Karl Marx's Classical Sociological Theory and Capitalism
Classical sociological and economic theories like those of Karl Marx emerged in Western Europe when it was experiencing the Enlightenment, the emergence of scientific method, a growing sense of individual autonomy over one's life conditions, the emergence of private property, urban growth, and a total shattering of the social balance of relations among peoples that had been in place for centuries if not millennia. Christianity and other traditional religions were being undermined by the new developments in science and technology, while urban, industrial capitalism was breaking up the old feudal-agrarian order in Europe and the Americas.