Abstract
Something of the old Anglo-Austrian alignment survived to exert a degree of restraint over the Russians in their differences with the Turks until the spring of 1823. But thereafter Canning stood apart, especially when the other four powers held meetings in St Petersburg in 1824–5 to discuss the Near East. He had nothing to fear: the talks hardened rather than eased differences. As the Concert fragmented Canning contentedly remarked that international politics were ‘getting back to a wholesome state again’. Yet by and large he had tended to exaggerate the importance of the Congress System. References to the ‘one and indivisible alliance’ with its ‘predominating areopagatical spirit’ suggest much greater unity than had actually existed since 1814.
‘… every nation for itself and God for us all’. (George Canning)
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Notes and References
J. Hartley, Alexander I, pp. 159–60.
Alan W. Palmer, Metternich (1972), pp. 237–8.
A. Palmer, Chancelleries, pp. 45–7.
Paul Shroeder, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848 (1994), p. 659; Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821–33 (1973), pp. 273–4.
M. S. Anderson, ‘Russia and the Eastern Question, 1821–41’, in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, pp. 85–7.
B. Jelavich, St Petersburg and Moscow, pp. 73, 75, 78. The Russians would have preferred the Greeks in a condition of dependence on themselves within an untouched Turkish empire.
R. Bullen, ‘France and Europe, 1815–48’ in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, p. 136.
G. Mann, Gentz, pp. 299–302.
C. L. Church, Europe in 1830 (1983), pp. 42–3.
B. Jelavich, St Petersburg and Moscow, pp. 46–9.
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A. Palmer, Chancelleries, p. 60.
F. H. Hinsley, Nationalism and the International System (1973), p. 107–8.
C.J. Bartlett, Great Britain and Sea Power, 1815–53 (1963), pp. 86–7; A. Palmer, Chancelleries, p. 251; see also C. A. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire, 1790–1918 (1968), p. 237; and A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, p. 107.
A. Palmer, Metternich, p. 258; Chancelleries, p. 62; C. K. Webster, The Foreign Policy of Palmerston, 1830–1841 (1951), i. 291.
For this crisis see especially M. S. Anderson in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, pp. 88–91.
History Notes, ‘My Purdah Lady’: The Foreign Office and the Secret Vote, 1782–1909, Historical Branch, LRD (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), no. 7, September 1994, p. 8.
M. S. Anderson (p. 92) and R. Bullen (p. 62) in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance.
C. J. Bartlett, Defence and Diplomacy (1993), pp. 122–3.
R. Bullen, ‘The Great Powers and the Iberian Peninsula, 1815–48’, in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, pp. 69–76.
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A. Palmer, Chancelleries, pp. 61–4, and Metternich, pp. 262–4.
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B. Jelavich, Russia’s Balkan Entanglements (1991), pp. 95–7.
M. S. Anderson in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, pp. 92–7. For the Russian side see H. N. Ingle, Nesselrode and the Russian Rapprochement with Britain, 1836–44 (1976), passim.
C. J. Bartlett, ‘Britain and the European Balance’, in A. Sked, Europe’s Balance, p. 158.
G. J. Billy, Palmerston’s Foreign Policy: 1848 (1993), p. 13.
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C. J. Bartlett, Sea Power, p. 174.
Cited by H. C. F. Bell, Lord Palmerston (1966), i. 398; see also Bartlett, Sea Power, p. 185.
F. R. Bridge, The Habsburg Monarchy among the Powers (1990), pp. 38–9.
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F. R. Bridge, Habsburg Monarchy, pp. 38–9.
P. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics, Chapters 13–17, but see especially pp. 797–9, 802–3.
W. C. Fuller Jr., Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600–1914 (1992), Chapter 6, analyses both Nicholas I’s belief that Russia was territorially sated and his awareness that she was ill-placed to fight long and expensive wars despite his fear of revolutionary infections and his anxiety to protect Russian interests in the Ottoman Empire.
P. Schroeder, Transformation, p. 801.
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© 1996 C. J. Bartlett
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Bartlett, C.J. (1996). Competition Short of War. In: Peace, War and the European Powers, 1814–1914. European History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24958-9_2
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