kant and Thomas Paine, etc. clarified that it is logical power of an individual, which is capable to retrieve truth with regard to any field of life. This outlook became the ideal of liberalism.
(5) Industrial Revolution and Advent of Capitalist Class:
In medieval period, an individual had no free existence and rights. People had no economic and religious freedom in their life. They were under the influence of the church and feudal powers. The industrial revolution took place in 18th century. It is an indicator of these changes in economic field which are the obvious results of scientific revolution. As a result of industrial revolution, big factories were established resulting in growth in production. As a result, the economic power shifted from feudal class to upper-middle class. There appeared new industrialists and a new labour class.
(6) Reaction Against Autocracy:
Another main reason of the advent of liberalism was reaction against feudal autocratic governments. In 16th and 17th century, there was feudal government system in Europe. Some of the kings regarded themselves as the incarnation of God and established autocracy. In this condition, many thinkers like John Locke, Herbert Spencer, T.H. Green, J.S. Mill etc. propagated the concept of freedom and rights of an individual. Because of this, the path of advent of liberalism was paved.
