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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

The Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna by Jean-Baptiste Isabey

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.

Europe in 1815

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 Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian delegate, 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 Netherlands and Belgium became respectively independent from France and Austria. 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, of course, was the 10-year-old son of Louis XVI, who in the delegates' view, despite the Republic's "abolition of the monarchy," had automatically became king when his father was guillotined.) Prussia annexed Saxony and western Poland. Russia gathered expansive new territories in eastern Poland. Austria took control of Lombardy and Venice in northern Italy, and also southern Poland. (There was a little bit of Poland left in the middle, called "Congress Poland," and for their new King they got... the Tsar of Russia! Dzięki wszystkim!)

Open-Ended Question

Is a balance of powers a good model for maintaining peace?