Balance of Power and Particularism Essay examples

Submitted By picklebatch
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Pages: 4

The only way in which the balance of power could be defeated is an effort in part by a nation who overthrows international order to the greatest magnitude. Because there was no shared physical equilibrium towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and France, the balance of power was put into place, reducing the opportunity for them to use force against one another. Typically, they have the tendency to split into 2 groups. If any one power starts getting too great of a power, they shift to the other side to maintain the balance. If a rising power possesses a threat to stability, a nation will stop them. Buck passing is the act that when this nation challenges them to fight, the remaining nations stay out of it. This still allows for countries to share conflicts, just not too large but most importantly, everyone has a stake in maintaining the system. This also calls for compatible political systems. For Great Britain, the balance of power was how well the several nations could execute their roles assigned to them in the overall plan. In contrast, the balance of power meant very little to Prussia and Austria. However, that does not dismiss the actual justice it provided for their complex relationship to say the least. Their relationship alone was vital for European stability.
It took the nations involved to settle in adopting this new, and at the time, seemingly radical agenda. To further this point, in the 18th century, the nations involved kept changing alliances several times trying to prevent the domination of an alliance. The Pitt Plan was another strategy that proved to sustain the longest period of peace Europe had ever experienced. Just like the balance of power, it too depended on the least power to sustain itself.
Towards the outbreak of World War 1, the balance of powers started to dwindle. Prior to that, the Concert of Europe was fairly successful in trying to maintain the policy. It avoided a full blown Europe-wide war for nearly a century. Specifically, during the first half of the 19th century, Britain and France dominated Europe, but by the 1850s they had become profoundly concerned by the power that was rising from Prussia and Russia. The Crimean War of 1854–55 and the Italian War of 1859 crushed the relations between the Great Powers in Europe. Still, the creation of the German Empire restructured the European balance of power. Yes, the balance was shaken up in the last quarter of the 19th century, but it wasn’t destroyed. It could be easily said that for the following twenty years, Otto von Bismarck managed to maintain the balance of power.

Particularism consisted of the king having to share power with the church and everyone else, local lords could be for or against the king and armored knights were trained to be super human.

In universalism an overlying authority

Nation states did not always exist. The concept arose in Europe and was then spread by force. It was from 1792 to 1815 that Europe engaged in the bloodiest