Throw-Down of Ideologies

The major political ideologies of the 19th century were conservatism, nationalism, and liberalism. Although all very different, they were all of the methods in which people wanted to have their countries be run and supported.  Conservatives were people who didn't support the change of reform of their government; they wanted to stick to tradition.   Nationalists believed in the importance of bringing together nations through shared language, customs, and history. Liberals supported individual liberties and the god-given rights of people, and wanted governmental and societal change and reform. In order to better understand all of the different political ideologies of the 19th century, we discussed in groups what we thought each ideology meant without any background information in order to get rid of all past biases and preconceptions we would have had.  We then were split up into groups, two groups for each ideology, and created our own one-minute presentations to present at the "throw-down" between the two teams with the same ideology. 

This is a depiction of Smith's Invisible Hand which appears in the group video.

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/liberlism/25528786/?s=fMuzU5&ref=app

Our group created an EduCreations video with the slides explaining the ideology itself, who founded it, and all of the different effects it had on society at the time.  We included pictures, as well as words and audio, to enhance the viewer's understanding from an auditory and visual standpoint.  John Locke and Adam Smith were known as the forefathers of liberalism, supporting the ideal that the task of government was to promote individual liberties.  Many liberals found traditions to be superstitious and vowed to change them.  Their push for change led to their support of the Scientific Revolution, and all of the technological innovations that were created as a result of that revolution.  Liberals also promoted constitutional monarchy over absolutism, which allowed them to be able to reduce Church and aristocratic privileges.  They also supported meritocracy, and middle-class participation in government, values which we still hold dear today in the U.S.  

The other ideologies were also extremely important during the 19th century, and in shaping society and history at the time.  Nationalists' ideas allowed for countries to be less liable to be attacked by larger military powers, and helped to create a sense of peace between countries.  For example, after Napoleon took over Germany and Italy realized that their disunity made it far easier for Napoleon to take over the countries, and decided to unite together in order to avoid future invasions and other ways of having their power seized.  Conservatives believed in the power of tradition, and for that reason, supported the Church and keeping the monarchies.  Conservatives did not support change or reform of government in most every way, resulting in the stopping of revolutions because of bloodshed and chaos, and continuing to keep tradition and not change the way the government was run.