19th century has come to be renamed as the age of ideologies by historians. It marks the beginning in many aspects that are relevant and important in this century. From another perspective, it can be said to be the century of paradigm shifts that have revolutionized the world and molded the political and social organizations that are still relevant and important in the contemporary society (Freeden, 6).
In the social sphere, it marks the shift towards different social organizations. The social organization impacted greatly on the mode of political organization. The whole process is marked by the French revolution which spurred the whole aspect of ideologies to the rest of the world. An ideology is a set of expectations or more precisely a clear vision of a certain element in the social and political spheres (freeden, 12).
The main reason why the people were thinking critically of changes in the political and society set up was the oppressive nature of the imperialism. The members of an empire were greatly oppressed by their leaders thus wanted to have freedom and their own forms of organization and governance (freeden, 13). Some of the ideologies developed in this century include:
1. One of the most significant figure heads in the revolution was Carl Max with his theory of Communism. Communism called for equal rights in ownership of property. The theory was based on the idea that all people are equal thus no need to have private property. The idea was initially not a political move only an alternative to capitalism (online_history.org). The idea had a theme of stopping exploitation of the poor by the rich. The idea was and is still relevant and highly applied in Russia where it was first adopted. This led to the formation of a communist government in which the community owns the nation not certain individuals owning some property while others own almost nothing.
2. Capitalistic economic and political approach. This was another ideology which can be closely related to adoption of social Darwinism (online_history.org). The social Darwinism advocates for the survival for the fittest in the society. The idea of capitalism was first introduced in the year 1817 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his work ‘what is property?’ He used it to define any privately owned assets like land and factories. In his argument, he claims that capitalism helps divide people into social classes and motivates the people to work since one owns what he toils for. This idea is the most applied economic idea calling for private ownership of property. This idea has impacted in the social life by creation of social classes (the rich, middle class and peasants).
3. Democracy. This was in the political sphere calling for equal rights in the country. The idea cropped after the people decided to end the empire system and royal leadership. The idea had been tried before and failed but in the French and American revolutions in the 19th century, they used the idea of equal rights to overthrow dictatorial governments. The idea has impacted greatly in the current political systems in which the country citizens have equal rights to leadership positions and no royalty exists. The idea of monarchs is currently on its way out of the world since there remain less than ten monarchs in the world which has more than 200 countries (online_history.org).
4. Nationalism. This idea originated from the end of imperialism. The empires previously ruled by imperial powers split into several regions that wanted and had their unique mode of governance. Each region currently called a nation had a common goal and the members of the region had pride in their region. This made the people associate with the region resulting identification documents indicating the region to which a person belonged. The idea of belonging to a region is called nationalism drawn from the name given to a region (nation). The idea of nationalism resulted in a common language or mode of doing things that the social life was unified. Therefore, nationalism can be said to impact on social life by enhancing unity (freeden, 18).
5. Socialism. To the eyes of the many, socialism is part of communist yet they are radically different. Socialism deals with recognition of personal talents in the community and enhancing the exploitation of talents. This idea was mainly in Europe and America in the 19th century. It has progressed greatly in the later centuries and in this 21st century. A good example is the establishment of football academies in England and the special talent recognition by the US government (online_history.org).
In conclusion, the 19th century ideologies have had great impact on the contemporary society. This is what has made the century receive special recognition which I also recommend. In fact, it were not for the ideologies, with the current technology, there would be war everyday as the imperials express their nuclear might.
Works cited
Freeden, M. 1996. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Print.
www.online-history.org
