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Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria renewed their commitment to prevent any restoration of Bonapartist power and agreed to meet regularly in conferences to discuss their common interests. This period contains the time of the Holy Alliance, which was a military agreement. The Concert of Europe was the political framework that grew out of the Quadruple Alliance, in November 1815.
In March 1814 the military coalitionA Coalition is an alliance between entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. This alliance may be temporary, or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant. See Axelrod's book of Napoleon's four major opponents — BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the, PrussiaThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia, and RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With — had agreed to remain united not only to defeat FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents., but to ensure peace after the war. After Napoleon's defeat this alliance restored the Bourbon monarchy to France and agreed to meet in Vienna, Austria in September 1814 to arrange a settlement. This meeting would become to be known as the Congress of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna ( October 1, 1814 June 9, 1815) was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria. Its purpose was to redraw the.
The goal of the conservatives at this meeting, led by Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria, was said to be to reestablish peace and stability in Europe. In order to do this a new balance of power had to be established. The way in which Metternich and the other four represented states sought to do this was to restore old ruling families and create buffer zones between major powers. So in order to contain the still powerful French the House of Orange was put on the throne in the Netherlands, which was formerly comprised of the Dutch Republic and the Austrian Netherlands ( Belgium). To the southeast of France, Piedmont (officially part of the kingdom of Sardinia) was enlarged. The Bourbon dynasty was restored to France and Spain as well as a return of other legitimate rulers to the Italian states. And in order to contain the Russian empire Poland was divided up between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Austria and Prussia were allowed to keep some of their Polish territory while a new, nominally independent Polish kingdom was established with the Romanov dynasty of Russia as its hereditary monarchs. Also the German Confederation was created to replace the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine.
During the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon had escaped from Elba and launched his unsuccessful "One Hundred Days". This ultimately did not disrupt the meeting but as a punishment to the people of France for allowing Napoleon back in power they were forced to pay an indemnity, accept an army of occupation for five years and have France's borders returned to those of 1790. The European order put into action by the Congress of Vienna led to the avoidance of a general European conflict for nearly a century ( 1818- 1917).