The Political and Social Situation After 1815

With the French agreeing to the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (see Chapter 22), the four allies of the Quadruple Alliance — Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain — were lenient toward France after Napoleon’s abdication. The first Peace of Paris gave France the boundaries it possessed in 1792, which were larger than those of 1789, and France did not have to pay any war reparations.

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Adjusting the Balance The Englishman on the left uses his money to counterbalance the people that the Prussian and the fat Metternich are gaining in Saxony and Italy. Alexander I sits happily on his prize, Poland. This cartoon captures the essence of how the educated public thought about the balance-of-power diplomacy resulting in the Treaty of Vienna.(“La Balance Politique,” 1815, colored etching/Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany/© DHM/The Bridgeman Art Library)

When the Quadruple Alliance, along with representatives of minor powers, met together at the Congress of Vienna, they agreed to raise a number of barriers against renewed French aggression. The Low Countries — Belgium and Holland — were united under an enlarged Dutch monarchy capable of opposing France more effectively. Prussia received considerably more territory along France’s eastern border to stand as a “sentinel on the Rhine” against renewed French aggression. In these ways, the Quadruple Alliance combined leniency toward France with strong defensive measures.

In their moderation toward France, the allies were motivated by self-interest and traditional ideas about the balance of power. To the peacemakers, especially to Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859), Austria’s foreign minister, the balance of power meant an international equilibrium of political and military forces that would discourage aggression by any combination of states or, worse, the domination of Europe by any single state. The Quadruple Alliance members, therefore, agreed to meet periodically to discuss their common interests and to consider appropriate measures to maintain peace in Europe. This agreement marked the beginning of the European “congress system,” which lasted long into the nineteenth century.