Industrial Revolution Free Response

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 brought about much change in Europe. New ways of producing things better and faster caused many changes in the government and people’s political views. It was because of the Industrial revolution that Greece and Germany nationalism related to conservative and liberal philosophies. The Industrial revolution started off the entire viewpoints of liberalism and conservatism because of the radical and rational viewpoints people had which then flowed over to countries as a whole and influenced nationalism in countries such as Germany and Greece.

During the nineteenth century the Industrial revolution was in full swing. Britain, France and many other countries were now changing their ways, and their economy was changing. They were able to produce things better, faster, and more efficiently. At this time in France, Louis Bonaparte became the leader of France and decided to go to war with Germany. He was defeated and was also defeated by the Austrians. At this time, Russia had power over Prussia and the King was Wilhelm I. He united much of Germany at the time and throughout all of this nationalism was setting in. The chancellor from Russia influenced much of what happened in Prussia.

The Peterloo massacre was because of the horrible conditions that people had to work in factories. They did not have child labor laws or anything of the sort. Children could work no matter what the age, the conditions were horrible, and there was no set work day. People could work for 14 hours a day seven days a week with no rest and be paid very little. There were also no health laws and if people lost hands in the factories it was tough luck. These liberal philosophies related to nationalism because they wanted freedom as well. They wanted to be united as the same people and fight for the same causes. The Germans did not want to be ruled by a Prussian king or owe their allegiance to anyone else.

Without the Industrial revolution conservatism and liberalism of the time what not have been the same. Because the world was changing so fast, the people were changing as well. They wanted a democracy and to be ruled by fair ruler. With the flood of people from the rural areas to the city, new rules and laws had to be created. Since so many people were working in the factories, those who had a lot of money wanted to keep things the way there were to continue to make money. However, the people who were poor wanted to be able to get more money and work jobs that were fair. They couldn’t do this without a liberal viewpoint.

Without liberalism, nationalism in Germany and Greece would not be the same. Conservatism made the country stay the same, but with new ideas relating to freedom of speech, freedom of press, and all other types of freedoms, the uniting of countries was made possible.