ABSTRACT
In the 1820s, the absence of the entente was to show that neither Great Britain nor Austria was strong enough alone to attain these objectives: by the end of the decade both Russia and France had broken free and seemed, indeed, to have seized control of the European states system. As a great power of the first order, Great Britain was less severely affected by the disappearance of the Anglo-Austrian entente. True, the 1820s were to show that Cannings policy of direct agreements with France and Russia was a less than adequate substitute for the entente as a means of defending Great Britain's continental interests within the Pentarchy. South America was another area where British naval power could be brought to bear and where, in the peacemaking of 181415 Castlereagh had acted independently of the continental powers to safeguard British commercial interests by means of bilateral treaties with Spain.
