Congress of Vienna

The time for change had come, Napoleon had been defeated, his whole empire was shattered. Therefore, the Congress of Vienna was held, rulers from all around the world came together in attempt to fix numerous problems. Well, what should people in power do when their power is threatened? One of the problems was redrawing the map of Europe, and their solution; maintain a balance of power where no country can dominate all the others. Another problem was establishing a new French leader, and the result; King Louis XVIII was re-established. One last problem they had to deal with was preparing for the possibility of future revolutions.

Metternich and the other people of power at the Congress of Vienna used the Holy Alliance and the Principle of Intervention to eliminate threats to their power. They saw these two concepts as a solution to prepare for the possibility of future revolutions. The Holy Alliance was initiated by Czar Alexander of Russia and stated that monarchs had divine right to rule. It also stated that any revolution was treason against God, therefore revolutions were a lot less likely to happen if they were considered as going against religion. The Principle of Intervention gave the great powers the right to send troops in to a country to stop revolutions and restore monarchs, having forces available to cease revolutions made it nearly impossible for them to even occur. England did not take part in either of these concepts.

In my opinion, the people at the Congress of Vienna made the right choice. I believe that they made the decisions that would benefit all people affected by Napoleons former mistakes. The "Balance of Power" was a good solution because it prevented from countries dominating others. And also re-establishing King Louis XVIII was an effective decision because under his rule, the Charter of 1814 was established which made France in to a constitutional monarchy with equality and rights. There might of been some instances where the people in power could have sacrificed some of their power. For example instead of using their power to stop revolutions and restore monarchs, they could have used their power to address the underlaying reasons for the revolutions and restore peace once and for all.

The Congress of Vienna by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1819.