In the first, lasting until the early 1860s, the system worked fairly well. Two distinct periods can broadly be discerned in the history of the Concert of Europe. As the work of Paul Schroeder and Georges-Henri Soutou has shown, they also relied on a base of common values and shared references (Christianity, the monarchical principle, as well as certain liberal values arising from the first-half of the eighteenth century) that facilitated negotiation, and that gave the Concert an “organic” character quite apart from a simple mechanism of balance. These new multilateral practices, which found expression in congresses, conferences and meetings, did not rely-as was to be the case for the LN or the UN-on written rules or permanent structures, but on arrangements that combined flexibility and pragmatism. One of the Concert’s primary innovations was the desire of its promoters, notably Castlereagh or Metternich, to increase contacts at the highest level of sovereigns and ministers, as well as on the lower level of ambassadors, in order to maintain the system, to prevent as well as to resolve conflicts. A century later, Germany succeeded Prussia, and Italy joined the “club,” but not without difficulty the composition of the Concert thus remained surprisingly stable throughout the entire period, which contributed to the system’s effectiveness. The Concert brought together “all of the major powers, and only the major powers” (Jean-Baptiste Duroselle) during the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815, there were five such powers who considered themselves to be mutually worthy of belonging to it: Great Britain, which imposed itself in the wake of the Napoleonic wars as the world’s first power, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France, who even if defeated remained a central part of the system and, as such, was invited to participate in the negotiations. It had characteristics that distinguished it from the order that arose from the Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century, and the Treaty of Utrecht in the eighteenth century, even if fundamentally the principles behind it pertained to the balance of power. It was established in Vienna in 1815, and collapsed a century later with the beginning of the Great War. The Concert of Europe was a particular expression of an international system founded on balance.

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