Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fichte

Napoleon's conquest of most of Europe can be compared with Alexander's conquests of much of Asia and parts of Africa. The spectacular military achievements were short-lived, but their cultural consequences were felt long after. After Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo, tired monarchies were restored throughout the continent; but their tenure was precarious, and many disappeared within the next half century. French armies had carried with them the slogans of the French Revolution; and even though, in Napoleon's Empire, liberty had given way to military despotism, equality had been overlain with a new aristocracy, and fraternity had never got beyond the Cain and Abel stage, the ideal of free democracy lived on as an aspiration throughout Europe. Moreover, sentiments of nationalism had been kindled in countries which had been attacked or oppressed by Napoleon's troops. In Italy and Germany, especially, men craved to replace a patchwork of superannuated local regimes with a single, strong, national power.