Denmark and Norway after Denmark-Norway

Abstract

During the last two decades there has been a growing tendency among international scholars to paint a more variegated picture of the national, political and social upheavals and of developments that can be traced back to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The historian Michael Broers speaks of a ‘New Napoleonic History’ in which Napoleon’s Empire is the focal point of scholarly attention that has provided new insights not only into the nature and effects of Napoleon’s imperialism but also into how Europeans reacted to the empire. This has constituted a fundamental challenge to a wide range of traditional historical interpretations and has exploded a number of myths. For example, neither Germany’s Wars of Liberation against France in 1813–15 nor the hostilities in areas such as Spain and Italy are any longer considered broad national uprisings.¹