Concert of Europe
The Concert of Europe was the informal system of great-power consultation and cooperation established at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 whereby the five major powers — Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, and France — committed to managing European affairs collectively to prevent any single state from achieving hegemony. Operationalised through a series of congresses at Aachen (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), and Verona (1822), the Concert maintained a remarkable — if increasingly strained — peace among the great powers for nearly four decades. It fractured definitively over the Eastern Question that led to the Crimean War of 1853-1856, ending the era of Metternichian collective security.
- Year: 1815 CE
- Category: Political
