“The Napoleonic era was one of the most dramatic in European history. New ideas, social structures, military organizations, and, of course, exciting military campaigns, followed one another with bewildering rapidity. To many, and especially to modern students of those times, the drama that Napoleon brought with him was a breath of fresh air sweeping away the stagnation of the eighteenth century. By contrast, the period following the collapse of Napoleon's empire seems a dark and dreary time. Bounded on the one hand by the drama of the Napoleonic era and, on the other, by that of the revolutions of 1848, the period from 1815 to 1848 was characterized by attempts to restore the status quo ante by unimaginative ‘reactionary’ regimes, and by oppression, censorship, and persecution.”
— Frederick Kagan, The Military Reforms of Nicholas I: The Origins of the Modern Russian Army
