Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | The Concert of Europe System (Lecture 14)

Lecture 14: This lecture focuses on the operation of the Concert of Europe system constructed at the Congress of Vienna. It covers the years from 1815 to 1848 and details the mystical, religious notion of a Holy Alliance as a conservative bloc within the Concert of Europe, which occasioned anxieties for Great Britain. We devote special attention to the periodic international congresses that convened under the auspices of the Concert of Europe system and their determined efforts to stamp out what they considered the dark and dangerous forces of nationalism and liberalism, practicing intervention wherever these were to be found. The repressive system was strained in the revolts of 1830—a prelude to greater revolutions to come.

Essential Reading:
René Albrecht-Carrié, A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna, pp. 1–29.

Supplementary Reading:
F. H. Hinsley, “The Concert of Europe,” in Diplomacy in Modern European History, Laurence W. Martin, ed., pp. 43–57.
Paul Schroeder, “Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?” in American Historical Review, 97 (June 1992), pp. 683–706.