In the half century after Waterloo, many changes took place in the political boundaries and population distribution of Europe. The French and Napoleonic revolutions created new conditions that challenged the leaders of Europe gathered at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. Delegates had to construct a peace settlement that digested the political and social transformations that had taken place in the previous quarter century and anticipate the new demands created by those changes. They redrew the state borders and redefined the spheres of influence. The geopolitical structure they created and the surface order that resulted endured until 1848. A wave of revolutions spread across the continent in that year and put an end to the structure created at Vienna. The revolutionaries, because of their conflicting goals, failed to turn their ideals into state policy. After 1848, continental politics would be built on the basis of realpolitik, that is, realism in politics. Realpolitik disregards theory or idealism and emphasizes the practical application of power to gain state goals, no matter the damage to ethics or morality.

The European map changed once again as Cavour consolidated Italy and Bismarck united Germany. Once Napoleon was "safely" exiled to Elba, representatives of all the European powers, except the Ottoman Empire,gathered in September at Vienna. They had the imposing task of building a new political and diplomatic structure for Europe after a quarter century of wars and revolutions. The factor that had brought the British, Prussians, Austrians, and Russians together - Napoleon - was gone, and wartime unity dissolved into peacetime pursuit of self- interest. Work went slowly during the ten-month span of the Congress of Vienna. The leaders who gathered at Vienna - Lord Castlereagh of Great Britain, Count von Hardenberg of Prussia, Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Prince Charles Maurice de Talleyrand of France - met in small secret conferences to decide the future of Europe. Metternich came to dominate the conference, as much by his diplomatic skills as by his ability to impress on the participants the need for stability.

The Congress dealt with numerous issues: the status of France, the new political boundaries, the response to liberal and national attitudes sweeping the continent, the fate of those powers who had lost territory during the previous twenty-five years, and the future of dispossessed dynasties. The solutions proposed were moderate ones. France was allowed to return to its 1792 boundaries; however, after Napoleon's return and the One Hundred Days, the allies cut back the boundaries and imposed penalties. They virtually ignored the democratic, liberal, and nationalistic forces in favor of a more traditional solution to the upheavals of the past twenty-five years. The events since 1789 had drastically altered the map of Europe. For example, the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire had disappeared. In an attempt to restore some balance, the Congress followed four principles: legitimacy, encirclement of France, compensation, and balance of power. The Congress ruled that royal houses that had been expelled, such as the Bourbons in France, Spain, and Naples, the House of Savoy in Sardinia-Piedmont, and the House of Orange in Holland, would bereplaced on their thrones. The redrawn map of Europe resembled the 1789 configuration, except that the Holy Roman Empire remained dissolved. In its place were the thirty-nine states of the German Confederation, dominated by Austria. The redrawing of boundaries created a protective belt of states around France to make future aggression more difficult. The principle of compensation assured that no important power suffered a loss as the result of the Congress' work. Austria was compensated for the loss of the Austrian Netherlands by gaining territory in Italy and along the Adriatic. Sweden received Norway in return for permitting Russia to keep Finland. The desire to construct an effective balance of power remained at the center of the Congress' attention. Each power, however, had its own idea of what constituted a proper balance. Russia's ambitions in Poland almost broke up the conference: Britain believed that an enlarged Russia threatened peace. Prussia wanted all of Saxony: Austria feared a growing Prussia. While the four wartime allies split, the clever French representative, Talleyrand, negotiated a secret treaty among the French, Austrians, and British that pledged mutual assistance to restrain the Russians and Prussians. Russia and Prussia eventually reduced their demands for land in Poland and Saxony, and the sought-after balance of power was achieved.

Although the Congress has received criticism for ignoring the growth of liberty, equality, and fraternity in Europe, it has received praise for finding a general settlement of a complex series of problems, especially from scholars who favorably compare its work to that of the victorious allies at Versailles after World War I. The representatives were not totally, blindly reactionary: many of the changes of the previous twenty-five years were retained. The forty years of general peace that followed, flawed though they may have been, are testimony to the success of Metternich and his colleagues in gaining stability. But, by ignoring the forces of change, the representatives at Veinna ensured the ultimate failure of the system they created. The Vienna negotiators set out to coordinate their policies to maintain stability. The first proposal for postwar consultation was symbolic and quixotic. In the fall of 1815, Tsar Alexander I proposed the formation of a Holy Alliance to be based on "the precepts of justice, Christian charity, and peace." No one was quite sure what the tsar meant by this pact, but every ruler in Europe signed it, except the British king, the Turkish sultan, and the pope. Castlereagh dismissed the Holy Alliance as "a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense." In November 1815 Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain signed the Quadruple Alliance - to become the Quintuple Alliance when France joined in 1818. Under this agreement the powers pursued their goals through what came to be known as the Congress System,or the Concert of Europe, a Europe-wide network to maintain order, peace, and stability. This was the first truly functional experiment in collective security. The Congress System's dedication to the 1815 status quo was challenged in 1820 and 1821 by nationalistic and liberal revolts in the Germanies, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Latin America. The most violent revolutions occurred in Spain and Italy. Spanish liberals rebelled against the misgovernment of the restored Bourbon King Ferdinand VII, and their insurrection spread to the army, which mutinied. The general uprising that followed forced the king to give into the liberals' demands for a constitution and representative government. The Spaniards' success sparked rebellions in Naples and Sicily, governed by the Neapolitan Bourbon King Ferdinand I. The Italian revolt ran much the same path as that in Spain, and with much the same result - a constitution based on the Spanish model. Metternich arranged for the Congress allies to meet at Troppau in 1820, Laibach in 1821, and Verona in 1822 to deal with the uprisings. Ferdinand I came to Laibach, supported Congress System intervention, and reneged on granting a constitution; Austrian troops invaded Italy and placed him back on his throne. In 1822 the Congress allies met to consider the Spanish problem, and the French volunteered to restore the status quo. They sent their armies in to crush the liberals. The repression of the revolts in Spain and Italy marked the high point of the Congress System's success. Britain began its withdrawal from the continent into "splendid isolation" in 1820, and the ardent support of British liberals for the 1821 Greek revolt against the Turks further weakened London's interest in cooperating with its former allies. When the Congress System discussed restoring the Spanish king's authority in Latin America, the British objected. Further, U.S. President James Monroe in 1823 warned the Europeans that their intervention into the western hemisphere would be regarded as an unfriendly act. By the middle of the decade the Congress system had withered to an Austrian-Russian alliance in which Metternich set the agenda and the Russians acted as the "gendarme of Europe."
 

1. Prussia was given two-fifths of Saxony, and Russia received most of the grand duchy of Warsaw. Prussia received the remainder of the grand duchy.

2. Ultimately Belgium was given to the Netherlands

3. Prussia received the Rhineland and Westphalia

4. Nice and Savoy went to Sardinia

5. Lombardy and Venetia were given to Austria

6. A loose German Confederation was established primarily for defensive purposes with both Prussia and Austria having primary influence. Austria eventually gained significant influence as an Austrian always chaired the group.

7. Switzerland was neutralized under international guarantee

8. Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in exchange for Lauenburg

9. Legitimate dynasties were restored in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

10. Britain received control of the Ionian Islands

11. Prussia received control of most of Emden, Osnabruchk Minden and Brunswick

12. Genoa was given to Piedmont where a Bourbon (France) was placed on the throne

13. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies remained under French influence as a Bourbon was returned to the throne

14. Venice became part of Austria as well as the Dalmation province.

15. An Austrian Hapsburg was placed on the throne of Parma, Modena, Lucca and Tuscany