Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: the ‘whig’ and ‘tory’ interpretations
- PART 1 THE IDEOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- PART 2 THE PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- 5 Order and change in the international system, 1815–1990
- 6 From balance to concert, 1815–1854
- 7 Balance without concert, 1856–1914
- 8 Concert without balance, 1918–1939
- 9 From concert to balance, 1945–1990
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Balance without concert, 1856–1914
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: the ‘whig’ and ‘tory’ interpretations
- PART 1 THE IDEOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- PART 2 THE PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER
- 5 Order and change in the international system, 1815–1990
- 6 From balance to concert, 1815–1854
- 7 Balance without concert, 1856–1914
- 8 Concert without balance, 1918–1939
- 9 From concert to balance, 1945–1990
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the previous chapter, the case was presented that in the second half of the nineteenth century, international relations came to be characterised by a return to pure and simple balance-of-power calculations and this was made the basis of the view that the Concert of Europe ceased to function during this period as, in our definition, the Concert of Europe represented an important departure from balance-of-power policies. In this chapter an attempt will be made to try to demonstrate in what ways the European powers developed a style of international relations that differed appreciably from that which had existed in the first half of the nineteenth century.
This does not mean that there are no continuities between the two periods. On the contrary, there is a striking continuity in terms of the concern about domestic politics and fears of liberalism and nationalism, certainly on the part of the Habsburg and Prussian monarchies. Indeed, paradoxically, historians have suggested that the revolutionary redrawing of the Vienna settlement in mid-century was, itself, ultimately a conservative development with long-term reactionary implications. As suggested by two authors
Few of them acknowledged that the old order between states had now been sacrificed to maintain the old order within states. Yet there can be no doubt that both Cavour and Bismarck intended the revolutionary characters of their foreign policies to conceal the conservative nature of their domestic policies.
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- Information
- The Hierarchy of StatesReform and Resistance in the International Order, pp. 131 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989