How did conservative powers try to preserve order after 1815, and why did it strain?
Topic 6.5 The Concert of Europe and European Conservatism: the conservative order built at Vienna, the Concert of Europe's efforts to suppress liberalism and nationalism, and the pressures that strained it.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 6.5, on the Concert of Europe and conservatism after 1815: how the great powers cooperated to preserve the conservative order and balance of power, suppress liberal and national movements, and contain revolution, and why these efforts came under growing strain.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 6.5 asks you to explain the conservative order that followed the Congress of Vienna and the Concert of Europe, the system by which the great powers cooperated to preserve that order, suppress liberalism and nationalism, and contain revolution. The College Board wants you to understand both how the order worked and why it came under strain.
The conservative order
The Concert of Europe
Methods of repression
Preserving the order took more than diplomacy.
Why the order strained
Why it mattered
The Concert of Europe and conservatism set the political frame for the first half of the 19th century. The order's success in keeping great-power peace bought decades of relative calm, but its failure to extinguish liberalism and nationalism guaranteed recurring revolt, culminating in 1848 (Topic 6.6). The clash between the conservative order and the new ideologies (Topic 6.7) is the central political drama of the era, and the eventual triumph of nationalism would remake the map of Europe in Unit 7.
Try this
Q1. What was the Concert of Europe, and who was its leading champion? [Recall]
- Cue. A system of great-power cooperation and periodic congresses to preserve the post-1815 order and suppress revolution; its leading champion was Metternich of Austria.
Q2. Explain why the conservative order came under growing strain. [Short explanation]
- Cue. It could contain but not extinguish liberalism and nationalism, which kept producing revolts through the 1820s to 1840s, while industrialization added social grievances; the strain built until the order cracked in the revolutions of 1848.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2019 (style)3 marksBriefly describe ONE goal of the Concert of Europe. Briefly explain ONE method conservatives used to preserve order. Briefly explain ONE pressure that strained the conservative order.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per task.
A. Describe: to preserve the post-1815 settlement, maintain the balance of power, and suppress liberal and national revolution.
B. Method: great-power cooperation and congresses, censorship, secret police, and armed intervention against revolts (as urged by Metternich).
C. Pressure: rising liberalism and nationalism, fed by industrialization and the memory of the French Revolution, kept producing revolts.
Markers want a goal, a method, and a strain.
AP 2021 (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which the conservative order successfully preserved stability in Europe in the period c. 1815 to c. 1848.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point continuity-and-change rubric.
Thesis (1): "The conservative order kept the peace among the great powers and contained revolt for a generation, but it could not extinguish liberalism and nationalism, which broke out repeatedly and erupted in 1848."
Contextualization (1): the Congress of Vienna and the reaction against the Revolution and Napoleon.
Evidence (2): the Concert of Europe and congresses; repression and intervention against revolts; the persistent liberal and national uprisings of the 1820s to 1840s.
Analysis (2): weigh the order's success in keeping great-power peace against its failure to stop revolution, then add complexity by linking the strain to industrialization.
Related dot points
- Topic 5.7 The Congress of Vienna: the conservative settlement of 1814 to 1815, the restoration of the balance of power and legitimate rulers, and the attempt to contain revolution and nationalism.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 5.7, covering the Congress of Vienna (1814 to 1815): the conservative principles of Metternich, the restoration of the balance of power and legitimate monarchs, the Concert of Europe, and the attempt to contain the revolutionary and nationalist forces unleashed since 1789.
- Topic 6.6 Reactions and Revolutions: the wave of liberal and national revolutions that swept Europe, above all in 1848, their demands, and the reasons most of them failed.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 6.6, on the revolutions of the early 19th century and especially 1848: the liberal and national demands that drove them, why they erupted almost everywhere at once, and why most of them collapsed, with lasting effects despite their failure.
- Topic 6.7 Ideologies of Change and Reform in the 19th Century: the rise of liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, socialism, Marxism, and other ideologies that competed to interpret and remake industrial society.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 6.7, on the 19th-century ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, romanticism, utopian socialism, and Marxism (scientific socialism), and how each diagnosed and proposed to reshape the new industrial society.
- Topic 6.4 Social Effects of Industrialization: how the factory and the city transformed social class, the family, gender roles, working conditions, and standards of living in 19th-century Europe.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 6.4, on the social effects of industrialization: the rise of the industrial middle class and working class, rapid urbanization and its conditions, the transformation of the family and gender roles, and debates over the standard of living.
- Topic 3.6 Balance of Power: the decline of religion as a cause of war, the rise of balance-of-power diplomacy, and the great-power conflicts of the late 17th and 18th centuries.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.6, covering the post-Westphalia decline of religious warfare, the rise of the balance of power as the organizing principle of European diplomacy, the wars of Louis XIV, and the emergence of the great powers and shifting alliances of the 18th century.
Sources & how we know this
- AP European History Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)