Reforming Ideas, Reforming Politics, and their Limits

Question 1

liberalism

Answer 1

a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law.

Question 2

socialism

Answer 2

a social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources.
individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another.

Question 3

Chartism

Answer 3

a working class movement which emerged in 1836
aim was to gain political rights and influence

Question 4

Jeremy Bentham

Answer 4

English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
defined as the “fundamental axiom” of his philosophy the principle that “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”

Question 5

Robert Owen

Answer 5

Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement.
Father of British Socialism’

Question 6

Prussian Zollverein

Answer 6

the world’s largest and most modern coal-mining facility
a leading example of the development of heavy industry in Europe.

Question 7

utilitarianism

Answer 7

a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness and oppose actions that cause unhappiness.
promotes “the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people.”

Question 8

New Lanark

Answer 8

the biggest cotton mill in Scotland and formed one of the largest factory sites in the world.

Question 9

The Opium War (1839-42)

Answer 9

Between 1839 and 1842,
British-Indian forces fought a war with Imperial China that served the interests of opium smugglers.
British victory opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.

Question 10

Alexis de Tocqueville

Answer 10

a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian.
best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution.

Question 11

Comte de Saint-Simon

Answer 11

a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman
had a substantial influence on politics, economics, sociology and the philosophy of science.
believed that science and technology would solve most of humanity’s problems

Question 12

Algeria

Answer 12

In July 1830 a French expeditionary force conquered the city of Algiers
by 1847, almost all of the territory of what is now Algeria north of the Sahara had been subdued.
The conquest brought to an end nearly 400 years of Ottoman rule
became a French colony for over 130 years.

Question 13

“Tyranny of the Majority”

Answer 13

decisions made by a majority place its interests above those of an individual or minority group,
constitutes active oppression comparable to that of a tyrant or despot.

Question 14

Charles Fourier

Answer 14

a French philosopher,
an influential early socialist thinker,
one of the founders of utopian socialism
advocated a reconstruction of society based on communal associations of producers known as phalanges

Question 15

Sir Robert Peel

Answer 15

a British Conservative statesman
formation of the Metropolitan London Police Force in 1829.

Question 16

John Stuart Mill

Answer 16

an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant.
One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism,
contributed to social theory, political theory, and political economy.
senior official in the East India Company

Question 17

Louis Blanc

Answer 17

French socialist politician, journalist and historian.
called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor.

Question 18

Irish Famine (1846-52)

Answer 18

Ireland suffered a period of starvation, disease and emigration that became known as the Great Famine. T
a third of Ireland’s population was dependent for food before the famine
crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant.

Question 19

Samuel Smiles

Answer 19

a British author and government reformer.
campaigned on a Chartist platform,
promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws

Question 20

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Answer 20

a French socialist, politician, philosopher, and economist
founded mutualist philosophy
considered the “father of anarchism”

Question 21

Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846)

Answer 21

a motion intended to “settle down” the middle class
lowering the cost of grain products and thus progressing to a free market economy.
denoted all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley.