Chapter 12: Revolution &
Romanticism
Revolution & Rights
• American Revolution (1776)
– Declaration of Independence
• This doctrine applied the concepts of social contract,
popular sovereignty, and individual freedom.
• The doctrine claimed that the British government had
violated the social contract of the American people.
Revolution & Rights
• French Revolution (1789)
– It was in part inspired by the success of the
American Revolution.
– It culminated in the attack on the Bastille on July
14, 1789.
Revolution & Rights
• French Revolution (1789)
– It produced the
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen.
Revolution & Rights
• Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
– This was the low point of the French Revolution in
which the Jacobins led by Maximilian Robespierre
took control of the government.
Revolution & Rights
• Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
– Initially the government
attacked the nobility,
executing all members that
were loyal to the monarchy.
– Total power eventually
corrupted the government
and anyone who was a real or
imaginary threat was
executed by guillotine.
Revolution & Rights
• Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
– The Jacobins were
eventually overthrown,
Robespierre was executed,
and a corrupt government
led by a group called the
Directory took over.
Revolution & Rights
• Napoleonic Era
– Napoleon Bonaparte, (halfFrench and half-Italian) a
successful general during
the French Revolution,
overthrew the Directory
and assumed dictatorial
control over the nation.
Revolution & Rights
• Napoleonic Era
– Napoleonic Changes
• He made peace with the
church.
• He made peace with the
foreign nations, to prepare
for war.
• He promoted the idea of
nationalism.
• He advertised his power by
patronizing the arts.
Revolution & Rights
• Colonial Revolutions
– Hispaniola
• Led by former slave,
Dominique Toussaint lOuverture, overthrew the
island and led to the
creation of Haiti.
Revolution & Rights
• Colonial Revolutions
– Creole Revolutions
• The most famous of
the Creole leaders was
Simon Bolivar, who led
to the creation of Gran
Columbia (composed of
Columbia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Panama,
northern Peru, western
Guyana, and portions
of Brazil).
Revolution & Rights
• Industrial Revolution
– It began in England and later followed to the USA
and Germany.
– Industrial cities became economic powerhouses
leading to the creation of the commercial
bourgeoisie and the proletariat (working class).
Revolution & Rights
• Industrial Revolution
– Philosophies
• Smith’s capitalism was
championed by the bourgeoisie.
• Karl Marx wrote the Communist
Manifesto.
– This led to the creation of socialism.
– Under Marx’s theory, communism
was the only recourse, the violent
overthrow of the bourgeoisie and
the redistribution of resources by
the proletariat.
The Romantic Hero
• Romanticism
– It is the attitude of preferring feeling and
imagination to the sober dictates of reason.
Stormy Coast Scene after a Shipwreck by Horace Vernet
The Romantic Hero
• The Authors
– Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
• He writes Faust, the story
of the main character,
Faust, selling his soul to
Mephistopheles to “feel
without limit.”
The Romantic Hero
• The Authors
– George Gordon, Lord Byron
• He was an English poet, best
known for Don Juan.
• His real life mirrored the
concept of the romantic hero,
a rebellious genius whose
intellectual and moral
freedom isolates him from an
unsympathetic world.
The Romantic Hero
• The Authors
– Mary Wollstonecraft
• She was the author of the first feminine manifesto, A
Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).
• She alluded that women were soldiers, given little
training and assigned their roles.
The Romantic Hero
• The Authors
– Nature’s role in
Romanticism
• It produced a number
of famous writers and
poets.
–
–
–
–
–
Ralph Waldo Emerson
John Keats
Percy Shelly
William Wordsworth
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
The Romantic Hero
• The Authors
– The Gothic Authors
• These authors found an outlet in dark horror and evil.
– Edgar Allen Poe penned a number of short stories, poems,
and other works.
– Mary Shelley penned Frankenstein.
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Eugene Delacroix
• He was regarded as
the painter most
inspired by Lord Byron
and the concept of the
Byronic hero.
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Francisco Goya
• He was regarded as the
greatest romantic
“protest” painter.
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Francisco Goya
• His Executions of the Third of May, 1808, has been
heralded as “the explosion of modern painting.”
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– John Constable
• He was a compatriot
of Wordsworth and
heavily influenced by
nature and
romanticism.
• His work inspired
Delacroix and has
been linked to French
impressionism.
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Joseph Mallord William Turner
• His artistry focused on the insignificance of humanity
when faced against nature.
Eruption of Vesuvius, 1817
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Thomas Cole
• He was the founder of the American nature-romanticist
genre of painting.
• He is also the founder of the so-called Hudson River
School.
In the Catskills, 1837
The Romantic Hero
• The Painters
– Albert Bierstadt
• One of the most successful painters to come out of the
Hudson River School.
• His specialty was the American West.
The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 1863
The Romantic Hero
• The Musicians
– Ludwig van Beethoven
• He was the heir to Haydn
and Mozart and made the
transition to musical
romanticism.
The Romantic Hero
• The Musicians
– Niccolo Paganini
• He was an Italian virtuoso in
the violin.
• His playing led to composers
becoming more creative.
The Romantic Hero
• The Musicians
– Inspired Composers
• Franz Schubert created The Erlking.
• Frederic Chopin.
Franz Schubert
Frederic Chopin
The Romantic Hero
• Dance
– Marie Taglioni
• She was the first ballerina
to perfect “on point” or to
tiptoe in slippers.
The Romantic Hero
• Architecture
– John Nash
• Greater exposure to the Orient led to experimentation
in “romantic oriental design.”
• This is best culminated in Nash’s Brighton Pavilion.