Philosophies and Ideologies 1750 to 1900 - AP World History: Modern

While these all became associated with nationalism, the true definition of nationalism is the basic statement of identifying with a nation or group of people. This association over time led to the fanatical devotion and love of this nation or group that would spin Europe out of control towards the First World War.

Utilitarianism was a philosophy that concerned the morals and ethics of society. It said that the most ethical action was the one that contributed the most good to the most people. This philosophy sought to change morals and ethics to focus of the benefit of actions to society.

Hume and Voltaire, in particular, were highly skeptical of the church. Wollstonecraft and Rousseau debated the role of women in society, although neither promoted their subservience. All of the thinkers above were critical of absolutist or tyrannical rule. The Romantics, not the Enlightenment thinkers, valued emotional responses to the world. One of the few things that all of the thinkers above agreed on was the power of human reason.

Mill and Bentham wrote about Utilitarianism, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard wrote about Existentialism, and Hegel wrote about Idealism. Engels and Marx wrote about Communism and promoted placing the means of production in the hands of the workers.

Socialism is most often attributed to Robert Owen. He was a political and social philosopher of the 18th and 19th centuries. He wanted to see society turned into a utopia using a specific formula that later became known as socialism.

At this time in history people were not treated equally before the law, in the workplace, or in society as a whole. People were treated differently based on their economic status, gender, race, and ethnicity. Socialism called for the immediate end to this practice and the start of policy that made everyone equal.

Marx and Engels were German social philosophers who advocated an economic and social theory known as Marxism. Political systems based on Marxism have been called communist due to their emphasis on community improvement and common good. It bears noting, however, that notable communist governments, like the Soviet government, bear little resemblance to the theories and systems advocated by Marx and Engels.

The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital are the most famous works of Marx and Engels by far. They did, however, write many more books over the years including Value, Price, and Profit, which was critical of the use of mass labor by the wealthy for their gain. Reform or Revolution was written by Rosa Luxembourg, a follower of Marx and Engels.

Marx and Engels advocated the masses or Proletariat as the group that should rule the nation. They felt that to put power into the hands of a few would invite the few to abuse their power. They said the only one capable of ruling the people was the people themselves.

The Iron Law of Wages was a philosophy posited by LaSalle and Ricardo that said wages would always decrease toward the minimum required by the workers. They said that only when wages dipped below that minimum and workers reacted against it would they temporarily jump up, only then to begin to decrease again.

Bentham is credited as the founder of Utilitarian morals. His philosophy was meant to signal a shift in the way society functioned. he wanted to change how society viewed good and bad. He sought to make it more analytical by measuring good and bad as whether something helped more people than it hurt rather than on old moral codes. John Stuart Mill developed Utilitarianism and is probably its most famous proponent, but his work followed Bentham's by a few years.

Utilitarianism encouraged the government and the Elite to ensure that the greatest number of citizens benefited from the distribution of resources, materials, and profit. This became popular in the Industrial revolution as a middle class developed, the poor got poorer, and there was a surplus of material goods in the economy as a result of factory production.

Liberals worked to push society forward and have the voice of the populace represented in government. They would be opposed to any government that favored traditional values over progress, and monarchical over elected officials.

The Monroe Doctrine was issued by American President James Monroe in 1823. It was issued in reaction to the independence movements taking place in Latin America. The doctrine states that the whole of the American hemisphere is under American protection and that the United States will intervene to prevent a renewal of European interference in the Americas. It has remained a significant part of American foreign policy ever since.

The Self Strengthening Movement emerged in China in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was a series of institutional and military reforms that were enacted following a humiliating series of concessions and defeats at the hands of European powers.

All of these statements are statements that the enlightenment writer Jean Jacques-Rousseau would have agreed with. In his writings, like The Social Contract and Discourses on Inequality, Rousseau argued that rule through force is not legitimate and that the only legitimate form of rule comes with the consent of the people. He also argued that individuals enter into a social contract with one another that forces them to forgo certain personal interests and rights for the greater good of society. Finally, Rousseau argued that direct democracy was only feasible in small states and that large states required more authoritarian forms of government.

St. Petersburg was constructed in 1703, during the reign of Russian Tsar Peter the Great. Much of Peter’s time in power was concerned with improving the Russian navy and establishing Russian ports in the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea. In the last two attempts he was unsuccessful, but in the construction of St. Petersburg he broke Sweden’s control over access to the Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg, which would serve as the capital of the Russian Empire, from the early eighteenth century until the Russian Revolution in 1917, became known as Russia’s “window to the West.”

The enlightenment idea that political legitimacy rests in the “consent of the governed” is most closely associated with the writings of John Locke. Locke is often referred to as the father of modern liberalism. His writings on republicanism, religious tolerance, and the social contract have been widely influential in European and American history. The consent of the governed essentially states that the government only has legitimacy to rule over the people so long as the people accept the government. If the government is deemed deficient, the people have a right and duty to overthrow the government.

The character and tone of the American Revolution (much like the French Revolution a decade later) was greatly shaped by enlightenment philosophy. The political theories of enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and Baron de Montesquieu are variously enshrined in the United States’ Constitution.