1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2009
Summary
This book is concerned with borderlands and transitions. Geographically, it examines a region bordering Germany and France; chronologically, it spans the Old Regime, French Revolution, Napoleon and Restoration. Two reasons justify this focus. First, the Rhineland experienced with unique intensity episodes that shaped modern Germany: the Enlightenment, French Revolution, Napoleon, Prussian reform movement and industrialisation. Each contributed to the development of the state. Second, the modern state that eventually triumphed represented only one of several competing forms that for centuries had co-existed in Europe. Alternatives – the city state, the ecclesiastical state and universal empire – remained uniquely strong and able to command allegiances in the Rhineland until the late eighteenth century, when they were finally overthrown by outside forces. The transformation was completed in a generation.
The Rhineland was especially exposed to the French Revolution. This swept away old structures and created the modern state with its absolute claims to sovereignty. In itself, the state's triumphant progress is a familiar story, often recounted in different contexts. The eventual outcome never appears in doubt, despite resistance and continuities that persist for several generations before succumbing. Yet, such an account is incomplete. It represents the centre's perspective, epitomised by Napoleon's interior minister who impatiently expected government commands to flow to every locality with electric speed. It dismisses opposition as futile and obstructive to progress. It ignores that politics in Germany at least remained primarily local until the late nineteenth century. It ascribes to the locality the status of victim.
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- From Reich to StateThe Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780–1830, pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003