Concert of Europe

DH1 W6 Forces of Continuity &

Change
• Europe fought uninterrupted wars for
more than 20 years
• Revolutionary wars (1792-1799)
• Napoleonic Wars (1799-1814)
• Napoleonic France and shifting alliances
of other European Powers
• In most of them Napoleonic France
defeated other European Powers
• Was able to control continental
European states
• Napoleon produced a brief hegemony
over most of Europe
• Excluding Britain, Russia, Ottoman
Empire
Towards a durable peace in Europe…
• 6th coalition / Russia, Austria, Britain, Prussia
• Made an agreement in March 1814 Chaumont
• Treaty of Chaumont, March 1814
• Agreed to fight with Napoleon until he retreats to its
1792 borders of France
• Military alliance of the Britain, Austria, Russia, and
Prussia against France
• This treaty bound the signatories
• to overthrow Napoleon
• Then to remain in alliance for 20 YEARS
• In order to maintain the territorial and political
settlement after Napoleon was defeated
• They agreed to restore Bourbon Dynasty

• 6th coalition defeated Napoleon’s Empire

• Napoleon was defeated, abdicated the throne,
• sent to Elba
• The Treaty of Paris, May 1814
• After France was defeated and Napoleon
abdicated the throne
• The alliance signed the Treaty of Paris in May
1814
• French borders would be fixed at those of
1792
• Bourbon Dynasty was restored
• The treaty dealt only in general terms with
the European territories taken from France
• It ended with a provision that all Powers
engaged in war with France should send
representatives to the Congress of Vienna
to complete those arrangements
Vienna Congress, 1814
• It convened in September 1814
• All European Powers, victorious and defeated
ones as well as former belligerents were
invited
• The representatives of more than 200 European
polities
• They met to debate a new European order
• To try to establish a new and lasting order after
wars

• Though all were invited, real decision-making

power lied with the victorious 4:
• Russia, Britain, Austria and Prussia
• France would have to accept all decisions
• Ottoman Empire was not represented
 All of Europe sent its most important
statesmen
• Austria - Prince von Metternich
• Russia – Tsar Alexander I
• Prussia – Karl, Prince von
Hardenberg
• Britain – Lord Castleragh /
foreign minister
• France – Prince Charles Maurice
de Talleyrand
These major powers had different interests - they
were hoping to realize at least some of them….
• Austria
• Did not want Prussia and Russia to
acquire more territories
• Did not want Prussia to lead the
German states
• Wanted to pressure France and
wanted to keep northern Italy
• Wanted to be in charge of the
confederations of German and
Italian states
• Order in Europe
Britain
• Wanted to keep the colonies it acquired
from Dutch and French during the
Napoleonic Wars
• Wanted to have/preserve/restore a
BALANCE OF POWER in Europe
• It did not want Russia and Austria to be
more powerful
• It could support France against Austria to
keep this balance of power
• It did not want France to become more
powerful as well
• For these reasons it wanted to unite
Holland and Belgium against France
Russia
• Wanted to acquire Polish territories
• Return its attention to the Ottoman
Empire
• Remember the Russian Foreign Policy
of these times
• What were the main guidelines?

• Prussia
• Enlarge its territories towards Austria
and France
• Wanted Poland?
These interests of the major Powers were
clashing
• But still they tried to decide together
among themselves without letting small
European Powers and France take part
in the decision-making process

• France
• Wanted to leave the Congress with
minimum damage
• Defeated power
• Talleyrand did not want to accept that the
decisions were to be taken by the FOUR
• He was supported by small kingdoms and
duchies
• November 1814 = the Congress
still continued
• Russia invaded Poland
• Prussia invaded Saxony
• Talleyrand’s position became
important
• He supported Austria and
Britain // even made a secret
alliance with them in January 1815
Napoleon escapes from Elba….
• While the Congress was still going on with
these political games during day
• and concerts and balls during night
• Napoleon escaped from Elba
• He returned to France in March 1815
• The statesmen at Vienna left abruptly to fight
with Napoleon once more

• Napoleon was able to gather 150.000 men

• Allied armies comprised 794.000 troops
• Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in June
• He was sent to St Helena, South Africa

• Allied Powers were able to defeat Napoleon

Congress of Vienna, Sept. 1814- June 1815
• The Congress convened to deal with the territorial
settlement of Europe after Napoleon
• Since the Congress of Westphalia
• Convened in 1648 to discuss and settle territorial, political,
and religious issues of Europe
• Congress of Vienna was the first Congress that included
so many representatives from European states
• Congress of Vienna = A representative Congress to
consider issues of general European importance
• It ended in June 1815 with the Treaty of Vienna
• But more important than this Treaty:
• It initiated a CONGRESS SYSTEM
Congress of Vienna and the CONCERT OF
EUROPE
• It initiated a CONGRESS SYSTEM
• This Congress System was hoped
to embody and perpetuate the
idea of a CONCERT OF EUROPE

• CONCERT OF EUROPE
• An attempt to construct new
organizations for keeping peace
among the Great Powers of
modern Europe
The settlement »CONCERT OF EUROPE»
was embodied in 4 different arrangements
1. Treaty of Chaumont, March 1814
2. Treaties of Paris, May 1814 and November 1815
3. Treaty of Vienna, June 1815
4. The Quadruple Alliance, November 1815

And there is
5. The Holy Alliance, September 1815

Congress of Vienna // prepared a ground for the monarchs of the Great Powers that
despite their conflicting interests all wanted to restore the order in Europe
• 1. Treaty of Chaumont, March 1814
• Military alliance to defeat France
• Remain in alliance for the next 20
years
• Restore monarchy in France

• 2. The Treaties of Paris (1st one May

1814, 2nd one November 1815)
• 1st one when 6th alliance defeated
Napoleon
• France to retreat its 1792 borders
• 2nd one when Napoleon escaped from
Elba and was defeated at Waterloo
• The terms were severe, France to retreat
its 1790 borders
• Meant that it lost further strategic points
3. Treaty of Vienna, June 1815
• the Vienna Congress produced a whole
set of – mostly bilateral – treaties.
• But the conference also chose an
innovative form for its closing as its main
conclusions were formally laid down in a
general instrument, the Final Act of
Vienna of 9 June 1815
• Signed by 7 major Powers – which
concluded the Treaty of Paris in May 1814
• The settlement concerned the continent
as a whole
• intended to settle all outstanding issues
The settlement of Vienna and the network of bilateral agreements
following the Congress of Vienna were based on 3 principles

• 1. Building protection against

French aggression

• 2. Legitimism
• The monarchies were restored and
supported in Spain, France and Italy

• 3. BALANCE OF POWER
• A balance of territorial possessions
• No state should gain territory in
Europe without the agreement of
other states
 Balance of Power: a balance of territorial
possessions // territory = power
• Russian ambitions in Eastern Europe
• Were resisted by Britain and Austria
• German settlement
• included both Prussia and Austria in the new
confederation
• Bourbon and Habsburg princes were restored
• PERIODIC CONGRESSES were planned in which
5 major Powers would settle if any disputes
might arise
• The AIM was to keep a BALANCE among
themselves
• This balance would prevent any one of them from
dominating too large an area of Europe
Settlement of the old order
• This was a settlement of monarchs and
aristocrats of the OLD ORDER
• It was prepared with the spirit of the 18th
century
• Therefore it would have limited applicability in
the faster-moving World of 19th century

• Great European Powers // would be bound by

the agreements previously reached among
themselves
• AND
• They needed to reach a compromise between
the conflicting political interests
• Settlement of Vienna = Brought Europe nearly
half a century of comparative peace
 4. The Quadruple Alliance, November 1815
• The peacemakers realized that force
must be put behind the settlement if
it were to be preserved
• 4 allied Powers signed a further
treaty
• They pledged themselves to maintain
• The arrangements reached at
Chaumont, Paris and Vienna
• by force,
• for a period of twenty years,
• This created the CONCERT of EUROPE
Quadruple Alliance - Concert of Europe -
Periodic Congresses
• Periodic meetings
• Their representatives would meet
for the purpose of consulting upon
their common interest and for the
measures to maintain peace of
Europe
• Quadruple Alliance = periodic
congresses of the major Powers
• They would readjust the balance
of power and settle possible
disputes
 5. The Holy Alliance, Sep. 1815
• The rulers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria
• bound themselves in a Christian Union of
charity, peace, and love
• They undertook to consider themselves as
«the members of one and the same
Christian nation»
• They appealed to the Christian foundations
of European civilization
• They pledged to base their relationships
with other nations on Christian principles
• Tsar // wanted to revive religious faith in
reaction against the rationalism and
skepticism of the Enlightenment
• The Holy Alliance was supported by every monarch
except
• Britain
• Pope
• The Ottoman Sultan
• Acc to several historians it was an attempt to fight
with the growth of liberalism and also nationalism

• Metternich // the main motive of Austria and

Prussia in signing it was to please the Tsar
• It was unrealistic because it presupposed a
community of like-minded states…
• According to British it was overly ideological and
impractical
• Quadruple Alliance and the Congress System, on
the other hand, was more workable and realistic
• The Congress System of 1815 did not presuppose
a greater degree of unity and uniformity in
Europe than actually existed

• It provided a machinery for peaceful change by

means of periodic consultations btw greatest
Powers of Europe

• The misfortunate thing: this system would later

be manipulated by Prince Metternich
• For the conservative purpose of preventing change

• However this age was one that FORCES OF CHANGE

were rapidly gaining ground
• Forces of Change vs. Forces of Continuity
• 19th century ideological battles
Concert of Europe brought stability // absence
of war 1815-1854
Concert of Europe cont.
Concert of Europe cont.
Concert of Europe
A stable multipolarity – in the history of modern state system
Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia
poles balancing one another

European powers would not fight with each other (1815-1854)

But the 19th century marked by the struggle between forces of change and forces of continuity….

there would be revolutions and the Concert of Europe

• an instrument to protect the Old Order
• an instrument of forces of continuity
19th century dynamics… (D. Thomson,
Chps. 6-7)
Forces of Continuity Forces of Change
• 1. The Institutions of Monarchy • Europe had entered upon an era
• 2. The Church of rapid and fundamental change
• 3. The landowners
• 1. Growth of Population
• 4. The Popularity of Peace
• 2. Industrialization and
Urbanization
• 3. Nationalism
• 4. Political Ideals
The Forces of Continuity 1: The Institutions
of Monarchy
• Traditional and most accepted focus of
loyalty on the side of the order and
conservatism = a Monarch

• Monarchy = basic idea = hereditary right

gave the title to political power
• Late 17th cent. Europe added ‘absolutism’ to
the traditions and institutions of monarchy
• European kings and ministers crushed or by-
passed the limitations on royal power
• Feudal factions // local assemblies,
corporations // the Church
• Louis XIV
• 18th cent European monarchs imitated his
methods
• French Rev. Continued and attacked monarchy
and the Church
• Established a Republic, threatened to spread
these ideas throughout Europe
• Absolutism reacted against it
• Deep roots, traditions
• Vienna Congress, 1815
• Reestablished ‘the Order’ in Europe
• Absolute monarchy was given a new life
throughout Europe
• Monarchy was restored in Prussia, Germany,
Spain, Italy, France
• After 1815: a generation restored and revived
monarchy
The Forces of Continuity 2: The Church
• The revival of religious faith and the restoration of the
power of the Roman Catholic Church after 1815
• The Church had suffered from the attacks of the
French Revolution
• The civil constitution of the clergy
• Reduced the Church in France to the position of a
department of state
• Many members of the clergy were exiled
• Growth of state universities and schools
• The church lost most of its former grip over education
• By 1815 the Roman Catholic Church regained a
privileged position
• The Church increased its activities in Spain, Sardinia,
Bavaria, Naples
• influenced and penetrated into politics, administration
and education
• Church allied with monarchy
• Both were against change
 The Forces of Continuity 3: The Landowners
• Landowners were conservative =
wealth laid in their hands
• Land was still the most important
form of property and // source of
prosperity
• It carried the implicit right to social
importance and political power
• Land meant political power
• Landowners supported monarchy to
keep their political power, privileges
• They are conservative
• Between 1789 -1815 // Revolution in
France transferred landed property from
great landowners and Church to a number
of small property owners
• Napoleon gave a part of these lands to
people from middle class
• Soldiers, lawyers and bureaucrats
• Created a new Napoleonic aristocracy // they
served to his regime
• At restoration still unsold national lands were
returned to their former aristocratic owners
• By 1820 // old nobility took back half of their
lands === big enough to give them great
political power again
Forces of Continuity 4: The Popularity of
Peace
• 2 decades of recurrent war = they were war-weary
• Continental blockade / had affected the standards
of living throughout Europe
• People wanted peace / they were exhausted

• Though revolutions would take place

• Concert of Europe = would provide peace in the
period between 1815 and 1854
• 1815 – 1854// Absence of War
• There were enemies ‘within’ ?
• The revolutionary forces
• The monarchies would fight against forces of change
and forces of revolution
• They would maintain peace with the other European
Powers to turn their attention to these forces of
change
Forces of Change 1: Growth of Population

• 1950 // 540 million

• Increased 4-fold in two centuries
• The speed of this growth was a new phenomenon
• 1815-1914 // 40 million Europeans migrated to the other continents
• The US, Canada, Australia
• 1815 // population of Europe was only 200 million
• 1914 //460 million
Why such growth?
• Decrease in death rates // rather than increase in the birth rates
• More babies stayed alive longer
• Improvements in public order and security =
• stronger monarchies set up these throughout Europe since early 18th cent
• They ended civil and religious wars – prevented violence targeting ordinary people
• Relieved famine, plague, and destitution
• Advances in medical science
• endemic diseases were prevented
• Infant death rates fell, fewer mothers died in childbirth
• Food supplies improved
• Better transport networks prevented localized famine and food shortages
• Agricultural revolution increased food production
• Feeding of increased number of mouths could become possible
• Cheaper transport
Food reservoirs of the US, Canada and Australia reached to Europe
• The growth of population varied from one country to another
• Great Britain, pop. 18.5 mill. in 1811, doubled it in 1891
• France grew more slowly, pop. 29 mill. in 1806, 38.5 mill. in 1896
• Germany, 25 mill. in 1815, nearly 50 mill. in 1890
• Russia e.g= doubled in population in the 1st half of the 19th cent and doubled again in the 2nd half
• It tried to expand eastward to Asiatic Russia
• Pressured on South-eastern Europe

• With this remarkable demographic fact = 19th cent Europe

• Restless, explosive and prone to revolution

• No social and political order could stand intact //

• Restoration of old institutions and traditions would not be enough
Forces of Change 2: Industrialism and
Urbanism
• Industrialism began in Britain by
1760s and Western Europe by
1815
• Soon spread to Germany, Italy and
eventually to Russia
• Transformed Europe
• The basis of industrial revolution:
the application of steam power to
machinery for the purposes
• Of production
• and then of transport
• Machinery took the place of men’s
physical strength in doing/producing
things
• Mechanized industry= involved
urbanism

• People moved to cities to work in

factories/outlets
• They lived in overcrowded homes
• They overworked and were underpaid
• These conditions would create new
social problems
• Monarchical governments were
not suited to deal with these
kinds of problems
• Industrialization produced
greatest forces of change in
social life
• Created new problems that only
strong governments and efficient
administrations with general
popular support could solve
• At the same time, there was a
• growing class of enterprising traders,
manufacturers and financiers
• + new industrial proletariat
• The middle classes

• They wanted CHANGE

• The new wealth demanded greater political
representation and power
• Removal of restrictions and out of date laws, and
social recognition for the men who brought
employment to millions

• The result was a tide of liberal opinion against the

existing order
• An important force of change
• The industrialism also created the new wage
earning classes of the factories, mills, and
mines

• They wanted food to be cheap, trade

unimpeded, business to prosper

• Overcrowded labour market, bad living

conditions of the new industrial towns

• They would seek for state protection

• Forces of conservatism faced double demand:
• From the middle classes
• From the working-earners
 Forces of Change 3: Nationalism
• A Nation
• A community of people with a sense of belonging together //
built on
• Belief that they have a common homeland
• Experience of common traditions and historical development
• Napoleon’s conquests strengthened the ideas and feelings of
nationalism in
• Germany
• Italy
• Belgium,
• Spain
• Poland = Austria, Russia, Prussia, Russia
• Russia
• Napoleon’s Moscow expedition
• The next century
• These people + SEE+Balkans would be shaken by nationalist ideas
Forces of Change 4: Political Ideas:
Liberalism, Democracy, Socialism
• These ideologies were gaining
ground
• Masses, individuals were
learning these ideologies and
they were embracing them

• ISMs
• Concert of Europe was targeting
them // aimed to prevent them