Nineteenth-century nostalgia: between steam and cholera

The 19th century appeals, but it was a century of cholera and wars

The 19th century is the only one with an adjective of its own: "nineteenth-century". And yet, it was a century of cholera, typhus and civil wars. The paradox is that, right now, its aesthetics and early technology are generating a growing nostalgia. The steam engine, gas lighting, telegraphy, the postal service and incipient electricity sketch an image of pogre that is longed for today. Refined painting, the music of Wagner, Bizet or Verdi, and architecture many consider unsurpassed complete the picture.

The aesthetic and technological appeal

Some argue that the buildings of that era have a quality that today's cannot match. Cities, less congested than in the 20th century, and sea travel, more authentic and national, are cited as arguments. The Austro-Hungarian empire and the global dominance of the European powers, with England ahead of the United States, complete a vision of an ordered, hierarchical world. The word "nineteenth-century" evokes elegance, tea rooms and sugar companies run from Cuba while smoking a pipe.

The other side: a turbulent century

But reality was less kind. For Spain, the 19th century began with Napoleon and ended with the Disaster of '98, plagued by civil wars and corrupt politicians. Mortality from cholera, typhus or tuberculosis was the norm, and life expectancy did not reach 50 years. Those who study the era recommend Galdós's Episodios Nacionales (National Episodes, a series of historical novels) as a faithful portrait, even if it is historical fiction. Nostalgia is selective: the steam engine is remembered and cholera is forgotten.

Would you rather die of cholera at 40 or of Alzheimer's at 80? The question remains open.