ABSTRACT
Figure 2.1 The Westphalian state and the balance of power 19 Figure 2.2 The multilateral diplomatic process 24 Figure 2.3 Multilateral security conferences during the nineteenth century 26
The balance of power restored in Vienna
The two conferences in 1648 that agreed the peace treaties of Westphalia have been called the first European Congresses, as they laid the foundation for the modern European nation-state characterized by principles such as sovereignty and the balance of power (see Figure 2.1 for the development of the Westphalian state). The peace treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Vienna (1815) confirmed these principles. In Vienna such confirmation was required because Napoleon Bonaparte had upset the European balance of power with his campaigns of conquest. He had violated various international principles that France itself had declared during the French Revolution of 1789, such as national self-determination, non-intervention in other states and the rejection of wars of conquest. After the battle of Paris in early 1814 Napoleon abdicated and the Bourbons returned to the throne. On 30 May 1814, eight states signed the Peace of Paris to settle the end of the wars with France. Broadly speaking they restored the French territorial borders of 1792. Other matters were to be completed at the Congress of Vienna, which assembled between 8 September 1814 and 9 June 1815. At the Congress the Austrian Prince Klemens von Metternich presided, chairing the committee of the eight states that had signed the Paris Peace Treaty. The major decisions, however, were taken by the four
triumphant great powers: Austria, Prussia, Russia and the UK. The event, with over 200 delegations, was impressive. ‘Never had such a brilliant gathering been seen. All the states of Europe sent representatives; and many defunct states, such as the formerly sovereign princes and ecclesiastics of the late Holy Roman Empire, sent lobbyists to urge their restoration.’ The four major powers took the decisions and restored the European balance of power, but this distinction between ‘great’ and ‘small’ powers was new. ‘Indeed it was at the Congress of Vienna that the terms great and small entered clearly into the diplomatic vocabulary.’ France remained a great power. ‘Europe was at peace, a treaty having been signed with the late enemy; France also was represented at the Congress, by none other than Talleyrand, now minister to Louis XVIII’ (Palmer and Colton 1971, 454). The main effort of the Congress was based on the European states’ desire to prevent the domination of a single great power in the way Napoleon had tried to achieve. Such a situation had to be offset by ‘an ingenious calculation of forces, a transfer of territory and “souls” from one government to another, in such a way as to distribute and balance political power among a number of free and sovereign states’ (Palmer and Colton 1971, 455). It was hoped that a proper balance would also produce a lasting peace.
