The industrial Revolution brought about changes in all spheres of life. The most prominent social change that it brought about was the division of society into two main classes- the capitalists and the workers. The capitalists reaped all the gains of industrialization while the workers remained exploited.

This, however, did not continue for long. From the nineteenth century AD onwards unions to protect their interests, workers began to organize themselves into unions to protect their interests. These unions demanded more wages, shorter working hours and better working conditions.

They got support from political thinkers and philosophers like Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Jointly, Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. Their writings popularized the doctrine of socialism- a scenario in which all resources and profits would be the collective property of the entire society and would be shared equally by all. The ideas of these thinkers were put into practice by Lenin. He led a revolution in Russia in AD 1917, which resulted in the overthrow of the Tsars and the beginnings of the growth of a socialist society in Russia.

Thus, we have seen that in the past two hundred years, the world has become interlinked. Events occurring in one country affects other countries. India, too, was not left untouched by the effects of world revolutions. Our own struggle for independence from foreign (British) rule was influenced to a very great degree by the movements for freedom and equality in America, France and Russia.