Firstly a mono-cultural communalism whose emphasis is shared effort resulting in shared economic resources and secondly an ethno-cultural communalism with a common worldview. Individualism was never in the consciousness of ancient societies.  A person was always identified with his ethno-cultural grouping which was the basis of identity. The shift from communalism to individualism is the result of some historical processes outlined below.

Prior to the Renaissance

The pre-Renaissance stage saw the Roman Empire collapse around 476 A.D. Rural life and an agrarian barter trade economy returned to Europe. By the 1100s currency was introduced and in the nature of work manufacture was separated from agriculture where urban life returned.

Much of this period saw a struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor over who was the final authority in Europe. The years 1309-1377 saw a schism in the papacy creating a crisis of authority further intensified into a three cornered struggle for the papacy. This coincided with the struggle between the English Parliament and the papacy over English priests being subordinated to the papacy or parliament that saw the English priest John Wycliffe (1330-1384) supporting the English monarchy disputing with the Church.

The results of these developments were a crisis of authority in Western Society for society then was structured by its central authority.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance that began in Italy around 1370 is by definition the return to Europe of structured and reasoned thought belonging to the Greek classical period (500-330 B.C) creating an intellectual atmosphere.

Freedom holds a central place in Greek classical thought for the Greek city-state system was one that made a distinction between the slave and the factually free. Plato had developed on this awareness of external freedom by emphasising on internal freedom.

What further drove the Renaissance were the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450 and the fall of Constantinople in 1453.  Intellectual material spoken of was now in print and refugees from Constantinople brought with them the knowledge of Greek classical thought into Europe. The outgrowth of the Renaissance saw the emergence of heliocentricism and Christian humanism from priests themselves - Nicolas Corpernicus (1473-1543) and Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536) respectively.  The result of the Renaissance was the challenge against the then traditional and knowledge based authority and the emergence of a scientific worldview.

The Aftermath of the Renaissance

As the Renaissance developed, an emerging scientific worldview clashed with Christianity already fragmented by the Reformation. John Wycliffe's ideas had influenced Martin Luther (1483-1546) who with Philip Melanchton and other reformers took a condemnatory position towards heliocentricism in a worldview that was geocentric.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) attempting to prove heliocentricism was condemned by the Inquisition spending the rest of his life under house arrest only to be proven right by the later findings of Johannes Kepler and Issac Newton.

The emerging scientific worldview saw a body of literature in Christianity - the apocalyptic writings - pushed into the periphery as the future unfolded. Western Christianity itself and Europe was found fragmented into Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anglicanism and by the 17^th century democracy had emerged in England.    

Revolutions

Western society had become increasingly disgruntled with monarchial authority as well as papal authority whose structure and functioning appeared to be monarchial. These varied developments saw the fall of monarchial authority in favour of representative governments which by definition is intended to represent the interests of the individual.

The American Revolution (1775-1783) triggered the French Revolution (1789-1794) where in the centenary of U.S. Independence, the French presented the U.S. Government with the Statue of Liberty. Both revolutions drove the process of democracy.

The Russian Revolution (1917) further pushed monarchial authority to the periphery. The Industrial Revolution (1760-1820) saw the machinization of work and the growth of the modern industrialised society.  The heightened understanding of output capacity led to a continually increasing acceleration of the pace of life where work formerly conditioned by season in an agricultural economy saw time now measured in terms of money. 

The machinisation of manufacture and output led to the  realisation of the individual's capacity. Skills related to income earning were individuated.  What caused and drove the Industrial Revolution was the series of inventions and discoveries in the fields of science, medicine, telecommunications and travel.

The Contextual Origins of Secularism

The above developments interfaced with the emerging demand for representative governments in a climate where monarchial authority had just fallen and the rights of the individual in democratic systems of governance saw the emerging consciousness of individual human rights.

A consciousness of history had already emerged in mass society for history presupposes change without which there can be no history. The growth in technology and industrialisation led to a further consciousness of what is history - the awareness that human beings are capable of living and functioning independent of nature without being dependent on nature as it used to be in the tribal and the agrarian past.

Nature is no longer sacralised but placed at the disposal of human want and need.  It is now treated as a tool.  Individualism is further driven by this consciousness. Accompanying the above developments was the emergence of secularism - the removal of religion as a component of public life or the privatisation of religion. 

Protestantism and the Industrial Revolution contributed to the drive towards secularism in that hierarchal authority in Roman Catholicism was rejected.  Part of the process leading to secularism is the shift of focus away from the hereafter to the world here and now resulting from time being measured in terms of money due to the machinisation of work.

The shift is basically away from God to the individual. Furthermore, the Catholic Church whose structure and functioning appeared to be monarchial ended up being disliked at the grassroots compounded by her effort in supporting monarchial systems of authority to prevent Christianity further breaking up. This placed the Catholic Church against the massive democratic tide that had broken out.

Individualism Accelerates

In the Second World War (1939-1945), the Allies fighting the Axis Powers being called the United Nations initiated this body replacing the failed League of Nations in the aftermath of World War II in 1945.

In the wake of international concern over the Holocaust, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Declaration Of Human Rights 10^th  December 1948. The Declaration included the rights to life, liberty and security of person, recognition of personhood before the law, freedom of movement, of national identity, of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of peaceful assembly and association and freedom to take part in government.

This triggered the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in 1953 which adopted all of what the United Nations declared with additions - freedom from torture (Article 3), the right to respect for one's private and family life (Article 8) and freedom of expression. (Article 10). The most radical innovatory feature of this Convention is the remedies conferred on victims of human rights violations.

These are the historical processes thus far that have driven the human consciousness resulting in individualism. 

The public expression of individualism as a commercial expression is relatively late in comparison to the historical processes that brought it about.  It is further driven by international political emphases. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did famously state that there is no society only individuals. At the international level, the reputation of a state today is determined by its human rights record where the very idea of human rights is largely associated with the individual.

Conclusion

There are strengths and weaknesses in both individualism and communalism. Neither can be treated as absolute while being essential to the well-being of individuals and communities. The strength with individualism is its affirmation of the individuality and the uniqueness of the human person who never was, is or will ever be photocopied for the rest of history.

It conscientises society to structure itself in such a way where the uniqueness of the individual is not curtailed.  Taken to its extreme, individualism can result in selfish, egocentric, prejudicial and insensitive persons capable of imposing - without respecting the relative individuality and uniqueness of others - their individual viewpoints on others. 

Communalism has its strength in that family and cultural values are sustained in communal bonding. Human persons never live in a vacuum. The nourishing capacity of relationships makes a person. Part of personal identity stem from communal bonding. The danger with giving communalism an absolute value is that it has the potential to breed prejudicial and discriminatory positions towards cultures and societies not shared by a particular communal state.