Introduction:

Two topics stick out in any discussion of the Congress of Vienna. They are the balance of power and the 'Sattelzeit'. Allow me to make some general remarks first on these two topics. The delegates used the notion of the balance of powers as matter of course. After Napoleon had played havoc with frontiers and dynastic claims Europe had to be ordered anew. The balance of powers was the idea that there should be equilibrium between the major powers of Europe so that no power could overrule the others. I use the past tense on purpose, because whatever the urgent need for resettlement the concept was already out of date in 1814, when the congress convened for the first time. That of course was not evident in 1814, but the process of modernization fuelled by the Industrial Revolution, which shifted the focus to cooperation between states, became increasingly important and tended to marginalize the need for territorial claims. Though, regrettably, few nineteenth-century statesmen were aware of the switch.