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5 - In search of military repose: the Congress of Vienna and the making of peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Richard Hart Sinnreich
Edited by
Williamson Murray  and
Jim Lacey
Williamson Murray
Affiliation:
United States Naval Academy, Virginia
Jim Lacey
Affiliation:
Institute of Defense Analyses, Virginia
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Summary

Whether or no one adopts the determinist view of history, whether or no one believes that events are influenced by individuals or individuals by events, it must be recognized that the combinations of circumstances are governed as much by invisible as by visible factors, as much by the unapparent as by the apparent.

In September 1814, with Napoleon exiled to Elba and a Bourbon king installed once more on the throne of France, rulers and diplomats from virtually every European state and principality assembled in Vienna, capital of a diminished but still formidable Habsburg Empire, summoned by the victorious Allies to help settle political and territorial issues resulting from a quarter century of revolutionary and military upheaval.

This chapter offers only the barest sketch of the Congress of Vienna and the events that framed it. What took place in 1813–1815 among Napoleon's former allies and enemies – often one and the same – reflected a bewildering tangle of issues, interests, and personalities defying brief description. Nevertheless, the chapter's purpose is not to narrate that convoluted history in detail. Rather, it seeks through an examination of the Congress and what followed to address a question with more contemporary relevance: How did those who gathered in Vienna from September 1814 through June 1815 manage despite daunting obstacles to negotiate, still more actually implement, a settlement that effectively prevented great power conflict in Europe for nearly forty years and contained it for another sixty years thereafter?

Type
Chapter
Information
The Making of Peace
Rulers, States, and the Aftermath of War
 , pp. 131 - 159
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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References

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