The Vaishyas are the third highest of the four broad groupings in the Indian caste system. Of these options, only warriors would not be included as Vaishyas. Soldiers, warriors, and secular rulers would have been in the second caste (beneath the Brahmins) known as the Kshatriya. The Vaishyas were merchants and artisans.

During the medieval period, the status of women was most elevated in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa (outside of the Islamic north) societies were often matriarchal and would trace their lineage matrilineally. In almost every other society on Earth at this time, women were restrained and oppressed either through social custom or by law.

In the Indian caste system, which was established by the nomadic Aryan people upon their arrival in India circa 3,500 years ago, Brahmins are at the very top of the hierarchy. Hindu priests are drawn from the ranks of the Brahmins and they are considered the most holy of all the castes.

The rise of industry sees the political and financial rise of industrialists, which encourages investing in new foreign territories. Any monarchs that tried to return to eighteenth-century styles of rule were quickly overthrown, and while the middle class grew wealthier, the working class did not follow suit. 

French Society before the Revolution was divided into three factions, those who pray, those who rule, and everyone else. This meant the First Estate was the Clergy, the Second the nobility, and the third estate was the rest of society (including peasants and merchants).

The 1800's saw the birth of labor unions. Today they are simply referred to as unions. These groups met much violent resistance to their calls for better working conditions, pay, and hours. Over time they achieved their goals of making the factories safer places to work, with shorter hours and better pay.

The idea that one could change their circumstances was called social mobility. This meant that a person who worked hard and saved money could save enough to advance up in class from a lower class to a higher one. At the time very few people made the transition from lower to upper class though. This was often due to the very poor wages paid by most of the factories at the time, which kept the workers just barely above the poverty line.

While the industrial revolution led to strict temperance and strong moral values, none of them opposed scientific discovery. In fact, new advances in science and technology were one of the greatest achievements of the era. Without new technology there would be no industrial revolution. 

The Reform Bill of 1832 was passed in the British parliament to “amend the representation of the people of England and Wales.” Prior to the Reform Bill, only a very small percentage of the population was able to vote, roughly five hundred thousand out of a population of thirteen million. The Reform Bill extended voting rights to an additional few hundred thousand men from the emerging industrial middle class. Although the percentage of the British population who could participate in government was still lower than ten percent, the Reform Bill represents the first step in Britain towards truly representative democracy.

Marx and Engels are credited with fully theorizing the process of a nation moving toward what they called Scientific Socialism. This theory stood in opposition to capitalism (which was formulated by Adam Smith) and focuses on the power of the masses and especially the working class. Additionally, their theory sought to reduce economic uncertainty, provide an adequate amount of goods for every citizen, and reduce inequality in society.