The Reconstruction of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and the Vienna System: Some Structuralist Considerations
Author(s)
Gruner, Wolf D.
Abstract
Structural historical analysis using a set of determinants offers new insight into Europe’s transformation after the Napoleonic wars, while also demonstrating how international relations can be rejuvenated in its methodology and as a historical discipline. The new order created between 1813 and 1815 at the Peace Conferences in Paris and the Congress of Vienna resulted from Europe’s desire for a different approach to interstate relations. The Vienna system was not designed as a hegemonic system but instead provided for a carefully balanced, multipolar system that consisted of great powers, secondary powers, and intermediary bodies bound together by a common European culture, tradition, and history. The congress thus provided for a stable and flexible postwar order capable of promoting future peaceful development in Europe.
