The End of History: Comparing Fukuyama and Hegel Anonymous College

Towards the conclusion of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama claimed humanity reached "the end of history." Before defending this assertion, he revealed Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel perceived the end of history as the culmination of society's ideological development. Afterward, Fukuyama proclaimed his understanding of the claim, affirming that the emergence of Western liberal democracy following the Cold War marked the culmination of society's ideological evolution—the end of history. He also analyzed how the end of history would influence the future landscape of international relations, the Soviet Union, and the prevalence of the Marxism-Leninism ideology. Additionally, Fukuyama argued how Western liberal democracy championed Adam Smith's economic principles of free market capitalism. Yet, the emergence of Western liberalism contrasted with the Marxist understanding that class struggles would push society toward communism. Besides explaining how his understanding of Western liberal democracy evolved from Hegel's notion of the end of history, Fukuyama also illuminated the international implications of history's end and how Western liberalism advanced Smith's notions of free market capitalism while critiquing the Marxist, communist...