Changes

The Congress sought to preserve the peace in Europe and to ensure that none of the major powers in Europe fought another major war. It redrew the map of Europe in order to establish a balance of power among the major powers in order to preserve the peace. In this regard he Congress, under the guiding hand of Metternich, broadly, achieved its aims. There were no major wars between European powers until the 1850s and this only occurred on the periphery of Europe in the Crimea. However, the Congress failed to take account of the countless ‘National Questions’ in Europe. This was the controversy over the right of a people such as the Poles to have their own nation. Many of the peoples of Europe were becoming increasingly nationalistic. They believed that they were destined to live in a nation state, which would guarantee their freedom and prosperity. Increasingly, Germans wanted to live in a German state, as did Italians and other nationalities, in the years after the Congress. The Congress of Vienna ignored the claims of the various nationalities. Metternich famously rejected any notion that the Italians should be granted a separate nation. The participants in the Congress, were suspicious of nationalism as they associated it revolution, but by failing to address the increasing demands of nationalists in Europe, they were actually fanning the flames of nationalism.<ref>Zamoyski, 234.</ref> This was to have a disastrous effect on Europe and the demand for nation states, resulted in major wars between powers in Italy, Germany and elsewhere, from the 1860s onwards. Map of Europe after the Congress (1815)