Europe after the Napoleonic Wars was governed by restored monarchies but repeatedly challenged by liberal, national and democratic movements. Revolutions in 1830 and 1848, the unification of Italy and Germany, and changing imperial rivalries altered the political map while industrialisation transformed cities, labour and communication.
Newspapers, cheap print, political clubs and expanding literacy made public opinion more powerful, but also allowed forged documents, racial theories and conspiracy claims to circulate widely. Nationalism could support liberation and constitutional government while also encouraging exclusion, antisemitism and political violence.
Umberto Eco’s The Prague Cemetery uses this world to connect Italian nationalism, French political upheaval, espionage and the manufacture of antisemitic conspiracy. The period supports fiction about revolutionaries, secret police, journalists, forgers, exiles and individuals who turn new media into instruments of power.