Congress of Vienna

       In class we got into groups and were assigned a different country. My group was Austria. What we had to do was decide which of the three decisions would be the best one in order for all the countries to get what they want. The first problem that we were faced with was that we needed to do about how the map would be redrawn. We found out that what really happened was that they brought back France's territory and expanded Prussia's land. They also established the kingdom of the Netherlands. The second problem we faced was how we would reestablish government leaders. In real life we found out that they restored the throne of Louis XVIII. The last problem was how should we stop future revolutions. We also found out that they set up a system of alliances so that they could crush revolutions.

          The system of crushing revolts was called the holy alliance. The idea was that the rulers of the countries had divine right and going up against them was considered going up against god. This would justify crushing the revolt. What they did was if there was a revolt in a country then the neighbor country would send troops to crush the revolt. This also ties in with the principle of intervention which gives countries the rights to crush revolts. The Congress of Vienna had a huge impact on the world. They basically decided how the most advanced countries would be for the next 100 years. The way that Europe is shaped today could be way different without the congress.

           I think that for the most part they made the right choice. However, if they wanted to prevent a revolution they should have let the people choose how they should be governed. I think it would have been better for the powerful people to give up their power to ensure that they don't lose it all.

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