Romanticism exerts the strongest influence on the Polish national consciousness.

The artistic element of nineteenth-century European culture, the Romantic movement is a natural partner of political nationalism, for it echoes the nationalist sympathy for folk cultures and manifests a general air of disdain for the conservative political order of post-Napoleonic Europe.

Under this influence, Polish literature flourishes anew in the works of a school of nineteenth-century Romantic poets, led by Adam Mickiewicz.

Mickiewicz concentrates on patriotic themes and the glorious national past.

Frederic Chopin (1810-49), a leading composer of the century, also uses the tragic history of his nation as a major inspiration.

Nurtured by these influences, nationalism awakens first among the intelligentsia and certain segments of the nobility, then more gradually in the peasantry.

At the end of the process, a broader definition of nationhood has replaced the old class-based " gentry patriotism" of Poland.