Niccolo Machiavelli's 1513 treatise The Prince described how a ruler should maintain political power. Prior to Machiavelli, political theory typically described how rulers ought to rule based on specific moral and Christian principles. In The Prince, Machiavelli instead advocates for a more realistic mode of governance not restricted by such lofty concerns.

Quotation adapted from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513; trans. Mariott 1908)

The Chartist movement gained its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which was a large-scale petition effort that found particular success among the burgeoning working classes of Britain's expanding industrial cities. The Chartists fought for Parliamentary reform, as they believed that the previous century's reforms did not go far enough. The Charter contained six specific points about Parliamentary elections: universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, no property requirements for members of parliament, equal parliamentary constituencies, and annual parliamentary elections.

The quotation reflects the central tenet of utilitarianism, the core philosophy of the extremely influential British thinker and social reformer Jeremy Bentham. Bentham’s philosophy holds that society, and by extension government, should work towards providing the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people possible. This is the core component of Bentham’s leading philosophy, utilitarianism. Bentham was considered a radical in his time; he advocated for, among other things, economic liberty, individualism, equal rights for women, the abolition of slavery, decriminalization of homosexuality, animal rights, and extensive social welfare.

Quotation adapted from Fragment on Government by Jeramy Bentham (1776)

Marxist history is based on the belief that history is one constant struggle between the economic classes. Marxist history considers factors like nationality, religious affiliation, ethnicity, and so on to be secondary to the competition between the classes, particularly the competition between the producers (the working class), the consumers (the middle class), and the owners (the upper class). It is based on the writings of Karl Marx.

Social Darwinism was an interpretation of the theory of natural selection that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. Social Darwinism essentially maintains that in human populations, just like in animal populations, natural selection is at work and only the fittest, smartest, and strongest will survive. It provided a convenient excuse for the abuses committed during the New Imperialism era, as it allowed European intellectuals to claim "natural superiority" over other races and defend their otherwise morally reprehensible actions. Of course, Social Darwinism was not universally propounded in this time period, but in the years since, it has come to be widely associated with Herbert Spencer. Spencer was one of the most famous philosophers of his time and an ardent believer in the benefits of competition.

The Annales School of historiography developed in the first half of the twentieth century in France and is widely influential to the study of history to this day. It focuses on a long-term and comprehensive analysis of historical trends, particularly social and economic history, with a view to finding simple solutions to historical conundrums.

These two historical theories are each predicated on the West viewing the East through the lenses of racism and supposedly inherent Western superiority. Eurocentric interpretations of history give inordinate focus to European events, traditions, and interpretations of society in a global context, and Orientalist works eroticize the East and portray it as backwards and/or exotic.

The ideology of Jacobitism was first and foremost centered on returning the male Stuart line to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. While this touched on issues of religion (all the Stuart pretenders were Catholic and England and Scotland were officially Protestant) and saw its greatest support in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, Jacobitism's only real unifying element was loyalty to the Stuart line.

Absolutism, as exemplified by rulers such as Louis XIV of France, was a movement toward political centralization in Europe. As trade from overseas imperial holdings and expensive, gunpowder dependent-armies grew in importance, they increasingly transferred an edge to the crown in the old feudal struggles. Absolute rulers curbed the rights and privileges granted to smaller feudal nobles, and as a result contributed to the general breakdown of local variation and the rise of nationalism within Europe.

Romanticism, as an literary movement, emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was primarily focused on celebrating human emotions and the qualities of human nature. Early Romantic poets, most notably William Wordsworth, also emphasized a return to the common speech of lower-class people, as opposed to higher-flown "poetic" or courtly language. Romanticism sought to take the emphasis away from logic and scientific inquiry, and focus instead on the natural beauty of humanity and the world.