The 'Concert of Europe' also known as the "'Congress System'" was the result of a custom, following the era of
Napoleon, adopted by the old
great powers of Europe of meeting from time to time in an International Conference, or
Congress, in order to plan a solution by mutual agreement (hence "concert"), whenever some problem arose that threatened peace between European nations. Its founding members were
Britain,
Austria,
Russia and
Prussia who were also members of the
6th Coalition (Quadruple Alliance) responsible for the downfall of
Napoleon I. The leading personalities of the system were British foreign secretary
Lord Castlereagh, Austrian Chancellor
Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and
Alexander I the Tsar of Russia.
The Concert of Europe lasted between 1814 and 1898 and in time assumed an official status of the type of the
League of Nations which, while not in itself an entity, was an informal organization of the nations of Europe ruled neverthless by the will of the majority.
Among the earlier meetings of the Powers, were the
Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), of
Aix-la-Chappelle (1818), Carlsbad (1819),
Verona (1822) and London in 1830. The Congress of Berlin in 1887 fully settled the
Eastern Question and raised the Concert of Europe to the status of the de facto government of the world. The British balance of power was in abeyance and there followed an era of stability where Germany engaged in no major conflict for 43 years. The Concert of Europe was laid to its final rest in the waters of
Manilla Bay on the morning of May 1, 1898. On August 13, the day after the
Spanish-American war had ended, the German fleet withdrew fully aware that the Concert of Europe had been superseded by "The New Order of Freedom".
The Congress System's first primary objectives were to
★ contain
France after decades of war
★ achieve a
balance of power between Europe's great powers
★ uphold the territorial arrangements made at the
Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 and in doing so
★ prevent the rise of another Napoleon-esque figure which would result in another continent wide war.
In this historians have generally agreed that they were successful as there was no major war pitting the Great Powers against each other until the
Crimean War forty years later, and France was successfully re-integrated back into Europe joining the alliance in 1818 at the
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. However after this success the Concert of Europe gradually fell apart mainly because of disagreements between the great powers, particularly between Britain and the countries with more conservative constitutions (who were also members of the
Holy Alliance). Despite the overall failure of the Congress System it marked an important step in European and World diplomacy. In its approximately 85 years life it had erected an imposing structure of
International Law.
History
The
French Revolution of 1789 spurred a great fear among the leading powers in Europe of the lower classes violently rising against the Old powers to solve the pressing issues (mainly suppressing revolutions against monarchs) at the time. However, the Congress System began to deteriorate with Britain removing itself and a bitter debate over the
Greek War of Independence. Even though one more Congress was held between the five major powers at
St Petersburg in 1825, the Congress system had already broken down. Despite that, the "Great Powers" continued to meet and maintained peace in Europe. It started a framework of international diplomacy and negotiation in a continent torn by war. One good example of this is in 1827 when the three of the Great Powers (Britain, France and Russia) joined in the
Battle of Navarino to defeat the
Ottoman Empire.
Varying perspectives
The Concert was divided throughout by the differing ideological perspectives of its principal participants. While the Continental powers sought to maintain the political ''status quo'' in Western and Central
Europe to the extent of armed intervention against revolutionary outbreaks which might threaten
conservative order, British statesmen from the 1820s pursued a less reactionary policy, notably in opposing any threat to the
revolutions against
Spanish and
Portuguese rule in Latin America. Britain similarly stood aside from the Continental monarchies' authorization of Austrian military intervention in the 1821 Italian
Carbonari insurrections and French intervention in
Spain in
1823. The
July Revolution of 1830 eroded the unity of the Continental powers by bringing France under a more liberal monarchy.
Results of the Concert
The Concert's principal accomplishments were the securing of the independence of
Greece (1830) and
Belgium (1831). In 1840 the powers (except France) intervened in defense of the
Ottoman Empire (against which they had supported Greece) to end
Egypt's eight-year occupation of
Syria.
Demise of the Concert
Fatally weakened by the European revolutionary upheavals of 1848 with their demands for revision of the Congress of Vienna's frontiers along national lines, the last vestiges of the Concert expired amid successive wars between its participants - the
Crimean War (1854-56), the
Italian War of Independence (1859), the
Austro-Prussian War (1866) and the
Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).
See also
★
Age of Metternich
★
Congress of Vienna
★
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)
★
Congress of Troppau
★
Congress of Laibach
★
Congress of Verona
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