Lesson Plans

The Western Heritage ©2000

by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner

Focus Lesson 12

Chapter 20: "The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism"

AP* Course Description

1. Intellectual and Cultural History
   • Changes in religious thought and institutions
   • Secularization of learning and culture
   • Major trends in literature and the arts
   • Intellectual and cultural developments and their relationship to social values and political events
   • Developments in social, economic, and political thought
   • The diffusion of new intellectual concepts among different social groups
   • Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward religion, the family, work, and ritual
2. Political and Diplomatic History
   • The rise and functioning of the modern state in its various forms
   • Relations between Europe and other parts of the world: colonialism, imperialism, decolonization, and global interdependence
   • The evolution of political elites and the development of political parties and ideologies
   • The extension and limitation of rights and liberties (personal, civic, economic, and political); majority and minority; political persecutions
   • The growth and changing forms of nationalism
   • Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution
   • Relationship between domestic and foreign policies
   • Efforts to restrain conflict: treaties, balance of power, diplomacy, and international organizations
   • War and civil conflict: origins, developments, technology, and their consequences
3. Social and Economic History
   • The shift in social structures from hierarchical orders to modern social classes: the changing distribution of wealth and poverty
   • The development of commercial practices and their economic and social impact
   • Changing definitions and attitudes toward mainstream groups and groups characterized as "the other"
   • Changes in the demographic structure of Europe, their causes and consequences
   • Gender roles and their influence on work, social structure, family structure, and interest group formation
   • The growth of competition and interdependence in national and world markets
   • Private and state roles in economic activity
   • Development of racial and ethnic group identities

Key Components

• Instructor's Manual: pp. 38–39
• Study Guide and Workbook, Vol. II: pp.70–80
• Test Item File: pp. 106–111

Key Web Sites

• Napoleon Bonaparte Internet Guide
• History and Culture of Russia: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
• The Artcyclopedia: Romanticism

Key Words and Terms

Suggested Pacing

Test Strategy

Key Concepts

• The Age of Napoleon
  Napoleon's rise to power—like a phoenix from the ashes of the French Revolution—was as much a product of his tremendous force of will as the confluence of circumstances. In evaluating Napoleon, one must take into account not only his rise, rule, and fall, but also the variety of personae he adopted over the years. Napoleon offered much to revolution-torn France: freedom from terror, nationalism, codification of the laws, and power on the Continent. However, because of his drive to bring power to both France and himself, France would tire of his megalomania and constant warfare, and he would be gone for good after the Hundred Days.
  
  
• Age of Romanticism
  Romanticism was an intellectual movement that influenced philosophy, art, literature, music, and architecture in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its characteristics included nationalism, strong emotions (melancholy, joy, pain, and so on), imagination, and religion. The Romantics analyzed both the natural and social worlds around them. This period was a direct reaction to the Enlightenment and its stress on the importance of reason as the philosophes analyzed their world.

Summing Up Student Understanding

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Aspects of Western Civilization, Vol. II, edited by Rogers—Chapter 3, Sections II and III