These social gains in the direction of equality were, in fact, the
most permanent achievements of the Napoleonic Era: in spite of later
reaction, it was beyond the reach of possibility to restore the
inequalities of the outworn feudal system.
[Sidenote: "Fraternity" under Napoleon]
[Sidenote: The Emphasis on Nationalism]
Fraternity, or national patriotism, received a marked impetus during
the era. Communicated from France by the ardor of the revolutionary and
Napoleonic soldiers, it evoked ready response not only in Poland,
Holland, Portugal, Spain, England, and Russia, in which countries it
was already existent, but also in the Germanies and in the Italian
states, where centuries of petty strife and jealousy seemed to have
blotted it out forever. The significance of the Napoleonic period in
the history of Germany is incalculable. The diminution of the number of
states, the abolition of the effete Holy Roman Empire, the regeneration
of Prussia, the War of Liberation, the Battle of the Nations, the
consciousness of common interests, and the wave of patriotism which
swept over the whole German folk, presaged before the lapse of many
decades the political unification of the Germanies and the erection of
a powerful national state.
Pages:
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228