Question

1. What was the "Concert of Europe" intended to accomplish? Why did it largely disintegrate in the decade following 1815?

Answer 1

After the Congress of Vienna, the Concert of Europe, also known as the Congress System or the Vienna System, was a dispute resolution system adopted by Europe's major conservative powers to maintain their power, combat revolutionary movements, weaken nationalist forces, and retain power balance. It developed out of the Vienna Congress. From the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) to the early 1820s, it served in Europe.

The Concert of Europe was established by the forces of Austria, Prussia, the Russian Empire, and the United Kingdom, representatives of the Quadruple Alliance that defeated Napoleon and his First French Empire. France was formed as a Concert's fifth member in time. At first, British foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh, Austrian chancellor Klemens von Metternich, and Russia's Tsar Alexander I were the leading figures of the process. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord of France was largely responsible for the rapid return of the country to its position in international diplomacy alongside the other major powers.

The Concert of Europe had no written rules or permanent bodies, but a conference could be held in times of crisis by any of the member countries. These included: Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Carlsbad (1819), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), Verona (1822), London (1832) and Berlin (1878). To Castlereagh, the Quadruple Alliance was only the revival of the Chaumont Treaty directed toward France. Europe's concert broke up the irreconcilable differences of constitutional outlook and the lack of any accepted standards of public faith on the divergent interests of the forces. The powers decided that peace must be preserved, but on the issue which threatened peace they were not agreed.

It was great that Europe's Concert ended. Had that persisted, there would be a serious defeat from the nationalist and democratic powers in Europe. By first denouncing and then quitting the show, Great Britain made a great service to the cause of patriotism and constitutionalism.