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Revolution and Power Essay

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What is a revolution? Is it a country declaring its independence or the falling of the bourgeois? Is it brother fighting brother or the story of a nation emerging from its own ashes? Or is it neither? Revolution is the story of change: changing of power, changing of governments, changing of minds. Power has become an increasingly hard term to define, especially when it is so intertwined with some of civilization’s most dynamic aspects, people and technology. Technology changes power. It is common knowledge to never bring a knife to a gunfight, or a gun to a bomb fight. In either scenario, one would not wish to be on the losing end, and technology is setting the bar higher each day. But, as stated before, power is intertwined with both …show more content…

After the adoption of the gun in warfare, kingdoms that either chose not to adopt the technology, or simply could not afford it, did not fare well in combat against those kingdoms that did, making guns a wartime necessity. But guns cost money, and the common-people had the resources. Thus a majority of Europe entered the age of debtors and the commodity of wealth. Guns were a large commodity because of their high demand and the skill required in their construction. Kings became indebted to their own people in their purchase of guns and, as a result, the dynamic of power shifted. As stated by Adam Smith in his book “Wealth of Nations”, the wealth of a nation did not depend upon the amount of gold in the king’s treasury, but on the product of its citizens. With this redistribution of wealth came a redistribution of power and the emergence of a new public sphere; one that was increasingly interested in the political, economic, and social workings of their surroundings. Guns were not the only technological revolution that changed the workings of power. The printing press was arguably the greatest technological innovation ever created within the confines of historical media. Gutenberg and his printing press made possible the concept of mass consumption. Word of mouth was always a popular option for spreading knowledge and information but it was limited both by memory and locality. Word could only travel so far before becoming incomprehensible, and

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