Success or Failure?

This past week in our honors history class we learned about the Congress of Vienna. The essential question is what should people in power do when there power is threatened? The man in power of Austria was Klemens Von Metternich. He held a crucial role of power because there was tension between France and Austria, and tempers were raging all over Europe. In class we watched a video of a conversation between Metternich and Napoleon. In this video Napoleon asked for peace, but Metternich wanted him to restore the natural boundaries. Napoleon was appalled by this request and threatened war. Secondly, we analyzed a map which showed the spread of revolutions across Europe.

Klemons Von Metternich

After all the chaos the Congress of Vienna was called to meet. Representatives from United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, and Russia met in Vienna to restore peace to Europe. The first thing they had to do was decide how reset the borders. Once this was done they faced several new problems. These problems included,  Balance of Power, Principle of Legitimacy, Holy Alliance, and Principal of Intervention. The Congress did not exactly solve these problems quickly. Vienna was a very beautiful and lively city so naturally the men enjoyed that by going out and drinking and partying. For that reason they were not extremely productive most of the time. The main problem I will focus on is the Principle of Intervention. This is principle was put in place to limit revolutions around the continent because one revolution leads to another and another. The principle of Intervention meant that any great power could send their troops into another country to extinguish any revolution happening there. The intruding country did not need permission to insert themselve into harms way. Not everyone was crazy about this idea because some people don't want foreign countries barging in. More Info

I believe that the way European powers handled the threat to power by assembling the Congress of Vienna was a good solution. I believe that the result of the Congress of Vienna was more of a success than it was failure. After the congress there was not major wars in Europe for the remainder of the 19th century. I feel that powerful people should be willing to sacrafice some of there power if that is what is better for the country, but unfortunately there are few people back then, and today who are willing to do so.