1814–1815Reputable sourceWell documented
The Congress of Vienna
On the timeline · around 1814–1815 ·
What happened
With Napoleon exiled to Elba, the victorious powers gathered in Vienna from September 1814 to redraw the map of Europe. Chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and joined by Britain's Castlereagh, Russia's Tsar Alexander I, and France's Talleyrand, the Congress restored monarchies, reduced France to its old borders, and rebalanced the great powers so none could dominate the others. Napoleon's sudden return in 1815 interrupted but did not undo its work.
Why it matters
The Vienna settlement created the 'Concert of Europe,' a balance-of-power order that spared the continent a general war among the great powers for a generation. It set the pattern for European diplomacy through the nineteenth century.