Introductory Guide to Modern History

With the decline of feudalism, the restrictions on peasants become a thing of the past simultaneously, the period witnessed the rise of powerful merchant class, which financed discoveries of new lands. These, with other factors, brought about the Industrial revolution which led a sea change throughout the world. This was the be beginning of the Modern Age.

Industrial Revolution brought social and economic changes that transformed the agricultural society to  a modern industrial society. The industrialised nations needed raw materials for their industries as well as markets for their finished good. The necessitated colonisation of under developed countries. This transformed the industrial nations into imperialists and led to rivalry among them for supremacy. This imperialism and rivalry led to World Wars.