What are the weaknesses of the European Concert System Essay

What are the weaknesses of the European Concert System - Essay Example Further Europe’s great powers signed a treaty to increase mutual cooperation and to prevent the recurrence of hegemony. This was known as the Congress of Vienna and was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. Its purpose was to redraw the political map of Europe, which was in disarray due to the Napoleonic wars. France was excluded from this exercise as its boundaries had already been decided by the Treaty of Paris, signed on May 30, 1814. The specific aim of this Concert was to prevent the outbreak of revolution in their countries. This was due to the fact that the French Revolution of 1789 had spread terror amongst the leading powers of Europe. To this end, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain and France convened at the Congress of Vienna. The Great Powers met periodically and made efforts to ensure peace in Europe. A beneficial result was the formation of a framework for international diplomacy and negotiation. An example of this endeavor is the 1827 intervention by these Great Powers leading to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Navarino. The main weakness of the European Concert was that it consisted of countries with different ideologies and this resulted in the lack of consensus. The European countries, with the exception of Britain, were interested in maintaining the political status quo in western and central Europe in order to suppress revolutionary outbreaks. However, Britain abstained from opposing any such threats to Spanish and Portuguese rule in Latin America.