Scandinavia in the Revolutionary Era, 1770-1815

FAIN: FA-11850-77

H. A. Barton
Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL 62901-4302)

A study of the Danish-Norwegian and the Swedish-Finnish kingdoms in the Revolutionary Era, which marks the beginning of experiments in enlightened despotism in this area and the breakthrough of the spirit and principles of the Enlightenment in the North. Reforms during the decades following 1770 laid the basis for Scandinavia's economic development and for a society based upon accomplishment rather than birth during the 19th and 20th centuries. Meanwhile, the Nordic lands were highly sensitive to the revolutionary agitation in the Western world from the 1770's onward which stimulated indigenous movements, both radical and reactionary in nature. Scandinavia was also profoundly influenced by the Napoleonic conflict.