Balancing Europe

 In Class, we started to explore the topic of the Congress of Vienna. We started off reading Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna.  This introduced us to the peace meeting held in Vienna with Prussia, Russia, Austria, France and Great Britain. These five empires were trying to clean up the mess Napoleon made of Europe by redistributing power and recreating boundary lines. We also found a map of Europe and we had to choose how Metternich would want to decide to rebuild Europe. Lastly, we watched a you tube clip which was a dramatization of a conversation Metternich and Napoleon had. Overall, we found out how the congress of Vienna changed the power in Europe after the French Revolution.

The people at the congress at Vienna used the Balance of Power to eliminate threats to their authority. The whole point of the congress of Vienna was to clean up Napoleons mess after the French Revolution. These empires were frightened by Napoleon so, they sent him away. Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Great Britain realized that if they didn't distribute power evenly at these peace meeting, everything could back to the way it was before. One solution they had was to make a balance of power between the five empires of France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and great Britain. They reconstructed the map of Europe, in this history of Europe video it goes into detail on which empires claimed what land. Expanding these five powerful empires balanced Europe. What i mean by balance is that all had equal amounts of power; it was much more difficult for any of the empires to take over or start a conquest similar to Napoleons.

This map shows what the five empires claimed at the Congress of Vienna.

 
     The empires at the congress of Vienna made mediocre choices. Although there was no war for a couple decades, the middle and poor class were not satisfied and revolted  many times. At the congress of Vienna i think the best choice that was made was the balance of power. Like i explained before it distributed power and recreated boundary lines it was be harder for other empires to conquer other places. They also made the decision to restore old monarchs. This was not a good idea because it was not what the majority of the people wanted. The  middle class wanted a say and natural rights, but this forbids them from getting what they want. Also, the four empires (all but Great Britain) agreed to allow other countries to intervene when they though a revolution was trying to occur in another country. Personally, i think this isn't a good idea and the countries should intrude. If the middle class is revolting so much to the point where the government needs help, maybe that a sign that the bourgeoisie and aristocrats should listen to what they have to say. The Congress of Vienna could have improved greatly if they gave the middle class what they wanted.