European History Essay

A series of Congress’ and Conferences impacted the political and cultural dealings within Europe. However, it was not necessarily the meetings themselves that drew political conflict, but rather the re- charting of territories that eventually led to conflict, and which even today still garners a small amount of sectional tension. The Congress of Vienna was designed to resolve a series of set issues affecting almost all of Europe. Stemming from the previous defeat of Napoleonic France, which meant redrawing the boundary lines; however, the outcome ended up being extremely unpopular (mostly in France). Included in the Congress were Britain, Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia. These allies could not come to a major decision. While their goal was to draw the least amount of protest as possible, they were forced to bring in both Talleyrand and Spain’s Marquis of Labrador. This was later seen as the Congress’ greatest mistake. However, during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, real change began to happen. Basically, the goal of the conference was to negotiate a series of set peace treaties that had been introduced by the Allied and by the Associated Powers and the Central Powers. All of these treaties became the groundwork for what later became known as the Versailles-Washington System. However, since the world map was revised to a certain degree during these conferences, many of those involved in the middle became somewhat hostile and embittered. This would eventually lead to World War II. The European conflicts of 1919 affect politics in Europe today, especially in regards to the former Holy Roman Empire. Many problems, resulting from boundary lines and various ethnic groups are in the Central European region. For example, while a series of German provinces existed east of the Oder-Neisse line, which were subsequently lost and annexed via the People’s Republic of Poland and later the Soviet Union, they were also ethnically cleaned from Germans through the national as well as communist forces. This is just one of many examples of the problems associated with the Central European Region. Drawing on outside sources, looking at a map of this area makes it easy to see why the political air was tumultuous after these conferences. For example, while the concept of Central Europe varies from nation to nation, most agree that it includes Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland (among others. ) It was usually seen as overwhelmingly conservative, as well as Catholic, which was a huge difference between its neighbors, who were seen as fairly liberal, being influenced by the French Revolution. However, the lines that were drawn in order to rechart territories only added to sectional tensions and conflicts. And, because all of the Central European nations were relatively small, the threat of their larger neighboring countries was all the more threatening. Through looking at maps of Europe pre and post 1919, it is easy to see how the reorganizing of Europe affected almost every major political decision made, and how it still affects decisions being made today.