An intricate artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that began in Western Europe during the mid-18th Century, became significantly influentual during the Industrial Revolution until the early 19th Century. Romanticism existed in part as a rejection of aristocratic social and political conditions of the Age of Enlightenment and as a counterpoint to rational thought and the scientific method.

Romanticism was an attempt to return to instinct and spirituality and belief in the "sublime" and indoctrinates strong emotional reactions as a result of its aesthetic execution on art and literature. Sensuality and raw limbic behavior were core qualities of the Romantic subject matter.

Nationalism was also an important theme in Romantic art, literature, philosophy and politics.