After 23 years of war, Europe's powers redrew the map at a very long party

Following Napoleon's defeat, diplomats from across Europe gathered in Vienna for nearly a year, redrawing borders and restoring monarchies to prevent any single power from dominating the continent again. Negotiated as much at balls and banquets as at the conference table, the settlement kept a general peace between Europe's major powers for roughly the next century.

— Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity — 1946
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