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War This is not a good time to be travelling around Europe if your personal safety comes high on your list of priorities. Two decades of war leave few countries unscathed and as many as a million people die in battle, with many more left destitute, homeless and starving. Armies 'march on their stomach', as Napoleon puts it, and they fill their stomachs wherever they can, living off what they can find as they move from place to place. The English general Wellington is known to flog or even hang his soldiers for looting during the Peninsular War, but the usual rule is that travelling armies take whatever they want wherever they happen to be. Time travellers are unlikely to be made exceptions. Press gangs Vast numbers of people are being pressed into military service – as many as two million in France. And conscription does not necessarily apply only to subjects of the countries concerned. The British navy, in particular, is fond of stopping ships of all nations, seizing the cargoes and 'pressing' their passengers into joining their own crews. Never mind that 'press-ganging' is only meant to apply to British sailors found aboard foreign vessels: anyone who seems suitable is likely to be so treated. Disease If the war doesn't get you, the chances are that disease will. Life expectancy across Europe is no more than about 35-45 years. Child mortality rates of at least one in five (one in three in rural areas) are commonplace. Cholera, tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid and smallpox – despite Jenner's discovery of smallpox vaccine in 1796 – are all prevalent. Syphilis is widespread. Even plague, for which there is no known cure, is still a risk in remoter parts: Napoleon's army in Egypt suffered badly as a result of outbreaks in 1798-1801. Crime Crime is also rampant. Napoleon's Gendarmerie, a paramilitary police force recruited from the army, has largely eradicated banditry in the French countryside (as well as royalist and other counter-revolutionary forces). But elsewhere in Europe there is nothing resembling a modern police force. Highwaymen and bandits are common; and the absence of any form of street lighting (apart from the new gas lamps in London) makes going out after dark a major hazard in any town or city. Prejudice Time travellers should also be aware that ignorance and prejudice is still the norm throughout Europe. Despite the radical ideas of liberty and equality that swept the continent in the aftermath of the French Revolution, no one seems to be suggesting that these should apply to women. Lone women travellers are still liable to be looked at askance. And although Britain bans trade in slaves in 1807, the slave trade – which saw some 2,300,000 people shipped to the New World during the latter half of the 18th century – still continues. Black travellers should beware of being mistaken for escaped slaves. Religion As for your religious beliefs, don't forget that religious differences are still the cause of fierce divisions in Europe. Don't make the mistake of following Protestant practices in Catholic areas or vice versa. There's even the Inquisition to look out for in Spain, until it is abolished by Napoleon in 1808. |
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