In the Middle Ages, more precisely in Europe, the growth of urban centers began, which received the name of boroughs and where the word bourgeoisie comes from.
The development of cities provided a gradual increase in commercial activity. The artisans grouped into guilds, opened new routes in the Mediterranean and commerce enriched a new social class , the bourgeoisie.
Feudal lords lived off large tracts of land and imposed their privileges. Little by little they were replaced by the more dynamic and enterprising bourgeois. Its economic and social role was uncontrollable within the Renaissance as an engine of the economy , but also of culture through the figure of patrons.
The bourgeois is a man who relates to other cultures through trade . In this context, banking appears as an instrument that activates the economy. This phenomenon drives the capitalist model and, in parallel, capitalism fuels the growth of the bourgeoisie. From then on, medieval values were replaced by others: weakening social classes, encouraging individualism and creating certain economic links between the most developed European cities (commercial leagues).
The bourgeoisie consolidates itself as a powerful social class and has not ceased to be so far. In the eighteenth century, a new phenomenon appears in Europe, the Industrial Revolution . The economy is transformed with a technology that allows for greater productivity and the world allows the opening of new trade routes. The first demands of workers (the proletariat ), which struggle to improve their working conditions, take place. However, the bourgeoisie remains the ruling class. In fact, there is talk of the petty bourgeoisie (traders and qualified professionals) and the upper bourgeoisie (bankers, businessmen and investors).
The bourgeois concept has some interesting aspects. From a Marxist point of view, it must be replaced by the proletariat, since the ideal of Marxism defends the idea of the disappearance of all social classes. The anarchist movement also defends the need to fight against the bourgeoisie and its represented values.
In another sense, the bourgeois is a prototype despised by many and who use this term in the form of criticism or as something derogatory.
