ABSTRACT
The Concert of Europe is the term used to describe various attempts made by the major powers to co-operate, after 1815, in settling possible causes of conflict between themselves in order to prevent the possibility of another large-scale war. At first the European statesmen favoured a conciliar system; according to Article VI of the Quadruple Alliance (1815) ‘the High Contracting Powers have agreed to renew at fixed intervals…meetings consecrated to great common objects and the examination of such measures as at each one of these epochs shall be judged most salutary for the peace and prosperity of the nations and for the maintenance of the peace of Europe.’1 This provided the basis for the four further congresses which followed the Congress of Vienna itself, namely Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821) and Verona (1822). By 1823, however, the attempt had broken down, and the idea of relating diplomacy to regular councils had to be abandoned.
