The Ism's of Europe

The French Revolution and Napoleonic wars came, for a moment, to an end in the nineteenth century allowing rulers to reestablish the old order. But because the Western world had been changed it would not go back to the old ways, therefore, creating new ideologies. Three of these ideologies became commonly known as conservatism, nationalism and socialism. Of the three, socialism has had the greatest and most devastating effect on world history.

Coming off of the defeat of Napoleon, European rulers met at the Congress of Vienna, striving to keep peace and stability among the countries across Europe. These various rulers made legitimate monarchies to preserve institutions and worked with each other to balance their powers so that no other country would be able to dominate Europe. These so called “peace arrangements” became the start of a new order called Conservatism. Conservatism means “an ideology based on tradition and social stability that favored the maintenance of established institutions, organized religion, and obedience to authority and resisted change, especially abrupt change”(Spielvogel p. 678) Edmund Burke, one of the first philosophers to establish Conservatism, wrote in his book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, “the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, to be taken up for a temporary interest and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties” (Spielvogel p.443) meaning that no generation should have the right to destroy a partnership but instead should have the duty of preserving and transmitting the partnership to the next generation. Other Conservatives believed in the same idea of having a strict obedience to political authority...

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...came commonly known as utopian socialists. They believed that if they eliminated these necessities and created a new form of social organization they could then provide a better lifestyle for everybody.

History has given us an example of many different ideologies for different forms of government. Out of the three: conservatism, nationalism, and socialism, socialism had the greatest negative impact on world history because it took away the rights of the individual. Conservatism and socialism both focus on social stability, but socialism tends to focus more on the good of the state as opposed to the individual citizens. And while nationalism and socialism both focus on loyalty and pride, socialism forces its obedience at any coast. “When the government fears the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.”(Thomas Jefferson)