Actually, the historical and literary trend of Romanticism is so richly explored in textbooks on Romanticism with its fields such as philosophy, politics, literature, art, music etc. that it is much more relevant to the question of reading excellent specialist articles about it in well-known encyclopaedias than to ask them here in RG. In RG you can get much better answers, if you ask more concrete questions from the state of your knowledge. Because if it is just a repetition of what you find in good literature overviews anyway, it has been for nothing for both sides.

Romanticism in Europe is an immediate reaction or better (aesthetic counter-reaction and much more) to the French Revolution, but of course there were currents of the times and individual intellectual greats who already expressed ideas before 1789 that led in this direction. The basic motifs of sensitivity prepared by Romanticism are continued in the bourgeoisie with the idea of "longing into the distance" (including the distant past and that of other countries; the fairy tales, especially those from the rediscovery of the Middle Ages, the first interest in the collection of fairy tales and folk mythology, the new view on children as beings of high dignity (divinity) founding the national idea - see the philosophy of Fichtes - No, I notice that what I say spontaneously is much better and more differentiated in the technical literature. Please ask exact things.

Hi, I recommend you the book The Court Society of Norbert Elias, the chapter where he follows the genesis of the aristocratic romanticism, it may give you some clues concerning your question.

I will try to give you some clues of my own. The political revolutions in late 18th century and 19th century, added to the older scientific revolution that got accelerated during the 18th century (in the period known as the Enlightenment), meant very deeply and unknown changes in all spheres of existence of modern societies. This deep and unknown changes produced a lot of uncertainty. In a way, they planted the conditions for some already existing romantic attitudes and ideas at the time (which were already quite critique to this changes and the uncertainty they brought) to be widely spread on society. This means that Romantic attitudes were not fabricated during the period we know as Romanticism, although Romanticism did develop them, made them way more complex. Some typical romantic attitudes can be already found in the ancien regime (you can see this, for instance, in the emergence of the "romain pastoral" during the 16th century, or in the philosophy of Rousseau in the 18th century, and also in the paintings of Antoine Watteau, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, etc.).

Now, regarding the ideals of 19th century Romanticism, it seems to me that an important one appeared as a very strong reaction against the acceleration of secularization in the understanding of nature in 18th century. Some of the precursors of the german romantic movements in late 18th century philosophy, like Johann Herder and even Goethe, still tried to face the destabilization that natural sciences brought into understanding of the nature by spiritualizing it, this is, by attributing nature a mind-like foundation, by considering it as a mind-like entity. You can find this in the panteism that characterized the first wave of Romantic painters and philosophers. Painters like Caspar David Friedrich followed this path. The Naturphilosophie of Friedrich Schelling did it also. One can even find this kind of attribution to nature in Schopenhauer, who saw the univers as "will" !

I hope this helps you.

Greetings !

You should read first some books by Isiah Berlin on the topic.

The key issue in Romanticism is the shift of priority from Reason to Feeling. You can observe this trend in art, politics, and history of historiography. If you want more precise information, please ask.

Best regards.