Concert of Europe & Metternich System

After Napoleon’s defeat, the major European powers developed a system of congress diplomacy intended to preserve the settlement reached at Vienna and prevent another continent-wide war. Austria under Metternich became especially identified with the defence of dynastic legitimacy and conservative political order.

Governments expanded censorship, policing and intelligence networks in response to fears of revolutionary conspiracies, secret societies and nationalist movements. Rebellions and constitutional movements in southern and eastern Europe repeatedly tested the system.

Adam Zamoyski’s Phantom Terror focuses on the fear of revolution and the growth of surveillance and repression between 1789 and 1848, with the post-1815 conservative order forming a major part of the story.