The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815

The Congress of Vienna is the landmark in the history of international negotiation. It did not meet to create peace de novo, but to carry out the terms of a preliminary agreement, which was embodied in no less than seven treaties, between France and its various allied opponent.

At the congress the victorious European powers (Austria, Britain, Prussian and Russia) set about bringing peace and order to the continent by reviving the principle of monarchic legitimacy and taking steps to forestall future French expansion.

The territorial settlement of the Congress of Vienna was composed of three agreements signed between 1814 and 1815.
*Treaty of Paris (30 May 1814)
*Final Act of the Congress of Vienna (9 June 1815)
*Second Treaty of Paris

In common understanding, the Congress of Vienna, the peace conference at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, established the principle of the ‘balance of power’. All agreed that no European state should threaten to dominate the continent as France had done.
The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815

European Union

The immediate origins of European unification lie in the economic and political problems confronting European countries, notably France and Germany.

In 1957 the Treaty of Rome was signed establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) between six countries: Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

The EEC was setup to integrate further the economies of the European Coal and Steel Community members beyond simply coal and steel. It was very ambitious plan which looked to create a common market in which there would be free movement of capital, goods, people and services.

In 1973, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark joined the EEC.

In 1992, the 12 foreign affairs ministers signed the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union (EU), including the four areas of labor, capital, goods and services which came into force in November 1993.

Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU in 1995.
European Union