To understand a historical event, it is important to consider the situation.
The idea of conjuncture refers to the sum of circumstances and factors that affect something at a certain moment . The concept can be associated with the notion of context in its broadest sense.
For example: "Due to the economic situation, companies are not making investments in the country" , "Local football cannot escape the national situation" , "Analysts agree that the political situation in Spain is complex" .
The situation in the field of history
In the field of history , the impact of historical time on the development of events is known as conjuncture. This means that events must be studied within the framework of their time, since if they are analyzed according to current criteria it will not be possible to understand their causes or motivations or their consequences.
To understand the process of the Russian Revolution that took place in 1917 , to cite one case, it is necessary to refer to the situation: the country was governed by a tsarist regime that denied rights to the majority of the population. At that time, in addition, the First World War was developing, because of which the Russian army suffered significant defeats. This situation made possible the emergence and growth of a revolutionary movement that finally managed to seize power and modify the social organization of the nation.
The situation can be understood as the set of extrinsic elements that affect a reality.
Place yourself in the context
The idea of conjuncture allows us to study events beyond the passage of time , since it gives us the tools to place ourselves in another moment in history, where the situation was different and human actions could also cause different effects. One way to define this concept is as "the present interspersed in a certain structure", a slice of social reality located at a specific point, the only one in which it makes sense and gives it to the events that follow it.
Precisely, although a juncture is a point in time, it gives rise to the beginning of a process that is characterized by the emergence of a structure , so that it remains open and becomes accessible from the future. We speak of structural development precisely when analyzing the economic or political situation, to refer to the present as one of its stages.
The importance of the situation
The situation, in short, is the description of a moment in history in which social actors have an active role. When preparing a thesis , for example, it must be based on a series of deductions about the past approached and presented with a view that points to the future; It may be a research work on the Holocaust, analyzing its potential consequences for the victims, their families and the rest of society, both at the time and in the future.
It is important to note that if a portion of history is analyzed leaving aside the current aspects, it usually happens that the meaning of the facts is lost, as if they were unconnected or arbitrary events. The situation can make the difference between a brutal act and a simple procedure: with the passing of decades and centuries, human beings progressively modify their points of view about good and evil, the distribution of power, the organization of the family, and that is why historical events must always be placed in their context to be able to understand them properly.
Extrinsic elements that affect a particular reality
In colloquial language, the situation is linked to those extrinsic elements that affect the reality of something or someone.
Suppose that a millionaire, due to the security situation in his country, is forced to travel with bodyguards and build large walls with electrified bars around his home to protect his family. The man does not feel comfortable with these decisions, but the context forces him to act that way.