History of Socialism. The word was first coined early in the 19th century in regard to the doctrines advocated by the French utopian socialists Charles Fourier and Henri Saint-Simon, and became common in England from about the time of Robert Owen – another great Utopian socialist, in the 1830s. They are all artistically enhanced with visually stunning color, shadow and lighting effects. During that time, Philosopher Plato talked about a type of collective society. Writing a research paper along with studying heavy textbooks is quite tricky and time-consuming. According to M. Beer, 1 the term ‘socialism’ first appeared in November 1827 in the Co-Operative Magazine, an organ of the Association of London Co-operative Unions, and became generally used in the 1830s. Reasons for socialism