Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a European diplomatic conference held from 1814 to 1815 that redrew borders and sought to preserve a balance of power after the Napoleonic Wars.

Balance of power: A distribution of power among states intended to prevent any one state from dominating others. The settlement aimed to prevent another French bid for continental supremacy.
Klemens von Metternich: An Austrian statesman who served as foreign minister and hosted the Congress of Vienna. Metternich shaped the negotiations and promoted conservative stability.
Kingdom of the Netherlands: A state created in 1815 by combining the former Dutch Republic with the southern Netherlands. The enlarged kingdom was designed as a buffer against future French expansion.
French Revolution of 1830: An uprising that overthrew Charles X and established the July Monarchy in France. The revolution challenged the dynastic order restored at Vienna and helped trigger upheaval elsewhere.
Treaty of Westphalia: The 1648 peace agreements that ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire. Westphalia addressed a different European conflict and political structure than Vienna's post-Napoleonic settlement.
Legitimism: The principle that rightful hereditary rulers should be restored after displacement. The negotiators used dynastic legitimacy to justify restoring several ruling houses.
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh: The British foreign secretary who represented Britain at the Congress of Vienna. Castlereagh pressed for a balanced settlement and cooperation among the powers.
Congress Poland: A Polish kingdom established in 1815 under the Russian emperor's rule. Its creation settled, but did not end, the powers' dispute over Polish territory.
Belgian Revolution: The 1830–1831 revolt that led to Belgium's independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgian independence overturned a buffer-state arrangement made at the congress.
Treaty of Utrecht: The 1713 peace settlement that ended the War of the Spanish Succession and redistributed territories. Utrecht also pursued a balance of power, but through a different dynastic and territorial settlement.

Linked from 114 pages