Ideologies - Liberalism, Conservatism, and Nationalism

Recently in history class, we completed a project in order to help us learn about 19th century ideologies and answer the current essential question.  To answer the question "What were the major political ideologies of the 19th century and how did they influence social and political action?" we first had to figure out what an ideology is.  An ideology is a system of ideas that form the basis of economic and political theory and policy, or in other words, a group of ideas that shape a society. The three most important ideologies of the 19th century were liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism.  My class learned more about each of the ideologies by splitting into six groups, two for each ideology, and reading about the ideology our group was assigned.  Then, we created an imaginative presentation of our ideology and went head to head with the other group of the same ideology.  The class voted on which presentation was both creative and demonstrated our knowledge of the ideology.  I learned about all of the ideologies, including conservatism, for which my group made an educations video.

Link to my group's presentation:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/conservatism-project/25421356/?ref=link&s=gX4L2P

Conservatism is a traditional ideology that argued that time-tested traditions were the only solutions to social and political problems.  Conservatives believed that monarchy and church power were the best forms of government because they had worked for generations without fail.  Reforms and constitutionalism resulted in violence multiple times in history, like during the French Revolution,  so conservatives used this as proof that these systems did not work.  They only believed in using old, stable systems of government, and never tried new ones.  British writer and statesman Edmund Burke and French writer Joseph de Maistre were conservatives, and predicted the chaos that resulted from the resolutions in the 19th century.  In the 1800s, conservatives avoided having revolutions, and tried to maintain monarchies.  

After watching the other groups' presentations, I was able to decide how the other ideologies worked. Liberalism is the opposite of conservatism, and is based off of freedom and rights.  All middle/upper class men were allowed to contribute to government, and although they weren't given complete freedom, they had more freedom than people from other ideologies had.  Liberalists liked creating new laws and new ways to live their lives, and were in favor of meritocracy.  British philosophers John Locke and Adam Smith argued for individual liberty, and were considered the forefathers of liberalism.  Nationalism is the result of the process when people with similar cultural practices, languages, beliefs, or traditions unite as a whole.  These people then work together to take down a common enemy, and come together as a country.  Germany and Italy used nationalism in the 19th century to become whole countries.  German writers Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel helped their country become a whole, after it had been separated during Napoleon's rule.  Conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism were all ideologies, created by philosophers and writers, that helped shape life in 19th century Europe.