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Conservatism

A political or theological orientation advocating the preservation of the best in society and opposing radical changes. Reflective of the Congress of Vienna and a desire to retain the status quo, or ancien regime, of pre-revolutionary times.

Holy Alliance (1815)

An alliance formed by the conservative rulers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia in September 1815 that became a symbol of the repression of liberal and revolutionary movements all over Europe.

Karlsbad Decrees of 1819

Issued in 1819, these decrees were designed to uphold Metternich's conservatism, requiring the German states to root subversive ideas and squelch any liberal organization.

Liberal Revolutions in Europe

In response to the resurgence of Conservatism, liberal thinkers and parties began to revolt as they fought for their ideas to be incorporated into government and politics. Affected Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Greece, Russia, France, Belgium, Switzerland throughout the 1820s and 1830s.

Liberalism

The principal ideas of this movement were equality and liberty; liberals demanded representative government and equality before the law as well as individual freedoms such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, and freedom from arbitrary arrest.

Utilitarianism

Laws should be judged by their social utility, or whether or not they provided "the greatest good for the greatest number" of people.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

British theorist and philosopher who proposed utilitarianism, the principle that governments should operate on the basis of utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number. Opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights (both of which are considered "divine" or "God-given" in origin), calling them "nonsense upon stilts" -- would argue more for the concept of human rights simply by the state of being human.

Laissez-faire

A doctrine of economic liberalism that calls for unrestricted private enterprise and no government interference in the economy.

Corn Laws of 1815

British laws governing the import and export of grain, which were revised in 1815 to prohibit the importation of foreign grain unless the price at home rose to improbable levels, thus benefiting the aristocracy but making food prices high for working people.

Battle of Peterloo (1819)

The army's violent suppression of a protest that took place at Saint Peter's Fields in Manchester in reaction to the revision of the Corn Laws.

Reform Bill of 1832

A major British political reform that increased the number of male voters by about 50 percent and gave political representation to new industrial areas.

Chartism and the People's Charter of 1838

Term for the British movement between 1838 and 1848 of workers to get Parliament to sign the People's Charter, which called for six reforms to make the political system more democratic:

1. A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for a crime.

2. The secret ballot to protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.

3. No property qualification for Members of Parliament in order to allow the constituencies to return the man of their choice.

4.Payment of Members, enabling tradesmen, working men, or other persons of modest means to leave or interrupt their livelihood to attend to the interests of the nation.

5. Equal constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing less populous constituencies to have as much or more weight than larger ones.

6. Annual Parliamentary elections, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since no purse could buy a constituency under a system of universal manhood suffrage in each twelve-month period.

Queen Victoria of England (r. 1837-1901)

Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Great Famine in Ireland

The result of four years of potato crop failure in the late 1840s in Ireland, a country that had grown dependent on potatoes as a dietary staple.

Revolutions of 1848

Democratic and nationalist revolutions that swept across Europe during a time after the Congress of Vienna when conservative monarchs were trying to maintain their power. The monarchy in France was overthrown. In Germany, Austria, Italy, and Hungary the revolutions failed.

Nationalism

The idea that each people had its own genius and specific identity that manifested itself especially in a common language and history, and often led to the desire for an independent political state.

Greater Germany

A liberal plan for German national unification that included the German-speaking parts of the Austrian Empire, put forth at the national parliament in 1848 but rejected by Austrian rulers.

Socialism

A backlash against the emergence of individualism and the fragmentation of industrial society, and a move toward cooperation and a sense of community; the key ideas were economic planning, greater social equality, and state regulation of property.

Marxism

An influential political program based on the socialist ideas of German radical Karl Marx, which called for a working-class revolution to overthrow capitalist society and establish a Communist state.

Marx's stages of history

1. Primitive Communism - Shared property

2. Feudalism - Nation-states, aristocracy, hereditary classes

3. Capitalism - Private property, market economy

4. Socialism - Common property, "council" democracy

5. → Communism - Stateless, propertyless, classless

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

1. Scientific socialist who coauthored "The Communist Manifesto"

2. Believed that the history of class conflict is best understood through the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

3. Contended that a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat would lead "to the dictatorship of the proletariat," which in turn would be a transitional phase leading to a classless society

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

Born in 1820 to a wealthy family in Prussia. He and Marx met in a Parisian café and authored the Communist Manifesto and other works together.

Bourgeoisie

The middle-class minority who owned the means of production and, according to Marx, exploited the working-class proletariat.

Proletariat

The industrial working class who, according to Marx, were unfairly exploited by the profit-seeking bourgeoisie.

Zionism

A policy for establishing and developing a national homeland for Jews in Palestine.

First Wave Feminism

The feminist movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth century focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage.

Emily Pankhurst

A British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote.

Suffrage Movement

A militant movement for women's right to vote led by middle-class British women around 1900.

Germ Theory

The idea that disease was caused by the spread of living organisms that could be controlled.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Showed microbes caused fermentation and spoilage

Disproved spontaneous generation of microorganisms

Developed pasteurization

Demonstrated what is now known as Germ Theory of Disease

Baron Georges Haussmann (1809-1884)

He was the administrator of the plan Napoleon III launched to modernize the city of Paris to prevent Cholera outbreaks, create job opportunities, and improve standard of living and health. Within that, it was also the goal to beautify Paris and make it a city of light.

Labor Aristocracy

The highly skilled workers, such as factory foremen and construction bosses, who made up about 15 percent of the working classes from about 1850 to 1914.

Sweated Industries

Poorly paid handicraft production, often carried out by married women paid by the piece and working at home.

Separate Spheres

Nineteenth-century idea in Western societies that men and women, especially of the middle class, should have different roles in society: women as wives, mothers, and homemakers; men as breadwinners and participants in business and politics

Companionate Marriage

Marriage based on romantic love and middle-class family values that became increasingly dominant in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Thermodynamics

A branch of physics built on Newton's laws of mechanics that investigated the relationship between heat and mechanical energy.

Second Industrial Revolution

The burst of industrial creativity and technological innovation that promoted strong economic growth in the last third of the nineteenth century.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

1. British biologist who wrote "On the Origin of Species"

2. Challenged the idea of special creation by proposing a revolutionary theory of biological evolution

3. Concluded that every living plant and animal takes a part in a constant "struggle for existence" in which only the "fittest" survive

4. Argued that the fittest are determined by a process of natural selection

Evolution

The idea, applied by thinkers in many fields, that stresses gradual change and continuous adjustment.

Realism

A literary and artistic movement that, in contrast to romanticism, stressed the depiction of life as it actually was.

Social Darwinism

A body of thought drawn from the ideas of Charles Darwin that applied the theory of biological evolution to human affairs and saw the human race as driven by an unending economic struggle that would determine the survival of the fittest.