Outdated Politics

In History we have endeavored to understand and define the three major ideologies of the 19^th century and their influence on political and social actions. Sectioned off into groups, we read sections of an article by Jeffrey Brautigam, describing nationalism, liberalism and conservatism as they were in the 1800s. Liberalism was the topic I worked on.

This is our final one minute creation. Using the information in the reading we defined Liberals as supporters of individual rights and believers that all people had rights straight from God. One funny little fact I found was that the original supporters came from the middle class, which makes sense. The social action that sprouted from Liberalism was reevaluating tradition, like a return of sorts of the Scientific Revolution. Nothing is safe from being questioned anymore, not when Liberals are around. One tradition that the majority of Liberals were against was the old fashioned ways of finding work. Meritocracy was seen as a better way of doing things. In our video we illustrated meritocracy with a cartoon, the stick figure more adept at the job is hired, and the other stick figure, whose father had had the job before him, is sent home sad. The other political influences of Liberals came in the form of governing ideas like Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government in which he supports the acknowledgement and promotion of individual liberties. Adam Smith and John Locke were thought of as the creators of liberalism. Their ideas sparked others like Thomas Malthus and Jeremy Bentham to write about utilitarianism and economic competition.

Political Liberalism for Dummies. manwithoutqualities. October 23, 2014.

          Nationalism and Conservatism were explained in other the one minute projects in our class. 19^th Century Nationalism sprouted not from two men, like Liberalism, but the actions of one: the conquests of Napoleon. Nationalists believed in making countries where there were people who shared culture, history, and language. These connections, nationalists believed, would protect these countries from being taken over. Politically Nationalism cried out for an end to foreign rule and a beginning of strict policies on foreign expansion. In the social realm, nationalists like Johann Gottlieb Fichte were arguing and writing to be heard. Unlike Nationalists and Liberals, Conservatives were unallied. Conservatives tended to only agree with other conservatives when it came to political matters, and they believed heavily in tradition. Politically, their dream government was medieval, including both aristocracy and the Church. Socially, like every other major ideology at the time, Conservatives wrote and wrote and wrote. Edmund Burke’s work, Reflections the Revolutions in France inspired people like Joseph de Maistre to pick up a pen and spread their ideas of Conservatism. This was all new information for me and after this lesson I feel slightly less ignorant of modern politics, seeing what things were like in the past does help to understand what is going on now.