Free Response on Industrial Revolution

Explain how the Industrial Revolution influenced the rise of conservative and liberal philosophies and explain how those philosophies competed with or related to nationalism in Greece and Germany.




The Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries was a life-altering revolution which challenged philosophies of the time and led to the rise of new ideas. Conservatism and liberalism were two of the main ideas that came out of this revolution and influenced the rise of nationalism around Europe. England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were the major players of this period that helped to shape which political parties would rise and which would fall. The way Russia manipulated other territories, such as Prussia and Austria, to its advantage and handled treaties with other European countries, such as England, directly resulted in the rise of German nationalism, as seen in the dialect, and Greek nationalism, as seen in the Greek revolution.


The Industrial Revolution was a time which brought about new technologies and new machinery. Along with the new machinery came new and old, reformed ideas; the first of these was conservatism. Czar Alexander of Russia was extremely conservative due to his ties with the Russian and Greek Orthodox Church. He believed in keeping a monarchy and nobles separated from the lower class. Therefore, all his actions and the actions of those to follow him revolved around the idea of expanding the Russian empire and the Russian upper class. Russia was only thinking about Russia.


In England, however, liberalism was the new trend. The majority of the English people were in favor of having a larger middle class which would help to keep the government fair and on track. The English people were supported by King Charles X, who helped to keep the middle class ahead of the nobles when it came to government. The middle class and upper middle class, called the Bourgeois in France, were in favor of a legislature as government like the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Because England was mostly liberal and Russia was mostly conservative they did not always agree when it came to making decisions.


At a meeting between France, England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, Russia and England joined together to help the Greeks, who were currently trying to get independence from the Ottoman Empire. Russia wanted to help because they saw it as an opportunity to expand their empire down towards Greece. This, however, caused unwanted tension between the Austrians and Russians. England realized what Russia was doing and no longer wanted any part in helping Russia. Greece was able to gain its independence from the Ottoman Empire, and also stay out of Russian control. The Greeks joined together to avoid control by Russia, and they also allied themselves with England so that Russia would not try to invade. All this time while Russia and England were making decisions that influence all of Europe, Germany was left to deal with whatever the other countries did not claim. So an idea arises in Germany known as the dialect. This idea is the beginning of German nationalism, and also the beginning of communism. 


Conservatism in Russia and liberalism in England resulted in nationalism in Germany and Greece. The main powers of Europe came together to make decisions that concerned the entire continent. Germany and Greece, however, were often left out of the equation which caused a strong sense of nationalism to arise in both territories. Nationalism in this time period relates to conservatism and liberalism because nationalism was an effect of these other two ideas. Conservatism and liberalism gave birth to nationalism