ABSTRACT
Even before the French Revolution in 1789, traditional European society faced three other revolutions: the Scientific, Agricultural, and Industrial Revolutions. Together, these earth-shattering developments would expand exponentially Europeans' knowledge of the natural world, permit a reliable food surplus to be created for the first time in human history, and, through mechanization, vastly improve the productive capacity of European manufacturing enterprises. The nobility had been the leading class during the Middle Ages, circa 500 CE–1500 CE, and in fact nobles would retain their dominance well into the nineteenth century. During the medieval period, the high status enjoyed by noblemen had been based partly on a sense of inborn superiority similar to racism. At the very bottom of the social scale was the peasantry, which made up the vast majority of the population of all European countries.
