ABSTRACT
IN 1826, FOR THE FIRST TIME, all of Europe was stirred by a distant cause, that of the Greeks. Some felt that military and financial help should be offered to a small and courageous nation seeking its freedom, while others saw it as a struggle of Christians against the despotic and bloodthirsty Turks. From Antwerp to Toulouse, from Saint Petersburg to Le Havre, a mobilized Europe was fired with passion and enthusiasm, that spirit of Schwärmerei (emotional turmoil and enthusiasm) so dear to German romanticism; and with this “crusade of humanity”—the expression was that of the duc de Choiseul—came radically new forms of staging protests. The ladies of Paris—that is, the women of the liberal upper class, the duchesses and bankers' wives—transposed the practice of collecting for charity onto a political plane; it was a practice that had up to that point been limited to salons or churches, or at best parishes, but had always been performed within the social context of their own neighborhoods. In Paris, Lyon, and Cologne, women even began to organize themselves; they did this on their own initiative, in stages, drawing both praise and sarcasm, but mobilizing to raise funds for a political cause was an innovative practice that indisputably brought them a new visibility.
