Examine the aims and principles of the European Powers who took part in the peacemaking 184-15 - The Congress of Vienna
Bagmanov Artur 16/01/03
Examine the aims and principles of the European Powers who took part in the peacemaking 184-15.
The peacemaking of 1814-15, also known as The Congress of Vienna, was considered to be a tool which sharpened Europe. Five major powers present at the congress were: Austria, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, and France. This time, France was to blame, and all the others to decide its fate. From the beginning, the five powers proposed very different aims and objectives, however there was common ambition in certain areas. It is important to point out, that the outcome of Vienna congress was mainly affected by common ambitions, which allowed the conference to achieve beneficial results for all Europe.
The Great Powers had three main objectives, which they hoped to achieve through this congress. Surely all of them hoped that France would have been excluded from participating in their decisions. Their first objective was, the restoration and conservation of the European balance of power. Especially Great Britain was obsessed with preventing the French from further expansion and aggression. Their excuse for being so worried about French expansion, was to give Europe a period of peace to allow economic development and growth of trade between other Great Powers. In fact all of the Great Powers were intending to limit French power, but each of them had their own plans of how strict should the punishment be. The Great Powers, with the possible exception of Britain, were all intending to achieve the greatest possible influence in post-Napoleonic Europe. Prussia, Russia and Austria were all considering Congress of Vienna as a chance for expansion, such a plan was of no interest to Great Britain as it already had a vast Empire.