Principle of Incarceration

Have you ever been the leader of a group, or found yourself making most of the decisions for a group of people? What happens when someone else suggests something that everyone likes better? What do you do? When people in power have their power threatened, there are many things one can do. These people might think to fight back, maybe even with force, to suppress the threat. What people in power should really do is have a discussion on what is best to do for the given situation. In class, we learned about the Congress of Vienna and discussed what they did for Europe.

After the defeat of Napolean, the European powers met and discussed what should be done to keep their powers, but to also keep the people of Europe in line. One solution was the Principle of Intervention. This time period was very rough for Europe. The people were very upset with the rulers of the countries, and they began to revolt over and over again, despite the destruction and death it shrouded Europe with. Therefore, the leaders decided that they would eliminate threats to their power by introducing the Principle of Intervention. This allowed any ruler to send troops into another country to prevent any rebellious uprising and restore monarchs. This effectively protected the powers of rulers and suppressed revolution. One example of this power in effect is in the 1820s, Austria crushed an Italian uprising, due to the Italians wanting one, united nation.

I don’t think that the people at the Congress of Vienna made all the right choices. I do give them credit for not allowing a war between the five major powers of Europe, which would have cost millions of people their lives and caused destruction on a massive scale. But, they did not satisfy the people and their needs. The way I think they should have dealt with the situation is allowing the people to be heard and allow them to partake in some government decisions. I believe in all means that the powerful should be willing to sacrifice some of their power under certain circumstances. This will help keep the people happy, and the officials in power.