Editing Bourgeoisie (section)

==History==

===Origins and rise===
{{Further|History of capitalism#Origins of capitalism|Trade#History|Bourgeois revolution}}
[[File:Fuggerkontor.jpg|thumb|upright|The 16th-century German banker [[Jakob Fugger]] and his principal accountant, M. Schwarz, registering an entry to a ledger. The background shows a file cabinet indicating the European cities where the Fugger bank conducts business (1517).]]

The bourgeoisie emerged as a historical and political phenomenon in the 11th century when the {{lang|fr|bourgs}} of Central and Western Europe developed into cities dedicated to commerce and crafts. This urban expansion was possible thanks to economic concentration due to the appearance of protective self-organization into [[guilds]]. Guilds arose when individual businessmen (such as craftsmen, artisans and merchants) conflicted with their [[rent-seeking]] feudal [[Feudal land tenure|landlord]]s who demanded greater [[Economic rent|rent]]s than previously agreed.

In the event, by the end of the [[Middle Ages]] ({{circa|AD 1500}}), under regimes of the early national monarchies of Western Europe, the bourgeoisie acted in self-interest, and politically supported the king or queen against [[Legitimacy (political)|legal]] and financial disorder caused by the greed of the feudal lords.{{Citation needed|date=January 2014}} In the late-16th and early 17th centuries, the bourgeoisies of England and the Netherlands had become the financial – thus political – forces that deposed the feudal order; [[economic power]] had vanquished military power in the realm of politics.<ref name="The Columbia Encyclopedia 1994"/>

===From progress to reaction (Marxist view)===
According to the Marxist view of history, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeoisie were the politically [[Progressivism|progressive]] social class who supported the principles of [[Constitution|constitutional government]] and of [[natural right]], against the [[Law of Privilege]] and the claims of [[Divine right of kings|rule by divine right]] that the [[nobility|nobles]] and [[prelate]]s had autonomously exercised during the feudal order.

The [[English Civil War]] (1642–1651), the [[American War of Independence]] (1775–1783), and [[French Revolution]] (1789–1799) were partly motivated by the desire of the bourgeoisie to rid themselves of the feudal and royal encroachments on their personal liberty, commercial prospects, and the ownership of [[property]]. In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie propounded [[liberalism]], and gained political rights, religious rights, and [[civil liberties]] for themselves and the lower social classes; thus the bourgeoisie was a progressive philosophic and political force in Western societies.

After the [[Industrial Revolution]] (1750–1850), by the mid-19th century the great expansion of the bourgeoisie social class caused its [[social stratification|stratification]] – by business activity and by economic function – into the {{lang|fr|haute bourgeoisie}} (bankers and industrialists) and the {{lang|fr|[[petite bourgeoisie]]}} ([[Tradesman|tradesmen]] and [[white-collar worker]]s).{{sfn|Siegrist|2001|p=785}} Moreover, by the end of the 19th century, the capitalists (the original bourgeoisie) had ascended to the upper class, while the developments of technology and [[Trade (occupation)|technical occupations]] allowed the rise of working-class men and women to the lower strata of the bourgeoisie; yet the social progress was incidental.