The Napoleonic Wars
Despite its improving domestic position, Denmark found itself once again embroiled in the mire of international power struggles with the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815). Denmark at first reluctantly sided with the League of Armed Neutrality - Russia, Sweden and Prussia - in an attempt to stay out of the conflict between expansionist Britain and revolutionary France. Considering the treaty potentially hostile, the British sent a fleet under admirals Nelson and Parker to Copenhagen in 1801, damaging the powerful Danish navy and forcing them to withdraw from the agreement. In 1807 the British returned, worried that Napoleon's advancing armies would take over the newly rebuilt Danish fleet if they didn't, and demanded Danish surrender. When Christian VII refused, the British blockaded the city, subjecting it to a murderous three-day bombardment before towing away what was left of the Danish fleet. Denmark understandably rejected the subsequent British offer of an alliance, siding instead with France. With the eventual defeat of the French, however, the luckless Danes were left bankrupt and without allies, and Norway had to be handed over to Sweden as payment for war debts. Despite this terrible beginning to the century, by the 1830s Copenhagen had recovered, becoming the centre of the Danish Golden Age . For two decades the nation's arts flourished as never before (or since): Hans Christian Andersen charmed the world with his colourful fairy tales, while Søren Kirkegaard scandalized it with his philosophical works. At the same time, the nation's visual arts reached new heights under the auspices of sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and C.W. Eckersberg, who led the emergence of the first specifically Danish school of painting. From this period date many of the city's most notable Neoclassical buildings, such as Christiansborg Slotskirke, the Domhus (Law Courts) and Vor Frue Kirke. Social changes were in the air too. In the early nineteenth century, the theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig developed a new form of Christianity which aimed to draw its strength and inspiration from the people - a precursor of liberal traditions to come - while the example of the French revolution of 1848 forced Frederik VII to relinquish absolute rule and hand over power to the National Liberal Party. The first Danish constitution was drawn up and signed, transforming the country at a stroke from one of the most autocratic to one of the most liberal in Europe. In 1856, Copenhagen's fortifications were demolished, finally allowing the cramped city to expand beyond its medieval limits and sowing the seed for the new industrial era. Railways, factories and shipyards began to change the face of the city, and Copenhagen gradually developed into a thriving manufacturing centre, while the new working-class districts of Nørrebro and Vesterbro were flung up, with Copenhagen's workers packed into slum tenements which would subsequently become hotbeds of left-wing politics. The second half of the nineteenth century also saw the establishment of the Carlsberg Brewery on the then desolate Valby Bakke, along with the rapid growth of the Royal Danish Porcelain factory and the founding of the city's two main department stores - the Magasin du Nord and Illums - two of the growing number of recreational possibilities available for the city's aspiring bourgeoisie, which also included the newly constructed Royal Theatre on Kongens Nytorv and the recently established city zoo.
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