concert of europe

the concert of europe was basically the great powers of europe trying to keep the continent from blowing itself up again after napoleon.

britain, austria, russia, prussia and later france agreed to meet, negotiate, and manage major crises instead of immediately going to war.

it wasn’t exactly peaceful or democratic, and they often cared more about preserving their own power than anything else. but for a while, it helped prevent another continent wide war on the scale of the napoleonic wars.

kind of an early version of powerful countries realizing that talking regularly might be cheaper than fighting constantly.