Congress of Vienna and the Concert of Europe
- Date
- September 1814 – June 1815
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Europe (Vienna)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
From late 1814 the great powers convened at Vienna under the guiding hand of the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich to reconstruct Europe after more than two decades of revolutionary and Napoleonic upheaval.
Joined by Britain's Castlereagh, Russia's Tsar Alexander I, Prussia and a rehabilitated France represented by Talleyrand, the assembled diplomats negotiated a comprehensive territorial and political settlement. Its Final Act, signed on 9 June 1815, redrew the map of Europe to restore a balance of power: France was returned to roughly its pre-war borders, Russia gained much of Poland, Prussia expanded in the west and into Saxony, and a German Confederation replaced the defunct Holy Roman Empire. Guided by principles of legitimacy and equilibrium, the settlement and the cooperative diplomacy it inaugurated, known as the Concert of Europe, helped preserve general peace among the major powers for much of the nineteenth century, even as it sought to contain the liberal and nationalist forces unleashed by the Revolution.
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Empires active in September 1814 – June 1815
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Britain abolishes the transatlantic slave trade25 March 1807
- The Slavery Abolition Act ends slavery across the British Empire28 August 1833 (in force 1 August 1834)
- The Revolutions of 1848 (the Springtime of Peoples)1848–1849
- Commodore Perry forces the opening of Japan1853–1854 (Treaty of Kanagawa, 31 March 1854)
- Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the birth of the British Raj1857–1858 (rebellion); Government of India Act 2 August 1858
- Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand and the Kingdom of ItalyMay–September 1860; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 17 March 1861
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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