Postcolonial

The emergence of sociology coincided with two of the most significant social and political revolutions of recent times. In 1838 the French social thinker Auguste Comte was the first to use the term sociology as a way of studying the world in terms of society, having grown up during the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. Along with the industrial revolution in England during the 18th century and the rise of urbanisation and mass social change, thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim and Marx began to realise the need to study society in its current form as opposed to the tendency of past philosophers on "imagining the ideal society

The study of this new perspective and the introduction of individual rights marked the beginning of sociology as a discipline, and confirm the French revolution's vast influence over the field. Karl Marx, one of the key philosophical, economic and sociological figures of modern times was strongly influenced by the revolution of 1789, and hoped other similar revolutions elsewhere against feudal or oppressive societies would follow. When Marx's ideas finally got put into practice after the Russian revolution in October 1917, analysis of this event by Leon Trotsky was written and conducted in terms of the French Revolution and therefore shows how this event still has relevance when studying social uprisings today.

With a greater emphasis on the state as opposed to an established monarchy and church system, a new social movement known as nationalism came into existence, as some replaced allegiance to God and the monarchy with an allegiance to the state. Nationalism has sparked various uprisings since the French revolution (most notably National Socialism in Germany during the 1930's) and again gave people another perspective of the society they live in. This is relevant as Nationalism is studied in depth in social scientific fields such as anthropology and sociology today.