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There is a commonplace, dismissive, reductive argument you will hear all the time. That napoleon stood no chance. Even if he had triumphed on the field at Waterloo, as in some ways he really could have. The forces arrayed against him were so massive he had really no hope. A huge Austrian and German army was coming in from the Rhine, in addition to the British army with its line of communications through Brussels and the Prussians with their line of communications further east. And a truly massive Russian force was gathering at Wurzberg.

Napoleon was strategically outnumbered 5:1. He could triumph for a day, for a battle, for a campaign perhaps. But the advantages of the French army, high quality leadership, the elan of its men, were just not so marked as they had been in the past. His own genius and energy was more fitful now that he was older. There was really no hope of French military triumph.

So that’s the common historical analysis you will see everywhere, in everything 21st century, and it is not wrong. But step in a little closer and there are a number of fascinating elements. Like, who is really the Legitimate ruler in France?

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Last episode we looked at France, Scandinavia and Italy. Italy was particularly fascinating, but we were bare able to scratch the surface.

Now we look at Germany, contrasting Talleyrand's careful thought about France and Louis the 18th with Metternich and Hardenberg's lack of vision.

Finally, Castlereagh gives up his efforts to get the slave trade abolished and settles for a compromise. This allows him to deploy his super power, cold hard cash, to essentially buy Alexander's agreement on the Saxon Question. Tempers cool, the allies will stay together.

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Last episode we described how in Paris there was a party like atmosphere, the dreamy, giddy glow of it, how it sucked in the later arrivals. The immense joy they all wallowed in. Part of the peace settlement allowed France to keep all the looted art they had taken from all over Europe. And I’ve mentioned this before, but the allied leaders saw the Louvre for the first time. And were suitably impressed. They all believed that this was the appropriate way to do public art. Many in the allied delegations went to the Louvre daily.

But there were more difficult and thornier issues to settle in Vienna.

There were massive issues in Germany, Poland, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and Latin America (would they stay independent, would they go back? could they go back?), the low countries and Switzerland and island colonies all over the world. And how were they going to decide these issues,

There was a mix of brutal great power politics for many decisions and high-minded principles used for most analysis. The interplay between these modes of operation would prove fascinating to later generations.