The Napoleonic Empire and the Europe of Nations

The Shelley-Byron Circle and the Idea of Europe

“…42 Other problems, which now seem very contemporary, also emerged or became more intense at this time: difficulties of European nationalisms and conflict; questions about the geographical limits of Europe; the necessity of maintaining a "balance of power"; overtly imperial relations between Europe and the rest of the world. These enquiries became fused with earlier ideas about Europe as "a civilization superior to all others" and as a "commercially integrated community," creating new and influential tensions in nineteenth-century constructions of Europe.…”