Chapter 20: The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism I. The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte A. Basics 1.

Chief danger to Directory=royalists (wanted to restore Bourbon monarchy) 2. migrs drew support from Catholics and people disgusted by revolution 3. 1797-most incumbents replaced by constitutional monarchs and sympathizers 4. Antimonarchist Directory stages coup d tat on September 4, 1797 in order to preserve republic and prevent peaceful restoration or Bourbons. a. Put own supporters into legislative seats b. Imposed censorship and exiled enemies 5. Napoleon sent a subordinate to Paris to guarantee success of coup. 6. 1769-Napoleon born in Ajaccio, Corsica-went to French schools=French officer. Jacobin. Favored revolution. B. Early Military Victories 1. France s annexation of Belgium=guaranteed fighting with Britain and Austria 2. Crushed Austrian and Sardinian armies, concluded Treaty of Campio Fermio in 1797. a. Took Austria out of war, led to French domination of Italy and Switzerland 3. Decided to attack British through capture of Egypt to threaten empire and damage trade-overran Egypt, invasion=failure. This was the first major Western European assault on the Ottoman Empire. 4. 1798-Horatio Nelson destroyed French fleet, army cut off from France. nd 5. French invasion of Egypt concerned Russia. Russia, Austria and the Ottomans join Britain against France in 2 coalition. 6. 1799-Russian and Austrian armies defeat France in Italy, Switzerland and threaten to invade France. C. The Constitutional of the Year VIII 1. Abbe Saieyes-Director-proposed new constitution-wanted executive body independent of electoral politics, government based on confidence from below, power from above a. Would require another military coup b. Napoleon left troops unannounced in 1799 to help Sieyes c. November 10, Napoleon s troops ensured success of coup. 2. 1799-Napoleon issues Constitution of the Year VIII-suggested democratic principles, system of checks and balances, and council of State remnant of Louis XIV established rule of First Consul-Napoleon a. 1st to use rhetoric revolution, nationalism and to back it with military force and combine them into a way of imperial expansion in service of his power. II. The Consulate in France (1799-1804) A. Basics 1. Establishing Consulate ended revolution in France since Third Estate had achieved most goals by 1799. a. Abolished hereditary privilege-allowing them to achieve wealth, status, and security for their property. b. Peasants gained land they always wanted and destroyed oppressive feudal privileges. B. Suppressing Foreign Enemies and Domestic Opposition 1. Bonaparte made peace with France s enemies. a. Russia had already left the Second Coalition. b. Treaty of Luneville (1801)-took Austria out of the war which left Britain alone in the fight. c. 1802-Treaty of Amiens brought peace to Europe 2. Bonaparte restored peace in France by employing all types of men and requiring only loyalty from them. 3. Bonaparte established highly centralized administration where prefects responsible to the government in Paris managed all departments. a. Employed secret police, stamped out royalist rebellion and made rule of Paris effective and Brittany and Vendee. 4. Invented opportunities to destroy enemies. Ex: plot on his life discovered, Napoleon uses it as excuse to attack the Jacobins even though it was work of royalists. 5. Violated sovereignty of German state of Baden to seize Bourbon duke of Enghien who was shot because of speculation of participation in royalist plots, even though Bonaparte knew he was innocent. a. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord termed it worse than a crime-a blunder because it provoked foreign opposition. b. Gave Jacobins hope for restoration of the Bourbons. c. Execution put an end to royalist plots. C. Concordat with the Roman Catholic Church 1. Major obstacle to internal peace was steady hostility of French Catholics. Refractory clergy continued to advocate counterrevolution.

1801-Napoleon concludes concordat with Pope Pius VII-gave Napoleon what he wanted. Required refractory clergy and those who had accepted the revolution to resign-replacements received spiritual investiture from the pope, but the state named their bishops and paid their salaries and the salary of one priest in each parish. In return, church gave up claims on its confiscated property. a. Stated Catholicism is the religion of the great majority of French citizens -fell short of what pope had wanted religious domination for the Roman Catholic Church. 3. Organic Articles of 1802 established supremacy of state over church. a. Similar laws applied to Protestant and Jewish communities as well, reducing the privileged position of Catholic church. D. The Napoleonic Code 1. 1802-plebiscite ratified Napoleon as consul for life and soon produced another constitution that granted him what amounted to full power. Set about to reform French law. a. Civil Code of 1804 as result-known as Napoleonic Code. 2. Code safeguarded all forms of property and tried to secure French society against internal challenges. Employment of salaried officials chosen on basis of merit replaced the purchase of offices. All privileges based on birth abolished. Conservative attitude toward labor and women received full support, workers organizations remain forbidden, workers have fewer rights than employers. Fathers given extensive control over children and husbands over wives, divorce more difficult for women than men. a. Before this code, French law had differed from region to region. b. Ended women s opportunities to protect their interests due to the previous difference in law. E. Establishing a Dynasty 1. 1804-Bonaparte tried to make himself emperor and argued that establishing a dynasty would make new regime secure and make further attempts on his life useless. 2. New constitution issue that called Napoleon the Emperor of the French rather than the First Consul of the Republicconstitution overwhelmingly ratified in a plebiscite. 3. Napoleon invited pope to Notre Dame to take part in the coronation in order to conclude struggle. At last minute, pope agreed that Napoleon should crown himself since the emperor would not allow anyone to think his power and authority depended on the church. a. Napoleon I III. Napoleon s Empire (1804-1814) A. Basics 1. Napoleon conquered most of Europe, France s victories changed the map of the Continent. Wars put end to Old Regime and its feudal trappings throughout western Europe and forced the eastern European states to reorganize themselves to resist Napoleon s armies. 2. Napoleon s advance unleashed the powerful force of nationalism. Weapon was militarily mobilized French nation. Had huge supply of men to fight due to unprecedented loyalty to the nation and to him. No enemy could match this and even coalitions were unsuccessful. B. Conquering an Empire 1. Peace of Amiens between France and Great Britain was merely a truce. a. Napoleon sent army to restore colony of Haiti to French rule. This aroused British fear that Napoleon was planning a new French empire in America because Spain had restored Louisiana to France in 1800. 2. His interventions in the Dutch Republic, Italy, and Switzerland and his reorganization of Germany. Treaty of Campo Formio had required a redistribution of territories along the Rhine River and the princes of the region engaged in a scramble to enlarge their holdings. a. Resulted in reduction of Austrian influence and emergence of fewer but larger German states in the west, all dependent on Napoleon. C. British Naval Supremacy 1. Britain declared war in 1803 after Napoleon ignored an ultimatum they set forth. William Pitt returned to office as prime minister in 1804 and began to construct the Third Coalition. By August 1805 he had persuaded Russia and Austria to move against French aggression. a. October 21, 1805-British admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson, destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar just off the Spanish coast. British lost no ships, Nelson died, this victory put end to French hope of invading Britain and guaranteed British control of the sea for the rest of the war. D. Napoleonic Victories in Central Europe 1. December 2, 1805-Napoleon defeated the combined Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz. a. Treaty of Pressburg followed and won major concessions from Austria.

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b. Austrians withdrew from Italy and left. Napoleon now in control of everything north of Rome. Recognized as king of Italy. 2. Napoleon made extensive political changes in Germany. In July 1806 he organized the Confederation of the Rhine, which included most of the western German princes. Their withdrawal from the HRE led Francis II to dissolve that ancient political body and henceforth to call himself Emperor Francis I of Austria. 3. Prussia was provoked into war against France, but Napoleon s forces quickly crushed Prussia s famous forces at Jena and st Auerstadt on October 14, 1806. On November 21 in Berlin, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decrees that forbid his allies from importing British goods. On June 13, 1807 Napoleon defeated the Russians at Friedland and occupied East Prussia leaving Napoleon as master of all Germany. E. Treaty of Tilsit 1. Tsar Alexander I of Russia ready to make peace. He and Napoleon meet on raft in Niemen River as onlookers watched from the banks. On July 7, 1807 they signed the Treaty of Tilsit which confirmed France s gains and reduced Prussia to half its previous size. Prussia and Russia became allies of Napoleon. 2. French empire ruled by Napoleon, organizes it like the domain of a Corsican family. His stepson ruled Italy for him and his three brothers and brother-in-law were made kings of other states. Only denied kingdom to his brother Lucien because he disapproved of his wife. Expected his relatives to take orders and when they failed to do so he punished them. a. This was unpopular and provoked political opposition that needed encouragement and assistance to flare up into serious resistance. F. The Continental System 1. Napoleon sets out to defeat British, knows their navy is too strong for him, so he uses the economic warfare that was begun by the Berlin Decrees. a. Planned to cut off all British trade with the European continent to cripple their commercial and financial power. 2. Milan Decree of 1807 went further and tried to stop neutral nations from trading with Britain. 3. British economy survives, control of seas assures their access to markets of North/South America and the Mediterranean. 4. Continental system hurt the European economies because Napoleon refused to turn his empire into a free-trade area. Instead, his tariff policies favored France and increased the resentment of foreign merchants which made the merchants less willing to enforce the system and more likely to engage in smuggling. 5. Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 in part to prevent smuggling and the resulting peninsular campaign in Spain and Portugal helped bring on his ruin. IV. European Response to the Empire A. Basics 1. Wherever Napoleon ruled the Napoleonic Code was impose and hereditary social distinctions were abolished. Feudal privileges disappeared and the peasants were freed from serfdom and manorial dues. The guilds and local oligarchies were dissolved or deprived of power. Established churches lost traditional independence and were made subordinate to the state. a. Church domination was replaced by general toleration B. German Nationalism and Prussian Reform 1. There had never been a unified German state. Enlightenment writers like Immanuel Kant and Gotthold Lessing were neither politically engaged or nationalistic. 2. Romantic movement=emergence of nationalism-emphasized unique qualities of German culture which arose from the history of the German people. 3. Napoleon s humiliation of Prussia at Jena in 1806 led German intellectuals to urge resistance to Napoleon on the basis of German nationalism. a. French conquest endangered the independence and achievements of all German speaking people. 4. German nationalists skeptical of the German princes who seemed too loyal to Napoleon and who ruled selfishly. 5. Many Germans sought to solve internal political problems by attempting to establish a unified German state reformed to harness the energies of the entire people just as the French did before attaining such success. 6. Prussia was the only state that could arouse such patriotic feelings and continued to resist. German nationalists flocked here calling for reform and unifications that were feared and hated by Frederick William III and the Junker nobility. 7. Reforms came about in Prussia due to the defeat at Jena. The Prussian administrative and social reforms were the work of Baron vom Stein and Count von Hardenberg. They aimed at fighting French power with their own version of the French weapons. a. Wrought important changes in Prussian society. b. Stein s reforms broke the Junker monopoly of landholding. Serfdom was abolished. c. Power of the Junkers did not permit the total end of the system in Prussia.

In Prussia peasants remaining on the land were forced to continue manorial labor, but were free to leave the land if they chose to. They could obtain the land they worked if they forfeited a third of it to the lord. Because of this Junker holdings grew larger. Some peasants went to cities for work, others became agricultural laborers, some free-holding farmers. a. Social problems emerged as a landless labor force was enlarged by the population explosion. 9. Military reforms sought to increase supply of soldiers and to improve their quality. Prussian reformers abolished inhumane military punishments, and sought to inspire patriotic feelings in the soldiers and opened the officer corps to commoners, gave promotions on basis of merit, and organized war colleges that developed new strategies and tactics. 10. Reforms soon enabled Prussia to regain its former power. Since Napoleon limited the Prussian army to 42,000 men, so universal conscription could not be introduced until 1813. So, Prussians evaded the limit by training one group each year, putting them into the reserves and then training a new group the same size. Prussia then had an army of 270,000 by 1814. V. The Wars of Liberation A. Spain 1. National resistance to France had deep social roots since Spain had achieved political unity in the sixteenth century. a. Spanish peasants devoted to the ruling dynasty and to the Roman Catholic Church. b. France and Spain allied since 1796. 2. 1807-French army came into Iberian Peninsula to force Portugal to abandon its traditional alliance with Britain. Army stayed in Spain to protect lines of supply and communication. Revolt broke out in 1808 and Napoleon used it as pretext to depose the Spanish Bourbons and place his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. 3. Upper classes prepared to collaborate with Napoleon, peasants urged by lower clergy and monks rose in a general rebellion. 4. In Spain, Napoleon faced a new kind of warfare. Guerrilla bands cut lines of communication, killed stragglers, destroyed isolated units, and then disappeared into the mountains. 5. The British landed an army under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and later the duke of Wellington, to support the Spanish insurgents. a. This began the peninsular campaign that would drain French strength from elsewhere in Europe and play a critical role in Napoleon s defeat. B. Austria 1. French troubles in Spain encouraged the Austrians to renew the war in 1809. Since their defeat at Austerlitz, they had sought a war of revenge. 2. Austrians counted on Napoleon s distraction in Spain, French war weariness, and aid from other German princes. Napoleon was fully in command and the princes did not move, however. 3. French army moved into Austria and won the Battle of Wagram. This resulted in the Peace of Schonbrunn which deprived Austria of territory and 3.5 million subjects. 4. Austrian archduchess Marie Louis, daughter of emperor Napoleon s wife, Josephine de Peauharnais, who had borne no children and his dynastic ambitions and desire for marriage matching his new position as master of Europe led him to divorce his wife and marry the Austrian princess. Was going to marry Russian princess but it fell through. C. The Invasion of Russia 1. Failure of Napoleon s marriage negotiations with Russia emphasized shakiness of Franco-Russian alliance concluded at Tilsit. a. Alliance was unpopular because of the liberal politics of France and because the Continental System prohibited timber sales to Britain. b. They wanted French aid in gaining Constantinople, but Napoleon gave them no help against the Ottoman Empire. 2. Organization of Grand Duchy of Warsaw as a Napoleonic satellite on the Russian doorstep and its enlargement in 1809 after the Battle of Wagram angered Alexander. 3. Napoleon s annexation of Holland in violation of the Treaty of Tilsit, his recognition of the French marshal Benadotte as the future King Charles XIV of Sweden, and his marriage to an Austrian princess further disturbed Alexander. 4. At the end of 1810, Russia withdrew from the Continental System and began to prepare for war. 5. Napoleon determined to end Russian military threat. Got army of 600,000 men, Russians were forced to retreat since they only had 160,000 troops which made it foolish for them to risk battle. a. Russians followed a scorched-earth method instead and destroyed all food and supplies as they retreated. b. This scorched-earth method left the Grand Army of Napoleon with very low morale as they could not live off the land and rain, heat and shortages of supplies left them unable to accomplish much. 6. Napoleon was urged to abandon the effort, but he feared that this would undermine his power and position in his empire and in France, so he pinned his faith on the Russians unwillingness to abandon Moscow without a fight. a. September 1812-Russians engaged in battle with Napoleon s army over Moscow. Russian general Kutuzov wanted to avoid the fight and let winter drive away the invader, but at Borodino (near Moscow) the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic era cost the French 30,000 casualties and the Russians almost 60,000. Russian army not destroyed yet. This battle was regarded as a defeat for Napoleon. b. Fires set by the Russians soon engulfed Moscow and left Napoleon far from home with a smaller army with inadequate supplies as winter arose.

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c. Napoleon captured the burned city and addressed many peace offers to Alexander, which the tsar ignored. By October, Napoleon s army was forced to retreat. Napoleon realized that his loss with the Russians would encourage others and he returned to Paris, leaving his army of which only 100,000 lived. D. European Coalition 1. Napoleon able to put down opponents in Paris and raise another 350,000 men. 2. Neither Prussians or Russians eager to risk another bout with Napoleon. 3. Austrian foreign minister Prince Klemens von Metternich would have negotiated peace that would leave Napoleon on the throne of a shrunken and chastened France rather than see Europe dominated by Russia. 4. 1813-patriotic pressure and national ambition brought together Russian, Prussian, and Austrian forces assisted by British funds. Wellington marched his peninsular army into France and since Napoleon s new army was inexperienced and poorly equipped and his generals were tired, even Napoleon was worn out and sick, but Napoleon still waged a campaign and defeated the allies at Dresden. 5. In October Napoleon was defeated by the combined armies of the enemy at Leipzig at the Battle of the Nations. 6. End of March 1814-the allied army marched into Paris and a few days later Napoleon abdicated and went into exile on the island of Elba off the coast of northern Italy. VI. The Congress of Vienna and the European Settlement A. Basics 1. As soon as Napoleon was removed, the allies pursued their separate ambitions. a. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary was the key person in achieving eventual agreement amongst them. He brought about the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont that provided for the restoration of the Bourbons to the French throne and the contraction of France to its frontiers of 1792. b. Austria, Russia, Britain and Prussia agree to Quadruple Alliance for twenty years to preserve the settlement they agreed on. c. Final details were left to be negotiated at a meeting in Vienna. B. Territorial Adjustments 1. Congress of Vienna assembled in September 1814 but did not finish work until November 1815. 2. Only full session of the congress met to ratify the arrangements made by the big four. 3. The easiest problem facing the great powers was France-all victors agreed that no single state should be allowed to dominate Europe and all were determined to see France prevented from doing so ever again. 4. Powers also built up series of states to serve as barriers to any new French expansion. 5. Established kingdom of the Netherlands including Belgium, and Genoa. 6. Prussia was given new territories along the Rhine River to deter French aggression in the west. Austria was given full control of northern Italy and the rest of Germany was basically left as it was under Napoleon, and the HRE was not revived after its being dissolved in 1806. a. In all these areas, rule of legitimate monarchs and rejection of any republican and democratic politics that had flowed from the French Revolution. 7. Settlement of eastern Europe greatly divided the victors. Alexander I of Russia wanted all of Poland, Prussia was willing to give this to him in return for Saxony, but Austria was unwilling to surrender its share of Poland or see Prussian power grow or Russian penetration of central Europe. 8. Polish-Saxon question almost started new war among victors, but France provided a way out. Tallyrand who now represented France at Vienna suggested the weight of France added to that of Britain and Austria might bring Alexander to his senses. a. News of secret treaty among the three leaked out and the tsar agreed to become ruler of a smaller Poland and Prussia settled for only a piece of Saxony. 9. After these negotiations France was included as a fifth great power in all deliberations C. The Hundred Days and the Quadruple Alliance 1. Napoleon returned from Elba on March 1, 1815-most of the French army was still loyal to him and many subjects felt they might be safer under his rule than that of the Bourbons. 2. Coalition seemed to be dissolving in Vienna and Napoleon seized this opportunity and escaped to France and was restored to power where he promised a liberal constitution and a peaceful foreign policy but the allies were not convinced. 3. The allies declared Napoleon an outlaw and sent their armies to crush him. So Wellington, with the help of the Prussians under Field Marshal von Blucher, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815. Was sent into exile on Saint Helena off the coast of Africa where he died in 1821. 4. The Hundred Days=the period of Napoleon s return. This period frightened the great powers and made the peace settlement harsher for France. There were minor territorial adjustments made, and the victors posed a new war indemnity and an army of occupation on France.

5. Alexander proposed a Holy Alliance where the monarchs promised to act together in accordance with Christian principles. Austria and Prussia signed, but Castlereagh thought it absurd and England abstained. 6. Quadruple Alliance between England, Russia, Austria and Prussia renewed November 20, 1815 making it a coalition for the maintenance of peace and the pursuit of victory over France. Determined to prevent any upheaval or destruction. 7. Chief arms of the Congress of Vienna were to prevent a recurrence of the Napoleonic nightmare and to arrange a lasting peace. Aimed to establish framework for stability not to punish France because they found that making peace was most effective. a. The Vienna Settlement-the great powers formed international relations so the major powers would respect that settlement and not use military force to change it. b. France accepted new situation without resentment. c. Powers established new legal framework whereby treaties were made between states rather than between monarchs. Treaties remained in place when the monarch died. d. Came to calculate the nature of political and economic power that went beyond gaining favorable balance of trade. Now took into account natural resources, education systems, and possible growth of agriculture, commerce and industry. VI. The Romantic Movement A. Basics 1. Romanticism was a reaction against much of the thought of the Enlightenment. 2. Romantic writers and artists saw the imagination or some such intuitive intellectual faculty supplementing reason as a means of perceiving and understanding the world. 3. Many urged revival of Christianity and liked the culture of the medieval times, and they were also interested in folklore, folk songs, and fairy tales. Fascinated by dreams and hallucination, sleepwalking, and phenomena that suggested that there was another world beyond that of empirical observation, sensory data and discursive reasoning. VII. Romantic Questioning of the Supremacy of Reason A. Basics 1. Had roots in individualism of the Renaissance with Protestant devotion, personal piety, novels of the eighteenth century and dramatic German poetry of the Sturm and Drang movement. 2. Two writers provided for the immediate intellectual foundations for romanticism: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. B. Rosseau and Education 1. Romantic writers drew from Rousseau the conviction that society and material prosperity had corrupted human nature as exemplified by his book Emilie. a. In this book the difference between children and adults and the stages of maturation were discussed. Rousseau felt that children should be raised with maximum individual freedom and to learn by trial and error. b. Parents and teachers would help most by providing basic necessities of life and warding off the harmful things, but after that they should stay out of the way. 2. Believed that because of the physical differences of men and women, they would naturally grow into social roles with different spheres of activity. 3. Thought that child s sentiments and reason should be permitted to flourish. 4. To romantic writers, these views vindicated the rights of nature over an artificial society-this open education would lead to natural society. Led romantics to value uniqueness of each individual and to explore childhood. 5. Both saw humankind, nature, and society as organically unrelated. C. Kant and Reason th 1. Immanuel Kant wrote two greatest philosophical works of the late 18 century: The Critique of Pure Reason and The Critique of Practical Reason. 2. Sought to accept rationalism but to still preserve a belief in human freedom, immortality, and the existence of God. 3. Argued for the subjective character of human knowledge because the human mind does not simply reflect the world around it, but actively imposes on the world of sensory experience. Human perception as both the mind s own activity and sensory experience. 4. Beyond the phenomenal world of sensory experience there existed the noumenal world-a sphere of moral and aesthetic reality known by practical reason and conscience. 5. All humans possess an innate sense of moral duty/awareness of a categorical imperative-an inner command to act in every situation as one would have all other people always act in the same situation=natural freedom. 6. Transcendental truths could not be proved by discursive reasoning, but he was convinced there were realities to which every reasonable person could attest. 7. Romantics believed in the presence of a special power in the human mind that could penetrate beyond the limits of largely passive human understanding as set forth by Hobbes, Locke and Hume. They also believed that poets and artists possessed

these powers in abundance. Others appealed to the limit of human reason to set forth new religious ideas or political thought that was often at odds with Enlightenment writers. VII. Romantic Literature A. The Basics 1. Neoclassical writers used the word romantic to describe literature they considered unreal, sentimental, or excessively fanciful. 2. Thomas Warton, an English writer, associated romantic literature with medieval romances. In Germany, Johann Gottfried Herder used the terms romantic and Gothic interchangeably. The term came to be applied to all literature that did not observe classical forms and rules and gave free play to imagination. 3. August Wilhelm von Schlegel praised the romantic literature of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Calderon. Romantic literature to him was to classical literature what the organic and living were to the merely mechanical. Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature 4. Romantic movement peaked in England and Germany before it became a major force in France under leadership of Madame de Stael and Victor Hugo. First writer to declare himself romantic was in 1816, Henri Beyle, who wrote under the pseudonym Stendhal. Criticized Jean Racine. B. The English Romantic Writers 1. English romantics believed poetry was enhanced by freely following the creative impulses of the mind. a. Opposed Lockean psychology because it regarded the mind as a passive receptor and poetry as a mechanical exercise of wit following prescribed rules. 2. Samuel Taylor Colerige-artist s imagination was God at work in the mind. Poetry as one of the highest human acts, selffulfillment in a transcendental world. a. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -a lot pertaining to God 3. William Wordsworth was Coleridge s closest friend. Together they published Lyrical Ballads that rejected the rules of 18th century criticism. a. Ode on Intimations of Immortality -written in part to console Coleridge. b. Believed, like Coleridge, that childhood was the bright period of creative imagination. c. Believed that humans lose their childlike vision and closeness to spiritual reality as they mature. d. Soul exists in a celestial state before its creation and the child is closer to its eternal origin and undistracted by worldly experience, so they recollect the supernatural world much easier. e. Aging and urban living corrupt and deaden the imagination, making feelings of beauty of nature much less important. a. The Prelude -illustrated growth of a poet s mind. Lord Byron-was much distrusted and disliked by everyone. He had little sympathy for other romantics views of the imagination. Outside of England he was regarded as the new person of the French Revolution because he rejected old traditions by divorcing as well as skeptical and mocking. a. Childe Harold s Pilgrimage , Don Juan -acknowledged the cruelty of nature as well as its beauty and praised urban life. Used ribald humor. C. The German Romantic Writers 1. Characters of romantic novels treated as symbols of the larger truth of life. Novels were highly sentimental and borrowed material from medieval romances. 2. First German romantic novel= William Lovell by Ludwig Tieck. 3. Schlegel Friedrich Schlegel wrote an early romantic novel Lucinde which attacked contemporaneous prejudices against women as capable of being little more than loves and domestics. Revealed the ability of the romantics to become involved in the social issues of their day. Lucinde was portrayed as equal in importance to the male hero people were shocked. 4. Wolfgang von Goethe was perhaps the greatest German writer of modern times. Part of his writing was romantic, the other part was condemnation of romantic excesses. a. The Sorrows of Young Werther -emphasis on feeling and on living outside the bounds of polite society. b. Greatest masterpiece= Faust , a long dramatic poem. IX. Religion in the Romantic Period A. Methodism 1. Romantic religious thinkers appealed to the inner emotions of humankind for the foundation of religion. They followed the mystics of Western Christianity. th 2. Methodism originated in the middle of the 18 century as a revolt against deism and rationalism in the Church of England. 3. John Wesley=the leader of the Methodist movement. At Oxford he created a group called the Holy Club, but soon went to Georgia in the Americas for missionary work. During the journey to the Americas some German Moravians impressed him 4.

with their faith and confidence during as storm. When he returned to England he began to worship with the Moravians where he underwent a conversion. a. Discovered he could not preach his version of Christian conversion and practical piety in the church pulpits, so he began to preach in open fields near cities and towns. Thousands responded and soon he and his brother Charles began to organize Methodist societies. b. Achieved widespread success and influence, especially in the Americas. 4. Methodism stressed inward, heartfelt religion and the possibility of Christian perfection in life. True Christians were those saved from all sin and are now in such a perfect sense that they do not commit sin and are freed from evil thoughts and temptations. 5. Preachers emphasized the role of enthusiastic emotional experience as part of Christian conversion. 6. After Wesley, religious revivals became highly emotional in style and content. B. New Directions in Continental Religion 1. Strong Roman Catholic revival in France. Followers disapproved of both religious policy of the revolution and the anticlericalism of the Enlightenment. a. The Genius of Christianity -Viscount Francois Rene de Chateaubriand. Referred to as the bible of romanticism, argued that passion is the essence of religion and the foundation of faith in the church was the emotion that its teaching and sacraments inspired in the heart of the Christian. 2. Romantics found God immanent in nature. a. Speeches on Religion to Its Cultured Despisers -Friedrich Schleiermacher. Religion was neither dogma nor a system of ethics, but an institution or feeling of absolute dependence on infinite reality. Religious things expressed that primal religious feeling only in an indirect way. b. Christianity as the religion of religions , so Schleiermacher turned against the universal natural religion of the Enlightenment and defended the meaningfulness of the numerous world religions. c. Every religion to be seen as a unique version of the emotional experience of dependence on an infinite being. d. Schleiermacher interpreted religion of the world as other romantic writers interpreted variety of unique people and cultures. X. Romantic Views of Nationalism and History A. Basics 1. Distinctive feature of romanticism was its glorification of both the individual person and individual cultures. a. Based off German idealism which understood the world as the creation of subjective egos J b. J.G. Fichte was an important philosopher who identified the individual ego with the Absolute that underlies all existing things. c. The world is as it is because strong people conceive of it in a particular way and impose their wills on the world and other people. Ex: Napoleon. B. Herder and Culture 1. New historical studies=new glorification of individual cultures. German romantic writers went in search of their own past in reaction to the copying of French manners, the impact of the French Revolution, and the imperialism of Napoleon. 2. Early leader=Johann Gottfried Herder. Resented French cultural preponderance in Germany. Published On the Knowing and Feelings of the Human Soul where he rejected the mechanical explanation of nature, saw humans and societies developing organically over time. b. Revived German folk culture by urging the collection and preservation of distinctive German songs and sayings. Most important followers=the Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. c. Believed that universal language and institutions were a form of tyranny over the individuality of a people. d. Herder=revival of interest in history and philosophy throughout the nation. C. Hegel and History 1. Most important philosopher of history: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. 2. Believed ideas develop in an evolutionary fashion that involves conflict. At any given time a thesis (a predominant set of ideas) holds sway, but is challenged by antithesis. As these patterns of thought clash, a synthesis emerges that eventually becomes the new thesis. a. From this, the philosophical conclusion that all periods of history have been of almost equal value because each was necessary to the achievements of those that came later, and that all cultures are valuable because each contributes to the necessary clash of values and ideas that allows humankind to develop. b. The Phenomenology of Mind , Lectures on the Philosophy of History D. Islam, the Middle East, and Romanticism 1. New sensibilities modified the European understanding of both Islam and the Arab world while preserving long-standing attitudes.

2. Energized Christianity of Methodist-like forms of Protestantism and Chateaubriand s emotional Roman Catholicism renewed the traditional sense of necessary conflict between Christianity and Islam. 3. Medieval crusades against Islam fired the romantic imagination, because Romantic artists, poets and novelists saw the Middle Ages as a better period than their own. Tales of the Crusaders -Sir Walter Scott 4. Nationalistic aspirations with romanticism cast the Ottoman Empire and Islam in an unfavorable political light. 5. Romantic emphasis on the value of literature from different cultures allowed many European readers to enjoy the stories from The Thousand and One Nights and Edward FitzGerald published his translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 6. Herder and Hegel s concepts of history gave the Arabs and Islam distinct roles in history. To the two men Arab culture composed the human race and manifested human spirit and it also represented an important stage of the development of world spirit. a. Hegel believed that Islam had fulfilled its role in history and no longer had any significant part to play. Many believed that Islam could be ignored or deduced in their thinking to a spent historical force. 7. British Thomas Carlyle attributed new positive qualities to Muhammad. On Heroes and Hero-Worship he presented Muhammad as the embodiment of the hero as prophet. Muhammad was one of the people in history who experienced God subjectively and thus was able to discern and communicate a sense of the divine. He was like Schleiermacher. 8. Napoleon s expedition of Egypt was the first invasion of the Near East since the Crusades. This forced the modern study of the Arab world to become an important activity in French intellectual life. The Rosetta Stone was discovered on this journey. Description of Egypt was written by Napoleon s scholars and it suggested the history of the Ottoman Empire needed to be related to the larger context of Egyptian history and that Islam was only part of a larger cultural story. If Egypt and Islam were to be understood, it would be through European categories of thought. 9. Cultural effects in the West of Napoleon s invasions were an increase in the number of European visitors to Middle East and a demand for architecture based on ancient Egyptian models like the Washington Monument. 10. In the Middle East, Napoleon s invasion demonstrated the military and technological superiority of Europe.