For the duration of the first
decade and a half of the 19th century, virtually all of Europe
(including its seas) was engulfed
in war, as Napoleon tried to control the continent in the teeth
of England's determined resistance. French conquest and occupation
(Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain) undermined Old Regime
institutions, but also created much resentment and opposition
in the form of movements for national independence and unification.
Modern nationalism appealed to historical memories – real
or imagined – and linguistic identities. Nationalism
and militarism stirred popular emotions and imagination that
found expression in hero worship and the exaltation of individual
passions and daring. But the final defeat of Napoleon at the
battle of Waterloo (1815), and his exile to the island of St.
Helena, enabled the victorious coalitions of conservative monarchs
to reestablish much of the Old Regime.
The restoration, however, had to be maintained by means of
censorship, police surveillance, and the persecution of liberal
and nationalist leaders. However, the young generation that
had been fired by the excitements of war, and the hopes of
individual and national liberation, did not readily adjust
to the boredom of peace and the repressive intellectual atmosphere;
they remained a constant revolutionary threat. The frustration
and discontent found literary, artistic, and philosophic expression
in romanticism. The initiators and leaders of intellectual
and aesthetic romanticism inspired passionate sympathy for
the heroic deeds of past popular and national figures, and
helped popularize historical novels and scholarship. All of
this, in conjunction with the idea of the nation's sovereignty,
encouraged a sense of national identity and consciousness in
the educated, most particularly those belonging to peoples
and nations deprived of political independence. Europe's political
and moral order was radically transformed by the onrush of
romantic and nationalist waves.
© 2003-2004
The New York Public Library
are
specific to Muscovy/Russia's internal development.
are
important world historical or cultural events.
indicates
specific points of sociocultural or military engagement
between Muscovy/Russia and foreign powers or individuals. 
