During the late 1800s, industrial, artistic, scientific, and political changes contributed to a changed worldview. It was a period of great advances in scientific discovery, philosophy, religion and artistic expression.
Taking into account philosophy, new ideologies started to influence society. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "<em>The Communist Manifesto</em>" which focused on the history of class struggle. This manifesto claimed that the working class (the proletariat) had to struggle with the bourgeoisie so as to reorder society.
Bearing in mind artistic expressions, Realism began to emerge. This movement tried to portray everyday people and events. It tended to avoid artistic conventions as well as supernatural elements. Naturalist works of arts also influenced literature which focused on showing everyday life and activities.
One of the most influential figures in human history was Charles Darwin, whose controversial ideas based on humans as ordinary products of nature were published in <em>“On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection”</em>. His ideas about the origin of human being (“<em>The Descent of Man”</em>) became really controversial at that time.
Regarding scientific findings, the Curies discovered that the element radium was able to give off waves of radiation. In addition, Einstein published his theory of relativity.
It is important to state that there were changes in industrial production, trade, and imperialism which improved the world economy. The US became the richest nation in the world due to an important growth in industry and transport. As a result, increasing trade between nations allowed the US to gain more power.
