World political arena has already seen and practiced a number of various theories, concepts and ideas of how to build productive economy, set the qualitative state machine, and form happy society. Over the past two hundred years, Europe has changed plenty of political ideologies and views, a lot of political movements and parties have been formed, and every political phenomenon has influenced on the further development of the European countries. Some of them (political phenomena) led to negative or unpredictable consequences; several had a positive effect on the nations and other were roughly distorted or reformed into the new ideologies. And over the past two hundred years, European countries were shaped in the way the world sees them nowadays, and for the most part it happened due to the three most wide-spread ideologies of Europe in the new age – imperialism, nationalism and Marxism. Ideologies that captured this part of the world in the 19th and 20th centuries determined the formation of new independent European nations, helped them to move to the capitalist system, and moreover, promoted the rapid development of Western Europe as well as reduced the rate of development of Eastern Europe.
Imperialism that is considered rather as government policy than as political ideology was directed to the establishment of one nation’s power over other countries (colonies). The greatest empires of the last two centuries were British, French, German, Spanish and Russian empires; by the beginning of the 20th century most of the globe (except China and Middle East) was under the European’s control (Lynn “Empire and Imperialism: Europe”) since Belgium, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands also had their own colonies. Although the British Empire was the greatest empire and it benefited from holding the colonies the most, every nation that had established its patronage over the African, Asian or American countries provided itself with majesty, respect and power. The impact of imperialism on European countries is multi-faceted and wide: from economic advantages to racial stereotypes (Lynn “Empire and Imperialism: Europe”). Economic exploitation of colonial lands minimized expenses on their development; and captured countries became the product suppliers for the metropolis. Demographic changes were obtained due to the population growth as well as to the reduction in mortality (Western medicine helped Europeans to overcome the epidemics).The cultural impact of empire on Europe was essential. It can be seen the most obviously in language, for example, some Hindi words entered English, or the European diet was enriched by some cheap tropical foodstuffs enriched (Lynn “Empire and Imperialism: Europe”). At the same time, European imperialism led to the adoption of the dominant languages – English, French, Spanish and Russian. Apart from this, monopoly was a significant feature of imperialism, so as a result, imperialism has given rise to the spread of capitalism among European countries: first of all, Lenin considered imperial colonialism as the highest stage of capitalism; and secondary, European imperialism caused social changes: class inequality emerged, and it was represented by merchants and officials bourgeois from the metropolis, who occupied high and middle levels of the colonial structure.
One of the most wide-spread ideologies of world in the 19th century was nationalism, which started to be manifested in the colonies’ fight against European imperialism. In Europe itself nationalism began to undermine the integrity of Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, which disintegrated after the World War I; therefore, new nations were formed – Austria and Hungary; Finland and the part of Poland separated from Russian empire; Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic countries also seceded from the Russian Empire until the Soviet was formed. Nationalism itself is estimated differently by historians – on the one hand, “nationalism has had exceptional influence because it has always offered people the emotionally important sense of safety belonging to supportive social groups Nationalism has entered deeply into the lives of modern people who believe that their personal well-being depends on the well-being of their national state and society” (Kramer 2). However, this ideology is also considered as a form of ethical, cultural and religious intolerance, chauvinism and xenophobia that have already started to permeate through the European society during the era of imperialism. Moreover, in German nationalism was distorted and reformed into the Pan-Germanism and Nazism. Nevertheless, nationalism has helped the European society to mobilize during a transition to capitalism, and contributed to the achievement of the common political goals.
Over the same period, the ideology of Marxism began to penetrate into the European policy; it proclaimed the class struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat and building of a communist society. Marxism was interpreted differently by Western and Eastern European nations: for instance, the Soviet Union mixed Marxism with Leninism and adopted it mostly in the sphere of policy and economy, while Western Marxism developed the theories of culture, the state, social institutions and even psychology (Kellner 1). Thereby, in spite of being the powerful state, the USSR with Marxism- Leninism ideology reduced the rate of development of the Socialist Republics (modern Eastern Europe and Baltic States), when Western Marxism even nowadays continues to be “productive, providing critical insights on the multiple problems and crises with capitalism and globalization, as well as ecology, terrorism, and the proliferation of technology” (Kellner 19). That is why, after the World War II Stalin got stuck in the interpreted form of Marxism and doomed the Soviet society to impaired development, whilst defeated German along with its allies and other nations of Western Europe built a new society in the context of European integration.
Works cited
Lynn, Martin. “Empire and Imperialism: Europe.” New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 657-661. Student Resources in Context. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Kramer, Lloyd. Nationalism in Europe and America: Politics, Cultures, and Identities Since 1775. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. Print.
Kellner, Douglas. “Western Marxism”. Modern Social Theory: An Introduction, edited by Austin Harrington. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005: 154-174. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
