Alexander I as European Peacemaker

• In Event: Autocracy, Ideology, and Ritual in the Reign of Alexander I

Abstract

This paper highlights the role of Emperor Alexander I in the European peacemaking that followed the defeat of Napoleon. It focuses on how the monarch and his diplomatic agents imagined that peace could be preserved in the years 1815-23. To that end, the paper explains how Russia’s diplomats, including the tsar diplomat, understood the legal settlement (alliance unity and what it meant to act in concert), the moral settlement (the Holy Alliance), and the question of constitutional/political reform (which played out in revolutions across southern Europe).

Author

• Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, California State Polytechnic U