The Main Objective of the Congress of Vienna and the Effects of Napoleon on France...

The Congress dealt with numerous issues: the status of our nation (France), the new political boundaries, the response to liberal and national attitudes sweeping the continent, the fate of those powers who had lost territory during Napoleon's wars, and the future of dispossessed dynasties. The solutions proposed were moderate ones. We (France) were orignially allowed to return to our 1792 boundaries; however, after Napoleon's return and the One Hundred Days, the allies cut back the boundaries and gave us even more penalties. They pretty much just ignored the democratic, liberal, and nationalistic forces in favor of a traditional solution to the upheavals of the past twenty-five years. The events since 1789 had greatly altered the map of Europe. I mean come on the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire had disappeared. In an attempt to restore some balance, the Congress followed four principles: legitimacy, encirclement of France, compensation, and balance of power. France would never be the same.