Part One: Conservatism Vs Liberalsim

What is Conservatism?
Humans like security. We like to have a community that we are comfortable in. We like to be around things that are familiar to us. Conservative people don’t like change. They don’t want their community to change or things that were once familiar such as a CD player to change into something more complicated like an iPod. Another example of this took place in the 1800’s after Napoleon was defeated.

In 1814 the Congress of Vienna took place in Vienna, Australia. This meeting was when Britain, Prussia, Australia, and Russia came together and wanted to make an agreement to establish peace in Europe after the war. The conference was the start of conservatives holding back the liberal and nationalist thoughts that were unleashed by the French revolution. Not all conservatives believed in the same things, but some common beliefs were: people must obey the political officers/ Crown, society must be under control and they did not easily accept liberal demands for civil liberties.

Edmund Burke is an interesting example of this because he believed in some liberal causes but also had strong opinions about how politics should be run. Burke was known for being a supporter of American independence and against special privileges for royalty. It came as a great surprise when in 1790 he wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France. His book talked about how the French Revolution brought rebellion from the Crown and that without the structure it provided disaster would take place. This started his career as the spokesman of European conservatives. The uproar caused triumphs and grievances for Burke. The people that he once sided with such as Thomas Jefferson and Charles James Fox now shunned him and declared him “an enemy of democracy”.

Now you might ask, why does conservatism relate to liberalism? Liberalism is the exact opposite of conservatism. Liberal beliefs include individual rights, society based on freedom of thought, limitations on government and religious power and the rule of law. Capitalism and liberalism are closely related. One main point in capitalism is the idea of privately owned businesses rather than a government to have power over the economy. As you can imagine this is not what the conservatives wanted. They wanted the government to have most of the control.


Bibliography:

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=820&id=820

http://www.answers.com/topic/conservative-order

http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h36-pol.html

http://www.wikipedia.org