Liberalism, Nationalism, and Conservatism, Oh My!

During the 19th century there were multiple ideas that influenced the way people thought and  acted. These ideas are called ideologies. The three that we focused on most recently in History were Liberalism, Conservatism and Nationalism. Our job was to find out what the three ideologies were all about and what they did to influence the political and social systems of the time. We kicked off the lesson by trying to come up with our own definitions, which was quite difficult to create the modern meanings never mind the 19th century ones; then when the time allotted for that was up we were given more accurate definitions. To really understand what each of the ideologies meant we then split into groups and came up with a one-minute presentation to explain our ideology to the rest of the class.

My group covered Liberalism. This is the idea that the government’s job is to make sure that the liberty of the people is reserved. Liberals were open to new ideas as long as they can be supported by reason. The criteria for this presentation was that it could not be any longer than one minute, and at least somewhere around 57 seconds. We could use any program that we wanted, chatterpix, educreations, we could make a video and there were many more options too. My group chose to use chatterpix; this is an app that allows you to find a still picture and add voice to make it look like the picture is talking.

These were the different faces of our presentation, cartoon man, John Locke, and Adam Smith.

To try to teach the class about each part of Liberalism we had one figure talking about the definition of 19th century liberalism. In this we informed the class that Liberalism is the idea that the governments job is to reserve the rights and liberties of the people. Also that John Locke and Adam smith were large pioneers for this idea; building off of that we had Adam Smith and John Locke talk to the class about how their ideas were liberal. John Locke explained that he made the argument that regardless of class, people are born with the same natural rights as others. Adam Smith also played a roll in our presentation, he explained his theory of “The Invisible Hand” which is if the government sits back then the economy will regulate itself and people will compete among themselves. These ideas along with liberalism impacted many people and things during this time; some of these being the social and political systems. John Locke’s liberal idea made all people aspire to have equal rights, which caused middle class to want to take part in their government. Adam Smith’s liberal philosophy of the invisible hand impacted the social system greatly at this time; people would compete to be better than others, to see who would have the most money. The government has to be present to be sure that no one is being mistreated but they also stay behind and let things play out instead of interfering. Liberalism changed many things in the 19th century, and impacted many people. The idea that the government should protect the peoples rights was a very important one, and many benefiting things came from it.

In class the other groups taught us about the other two ideologies of the time: Conservatism and Nationalism. I also learned about them from this article. Conservatism is the is that old ways and traditions are kept. This is because when you need guidance; you may go to someone experienced for guidance. This makes sense because then you will know what has worked in the past and what hasn't. Looking to the past for successful ways of life and keeping those ideas and traditions is the idea of conservatism. This impacted social and political systems of the time because aristocrats that ruled in the past, kept their place in society and in the government. Nationalism is another ideology of the 29th century. This is the unification of similar languages, cultures, races, and histories. Nationalists also do not want foreign rulers. This impacts the social and political systems because people who weren't the same race as the majority would have been the lower class. Those that were all for their country and strong willed would make up the government. Overall the three ideologies of the time, Liberalism, Conservatism, and Nationalism all impacted the political and social systems, as well as many peoples lives.