The Congress of Vienna (1815)
After Jean-Baptiste Isabey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Napoleonic Wars ended with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, bringing an end to France's continuous conflict with the rest of Europe that had lasted since 1789.

After Napoléon's defeat, delegates from all the major powers of Europe met together in the Congress of Vienna to discuss the best way to preserve peace. From the delegates' perspective, the French Revolution had sent the country on a bloody 25-year rampage that resulted in millions of deaths; clearly, the French idea of unlimited "liberty" was a dangerous one that could quickly get out of hand. Understandably, then, "liberalism" and "republicanism" were dirty words at the Congress. The delegates tried to return to the status quo and create a balance of powers among Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia. The architect of this plan was the Austrian foreign minister, Prince Klemens von Metternich, who wanted each country strong enough to defend itself, but no one of them so strong it could challenge the others.

The delegates redrew the map of Europe. The Dutch Republic and Belgium became respectively independent from France and Austria, forming a new United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The former German territories of the Holy Roman Empire became independent states loosely organized under the German Confederation. The Bourbon monarchy was restored in France under King Louis XVIII (Louis XVII having been the son of Louis XVI who died in prison at the age of 10. In the delegates' view, however, he had automatically become king when his father was guillotined, notwithstanding the French Republic's "abolition of the monarchy.") To strengthen Austria, Prussia, and Russia, the territory of Poland was essentially carved up among them. Prussia took control of western Poland, as well as a large portion of the German state of Saxony. Russia gathered expansive new territories in eastern Poland. Austria took control of southern Poland, as well as Lombardy and Venice in northern Italy.