Today in history, our class began discussing the essential question "what should people in power do if their power is threatened?". This poses a very interesting situation as different people will inevitably choose different solutions to handle such a situation. We discussed the "congress of Vienna" in class which revolves around the essential question.
Once Napoleon was no longer a threat, there were several concepts as to how European powers reacted. One of the main concepts is the "balance of power", which is as simple as it sounds - one power shall not have all the power and a system of checks and balances will be run to make sure no one power gets greater control over the other. Metternich wanted to reverse the track of napoleon's conquest and restore all power to what it originally was. Napoleon’s surrendering brought an end to nearly 25 years of ongoing war. The discussions between these great powers were held in a very informal fashion, talking to each other face to face in a very casual manner. This is the first time in history in which ambassadors met face to face to make treaties as oppose only using messengers in the past.
In my opinion, the ambassadors made the right decision by evenly distributing the power and reverting back to how it originally was before napoleon made his conquests. I do not believe there was a better way to react. In the given situation, trying to restore equal balance throughout all powers comes first before accommodating the people. In certain circumstances, the powerful should be willing to make a sacrifice or two as long as it will benefit the power as a whole in the long run.
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