Socialism in Europe | 19th century European revolution | Socialism in Europe in 19th century | Vivek Raj Singh | The Spectrum Vision | class 9 history chapter 2

 Socialism in Europe | 19th century European revolution | Socialism in Europe in 19th century | Vivek Raj Singh | The Spectrum Vision | class 9 history chapter 2 

Today we're  gonna be taking a look at 19th  century socialism and I say that like it's a bad word but hey we're gonna treat everything even-handedly today we're gonna do a little tongue-in-cheek so I hope you enjoy yourself but to be honest socialism is a pretty  misunderstood and much maligned concept in America politicians ordinary citizens maybe even you throw the word socialism around as an insult to stop people from arguing certain positions or just to try and win votes and while I'm not here to tell you whether socialism is right or wrong I am here to represent historians and annas historian it's my job to try to see the motivations and causes for the development of socialism in the 19th century as for the results well we'll see some of those in future episodes before we get started though I have to  emphasize one thing European history is filled with ideas and most of those ideas are attempts to improve the lives of people living on the continent sometimes ideas work and sometimes they don't but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying to make the world a better place so back to the socialist movement we can divide the movement into three distinct phases first early or utopian socialism second Marxist or revolutionary socialism and finally revisionist or evolutionary socialism I want to give you all the terms because the writers of the AP exam may use any one of them don't worry though we'll take them one at a time Alexis de Tocqueville the famous French student of American democracy and if you took AP US history you should know about him once said democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom socialism restricts it democracy attaches all possible value to each man socialism makes each man a mere agent a mere number democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word equality but notice the difference while democracy seeks equality and liberty socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude I'm sure by this point in the year you've done a lot of work in your AP European history class belt of hue or bias and there's really no question on where Tocqueville stands on this he's totally against socialism he's totally for democracy but why why is it thrown around is such a bad thing and where did it all get started anyway let's take a look okay so earlier utopian socialism as long as there's been social inequality mankind has yearned for a better way but the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed things greatly as factories sprang up around Europe and people moved to increasingly crowded cities there began to be a basic belief that lays a fair capitalism created greed greed combined with individualism created social inequality and this all sums it up at the top of the capitalist ladder there are people who rule there there's the church to fool you there's the army to shoot at you there's all the rich to eat the stuff that you make and then at the bottom it's all in the back of the workers so the people who became known as the early socialists sought a way to solve the problem of social inequality their ideas were to limit or abolish the ability to own private property to create support structures for the poor and their critics call them utopian socialists because the experiments they created ultimately failed many of them sought to establish model communities based on their ideas some called for scientists and engineers to work to create a perfect society some called for gender equality in fact charles fourier came up with the idea of abolishing marriage and having sexual freedom in order to free man and some called for the expansion of voting rights to ensure equality in order to test these ideas closed societies of believers were formed but none lasted very long the ideas and basic beliefs however continued why well it was especially appealing to the working classes and it began to create a class consciousness especially in France and that led to the next development in socialist ideology now to phase two Marxist a revolutionary socialism of the mid 19th century Karl Marx is really known for two major written works the communist manifesto that he wrote with Friedrich Engels and Das Kapital which angles finished after Marx died in the opening lines at the Communist Manifesto Marx wrote the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles basically he identified class difference as the identifying characteristic of hint of the human experience looking back at the French Revolution and drawing off the methodology of the Enlightenment Marx called for scientific socialism rooted in historical law now I know I know another name for socialism but don't let each turn get you too confused by scientific he meant that there's that there were patterns that existed in history that could be recognized and those patterns move towards an ultimate goal in his world Marx definitely saw the need for a change now I should say here if you're a Marxist you might want to turn off the video here because I'm gonna way oversimplify things and you might get upset because I don't give total credit to everything he said but for the purposes of a survey course we can sum up his thinking a little bit like this human history is defined by class conflict and wealth was the source of most of that conflict the Industrial Revolution created a greater conflict than ever before because it divided humans into two classes the bourgeoisie or capitalist the upper class wealthy owners of business and the proletariat or workers who were lower-class poor and able to sell only their labor for a wage the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat for ever growing profits and he felt this trend would create a revolutionary class consciousness among workers there'd be a revolution much like that in France of 1789 and the result would be a classless communist society well to put it mildly Europe witnessed an increasing popularity of socialism after the 1871 in Germany the Social Democratic Party became extremely popular despite Bismarck's efforts stop it he engineered a social security system and passed anti-socialist laws but despite that the SPD as it was known became the largest party in the Reichstag the German parliament and the movements popularity grew in other countries as well this led to the creation of the first international Marx believed that the socialist movement encompass workers throughout Europe and transcended national borders so we spent a lot of time trying to bring everyone together holding regular meetings to prepare for the coming revolution ultimately though Marx's enthusiasm for violent workers revolts frightened lots of people and this led to the eventual collapse of the first international but the movement and the ideas of Marx didn't die with him in 1883 they would go on to affect political thought until the modern day this brings us to the next phase phase 3 revisionist or evolutionary socialism of late 19th and early 20th centuries well the collapse of the first international didn't fit sit well with some so they created the aptly-named and they really thought about this for a long time second international in 1889 and kept it going until World War one it was different from his predecessor in three key ways one it was a loose confederation of nationalist socialist parties each working in its own country number two they declared May Day as an International Workers day it's a one-day strike which was planned and organized with marches and demonstrations and three it was less revolutionary and relied on existing political systems to get change what this meant was that the new socialism favoured gradual change through practical action increased suffrage led many people to see political participation as the best way to make change and when it came real change increased the movements momentum add to that the improved standard of living for everyone that came with the Second Industrial Revolution and the probability of a class revolution decreased dramatically look it's easy to talk revolution and violence when times are bad but when things like voting elections and protests are working peep people tend to choose the peaceful way of doing things it's great no one gets arrested no one gets killed you go home at the end of the night you kiss your wife and you can still stand up and call yourself a successful socialist another factor that decreased the desire for revolution was the gradual acceptance of labor unions now when I was in high school and history teachers started talking labor unions I knew it was time to zone out for a while they really aren't that exciting but they drastically changed the economic landscape so to save your sanity and because this video is getting a little bit lengthy I'll make this quick labor unions allowed people to come together to push for better treatment in the workplace as they gain legal acceptance they became less radical focusing on three key things more pay shorter hours and safer conditions they got these things because of a thing called collective bargaining this allowed all the workers in a factory or an industry to ask for improvements for all of them which is much more effective than one person asking his boss for a raise when employers refused to bargain massive strikes pushed them to the table so by the time World War one came around the socialist movement had become mainstream nationalized socialist parties each had its own goals and tactics the rise of patriotism and national indoctrination prevented a unified approach and when World War one actually came the party supported countries not the International Brotherhood so in conclusion we have to review what we know about socialism first of all it's based on the belief that the wealth difference leads to social inequality society needs to be more equal and help the less fortunate secondly the interpretations of socialism during the 19th century changed to meet the needs of the day the early utopian socialists they saw society as evil they wanted to create isolated communities and get out of the whole system heah Thomas More would have been proud Marxist saw revolution as the inevitable answer to the problems of industrialization and class conflict and all of that was what they talked about all the time then revisionists came along and they really saw the gradual change through increased democracy and the political process could possibly work so where does the story go from here well like much else of European culture and thought World War one was a major turning point and we'll get to that soon enough today socialism has been embraced by most of the West to varying degrees including here in the United States but still socialism gets a bad name in politics Winston Churchill speaking in 1945 put it this way the inherit vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries well that about does it for our discussion of socialism here in the 19th century.

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