How did the allies fashion a peace settlement in 1815, and what radical ideas emerged between 1815 and 1848?

AAFTER FINALLY DEFEATING NAPOLEON, the conservative aristocratic monarchies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain — known as the Quadruple Alliance (see Chapter 22) — agreed to meet at the Congress of Vienna to fashion a lasting peace settlement. By carefully managing the European balance of power and embracing conservative restoration, they brokered an agreement that contributed to fifty years without major warfare in Europe (see Map 24.1).

In the years following the peace settlement, intellectuals and social observers sought to harness the radical ideas of the revolutionary age to new political movements. Many rejected conservatism, a political philosophy that stressed retaining traditional values and institutions. Radical thinkers developed alternative ideologies and tried to convince society to act on them.

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Adjusting the BalanceThe 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)