Editing Alps (section)

=== The Romantics and Alpinists ===
[[File:Caspar David Friedrich 032.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wanderer above the Sea of Fog]] by [[Caspar David Friedrich]]]]
[[Albrecht von Haller]]'s poem ''Die Alpen'', published in 1732 described the mountains as an area of mythical purity.<ref>Beattie, (2006), 121–123</ref> [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] presented the Alps as a place of allure and beauty, in his novel ''[[Julie, or the New Heloise]]'', published in 1761. Later the first wave of [[Romanticism]] such as [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], and [[J. M. W. Turner]] came to admire the Alpine scenery;<ref>''Goethe en Suisse et dans les Alpes: Voyages de 1775, 1779 et 1797''</ref> [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] visited the area in 1790, writing of his experiences in ''[[The Prelude]]'' (1799). Schiller later wrote the play ''[[William Tell (play)|William Tell]]'' (1804), which tells the story of the legendary Swiss marksman [[William Tell]] as part of the greater Swiss struggle for independence from the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburg Empire]] in the early 14th century. At the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the Alpine countries began to see an influx of poets, artists, and musicians,<ref name="Fleming 2000, 83">Fleming (2000), 83</ref> as visitors came to experience the [[Sublime (philosophy)|sublime]] effects of monumental nature.<ref>Beattie, (2006), 125–126</ref>

In 1816, [[Lord Byron|Byron]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] and his wife [[Mary Shelley]] visited Geneva and all three were inspired by the scenery in their writings.<ref name="Fleming 2000, 83"/> During these visits Shelley wrote the poem "[[Mont Blanc (poem)|Mont Blanc]]", Byron wrote "[[The Prisoner of Chillon]]" and the dramatic poem ''[[Manfred]]'', and Mary Shelley, who found the scenery overwhelming, conceived the idea for the novel ''[[Frankenstein]]'' in her villa on the shores of Lake Geneva amid a thunderstorm. When [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] travelled to [[Chamonix]], he declaimed, in defiance of Shelley, who had signed himself "Atheos" in the guestbook of the Hotel de Londres near Montenvers,<ref>Geoffrey Hartman, [https://archive.today/20130415150259/http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/1/4.full "Gods, Ghosts, and Shelley's 'Atheos'"], ''Literature and Theology'', Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 4–18</ref> "Who would be, who could be an atheist in this valley of wonders".<ref>Beattie, (2006), 127–133</ref>

By the mid-19th century scientists began to arrive en masse to study the geology and ecology of the region.<ref>Beattie, (2006), 139</ref>

From the beginning of the 19th century, the tourism and mountaineering development of the Alps began. In the early years of the "[[golden age of alpinism]]" initially scientific activities were mixed with sport, for example by the physicist [[John Tyndall]], with the first ascent of the Matterhorn by [[Edward Whymper]] being the highlight. In the later years, the "[[silver age of alpinism]]", the focus was on mountain sports and climbing. The first president of the [[Alpine Club (UK)|Alpine Club]], [[John Ball (naturalist)|John Ball]], is considered the discoverer of the Dolomites, which for decades were the focus of climbers like [[Paul Grohmann]], [[Michael Innerkofler]] and [[Angelo Dibona]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Cliffhanger at the top of the world |author=Fleming, Fergus |date=November 3, 2000 |journal=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/nov/04/historybooks.books |access-date=January 3, 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414090959/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/nov/04/historybooks.books |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Gilles Modica "1865: the Golden Age of Mountaineering" (2016), pp 10.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dolomythos.com/de/lexikon/besteigung-berge.asp |title=Die Besteigung der Berge - Die Dolomitgipfel werden erobert (German: The ascent of the mountains - the dolomite peaks are conquered) |access-date=January 3, 2021 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124230906/https://www.dolomythos.com/de/lexikon/besteigung-berge.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>