The beginning of the Twentieth Century saw the rise of an entirely new politically in Western nations. The previous century had seen the Industrial Revolution replace agriculture as the primary economic model in Western nations, a change accompanied by huge social, political and demographic shifts. Populations which had once been largely rural and engaged in farming or small handicraft work shifted to urban districts filled with factory workers. The new industrial economies created great wealth, but also much alienation, sharpening divisions between economic classes. Workers' movements agitating for better living and working conditions emerged in many nations, and came under the influence of intellectual leaders, largely drawn from the middle and upper ranks of Western society. Some of these leaders pursued radical and Utopian visions of what society should become
