19th Century Europe: Key Concepts & Movements

Posted on Feb 15, 2025 in History

Key Concepts of 19th Century Europe

Politics and Law

  • Civil Code: Code created in 1804 by Napoleon, which reflected the revolutionary achievements (equality before the law, liberty, property, and separation between church and state).
  • Constitutional Assembly: Body whose function is creation, endowed with powers that should be subject to public institutions. This predominated in France from 1789 to 1791. It abolished feudalism and drafted the Bill of Rights of Man and Citizen.
  • Constitution: Fundamental Law regulating the functioning of state institutions and listing the rights and freedoms of citizens. All laws must conform to the constitution. The first written constitutions were those of the U.S. (1787) and France (1791).
  • Holy Alliance: Document that committed its members to lend assistance if threatened. Created by Austria, Prussia, and Russia at the Congress of Vienna.
  • Restoration: Period of history during which the victorious powers of Napoleon re-established in Europe the political and social order before the French Revolution, based on absolutism. It ranges from 1815 to 1848 and begins at the Congress of Vienna.
  • Political Liberalism: A subversive ideology that moved underground and operated through secret societies. Reflected in the constitutions of the nineteenth century.
  • Nationalism: This is a political ideology that considers the nation as the fundamental unit of people’s lives, viewing it as a community equipped with its own characteristics stemming from a shared history, language, or culture. The aim is to form a government.

Economy and Society

  • Industrial Revolution: A process involving slow, continuous change in the 2nd half of the eighteenth century. In addition to industry, other economic factors were affected, as well as all social groups.
  • Norfolk System: Farming system consisting of a rotation that eliminated the fallow crop. Instead, turnips were planted, providing the advantage of forage for livestock.
  • Agricultural Revolution: Changes in England that occurred in the way of cultivating the land.
  • Corporation: Entities that had their capital divided into small units called shares. In them, the shareholders spread the benefits and risks based on the number of shares.
  • Economic Liberalism: It became the dominant economic doctrine in this phase of capitalism, given the awareness of its goals: individual benefit, property, free markets, and free competition among enterprises.
  • The Stock Market: Establishments where shares were bought and sold.
  • Labor Movement: A set of collective actions carried out by workers to improve their economic and political situation, as well as the organizations that promoted it (e.g., mutual aid societies).

Culture and Art

  • Romanticism: Emerged in the first half of the nineteenth century as a reaction to Neoclassicism. It proclaimed the supremacy of imagination and creativity. It was not a homogenous movement. Two key trends distinguished it: historical romance and romantic or traditional liberal.
  • Realism: Developed between the Revolution of 1848 and the early 1870s, and was manifested mainly in painting. Its main feature was its inspiration in reality; it tried to represent it objectively. The main topics were landscape and history painting, with realism considered “retrospective.”