The transformation of European politics, 1763-1848 - Paul W Schroeder

This major reinterpretation of the structure and operation of European international politics is the first modern study to cover the entire timespan from 1763 to the revolutions of 1848. Paul Schroeder charts the collapse of the eighteenth- century international balance of power in a series of great systemic wars from 1787 to 1812. He shows how this collapse was followed by the painful construction of a new international system from 1813 to 1815- a system which gave Europe the most peaceful, progressive era of international politics ever experienced. Professor Schroeder challenges the conventioal view that this achievement was based on military victory, the restoration of monarchical authority, and a new balance of power, built on the fear of renewed revolution. The secret of success, argues Schroeder, was in fact the abandonment of competitive eighteenth-century politics in favour of a new political equilibrium- a balance of rights, security, and satisfactions, based upon a genuine, European-wide consensus on the meaning of peace and the kinds of rules and practices needed to sustain it.