Influence of New Ideologies from the 19th Century

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In the early 19th century there was a large influence of new ideologies. Although, these “new” ideologies were not new, they had always existed, but were just now given a name. An ideology is a set of beliefs about the world and how it should be, often formalized into political social or cultural theory (West &the World G–6). I think that Liberalism is one of the most important ideologies of the early 19th century, and still is today. Liberalism drew significantly off of the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, and their promises. Liberals fought to change society; they wanted to live in a world of individual freedom, liberty. Liberals derive their theories from significant individuals from the Enlightenment such as: John Locke and Montesquieu. These individuals gave liberalist ideals, for example: Locke, helped them adopt ideals about natural laws, rights, toleration, and the application of reason to human affairs, and Montesquieu, said that government powers should be separated and restricted by checks and balances (W&tW p. 582). These ideals led to the start of the age of ideologies, and changed countries drastically. In the early part of the 19th century the ideologies were changing everything, the policies reforms, and completely flip-flopping nations, especially Great Britain, Russia, and France.
Before the early 19th century Great Britain hosted a representative government; conservatives dominated the government in 1815. Although, a few years later in 1819 a revolt started, troops charged on a crowd that had assembled outside a field to listen to reform speeches. A large number of civilians were injured and killed in the Peterloo Massacre. In this field people were begging for freedom and liberty, they were supporting ...

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...s a stern aristocrat whose military expertise gave him the power. When he assumed the throne a few of his young liberal military officers revolted. This was because he denied the idea of writing a constitution and freeing the serfs. Nicolas crushed these “Decembrists” and turned against any hint of liberalism. The Decembrists became a martyr for liberal politics. Russia’s government stood as a strong conservative government and stayed that way for decades (W&tW p. 593). This revolt only made Nicolas even more conservative. He was scared of revolt so he protects himself by making his country even more conservative than it is. Russia is a good example of how it protects itself very well from other ideologies, and especially liberalism. Russia differs from Great Britain not only in an ideology mentality kind of way, but also in an aspect of how they accept ideologies.

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