As we launch into our new unit on Atlantic Revolutions, we briefly touched upon the three main ideologies of the 19th century to help us understand the thoughts and actions people took during that time.
Ideologies is a term that I haven't
heard in a while, since people, nowadays, have such a variety of thoughts and
opinions they can fall into any major political ideology category:
conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism. These three ideologies were
particularly popular in the 19th century, and they influenced social and
political actions, at the time. In order to understand the meaning of these
terms my history class went through the ideology show down. We began by finding
out what ideology means (a system of ideas that forms the basis of economic or
political theory and policy). After looking up their "modern definitions",
our class was split eight groups; two groups focusing on one topic. After reading a quick article on our given ideology, we went straight to work. We were to
go against our opposing group and create a minute video/skit that would
describe the ideology while entertaining the class. Yes, it was a tough task-
trying to keep our class awake while talking about 19th century principles, but
it was worth it, since my group won!
My group was assigned to define and
explain conservatism, which is overall a system where traditional values are
accepted and put in place. So basically, it is filled with a bunch of stingy
people who don't want to try anything new. Conservatives (not conservatists)
came from the traditional elite aristocracy. They supported a class system
dominated by aristocracy, monarchy, and the church. They opposed to innovation
and reform, and used the French Revolution as an example of a chaotic and
unsuccessful reform. Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre were popular
conservatives who wrote books expressing their ideas opposing constitutionalism
and revolution. While discussing how to start our video, we realized how
ridiculous Edmund Burke looked with his fancy wig. So we decided why not use
this unfortunate hair accessory and make a video of him enlightening our class
on conservatism. We used the app, Chatter Prix, and created two 30 second clips
on how wise words on conservatism.
Our video gives a brief definition of conservatism and lists
a few examples of their traditional values, such as the opposition of
revolutions. Conservatives prefer the monarchy as a political power, and the
aristocrats at the top of the social ladder, to keep things “traditional”.
After
our glorious win, we viewed the other projects on nationalism and liberalism.
After having a laugh, it was time to take our notes. We learned that
liberalism, obeying it’s liberty prefix, is a system of government that is
based on freedom, rights, and merit rather than traditional values. Even though
they restricted the power of the church, they did not get rid of social
classes. On the other hand, nationalism is the idea that people should unite
based on similar traditions and beliefs, and go against a common enemy. Italy,
for example, was once a group of separate states whose common enemy was
Germany. They then realized that their disunity was what was bringing them
down, therefore, they came together as a nation and defeated their enemy; so
it’s basically teamwork and group effort.
These ideologies were interesting to learn and it helps us
categorize the thoughts of all important leaders in history. So now thanks to
this fun activity, we are able to predict the choices one can make based on
their ideology.
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