After the Napoleonic wars, which shook Europe thoroughly, European states established the Concert of Europe system based on balance of power in 1815 which protected status quo, despite some regional wars, in Europe until WWI.

Concert of Europe

It is a system established in Europe with the Vienna Congress on the basis of balance of power strategy to protect status quo after Napoleonic Wars between 1800 and 1815. In the early 1800s, France under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had declared his empire with the fall of Republican regime in France, was fighting with certain European states in order to expand its territories especially eastwards. With the defeat of Napoleon in Russia and Great Britain, European states decided to establish such a system in order to prevent the birth and rule of Napoleon-like figures and states. Concert of Europe system worked until the First World War (WWI) despite some regional conflicts and wars. However, with the polarization in the early 1900s, this system was replaced by alliances and divisions that paved the way for WWI.