Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as aesthetic experiences), the individual imagination as a critical authority (which permitted freedom within or from classical notions of form in art), and overturning of previous social conventions, particularly the position of the aristocracy. There was a strong element of historical and natural inevitability in its ideas, stressing the awe of "nature" in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature.