Game Groups > Setting: Belle Époque

A transitional period in history, which started in the late 19th century (roughly 1870s) and ended with World War I, thus occurring during the last years of the Victorian era, the Edwardian era (UK), the Gilded Age (USA), the final tumultuous years of the Qing Dynasty (China), the final phase of the imperial regime before the October Revolution (Russia), and the rapid modernization that came with the Meiji Restoration (Japan).

As it was a time of great technological advancements and relative stability (at least in the West), people anticipated something new to come, while others feared the end of a century (fin de siècle). Sail ships giving way to steam ships, introduction of telephone, automobile, phonograph/gramophone, first airships and soon the first airplane flight! Sensational moving pictures available to the masses via travelling cinemas! Art Nouveau, modernism, cabaret (Moulin Rouge!), electric light, Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin... remember that lady in a fancy hat you saw while travelling on the Orient Express?

Related Game Group

• Fictional character: Sherlock Holmes