Page 185 - Encyclopedia Of World History

diplomacy 535

There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close,
but your enemies closer. • Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II

stationed permanent representatives in foreign states in coalitions during the late seventeenth and eighteenth
order to obtain reliable information. However, the Vene- centuries to contain French ambitions. Political observers
tian system was quickly taken up by the other Italian city- and commentators of the eighteenth century, such as
states. During the Renaissance the Italian peninsula was David Hume, soon began to refer to the concept of the
divided into a number of city-states engaged in constant balance of power, under which states, acting in their own
intrigue and bouts of warfare. The need for accurate selfish interests,would create a balance,or equilibrium,in
information encouraged the stationing of agents, or the state structure of Europe.The emergence in Europe of
ambassadors, in both friendly and rival states.The use of a network of states encouraged the growth of diplomacy.
ambassadors then spread to the kingdoms of Western Diplomacy in Asia revolved around the concept of a
Europe.The constant stream of reports from ambassadors single strong state, China, ringed by tributary states, and
resulted in the creation of bureaucracies, tiny by modern the use of emissaries to maintain the system. The major
standards, to process and collate information, and to send exception occurred during the Southern Song dynasty of
out instructions. By the early eighteenth century practi- the thirteenth century when central authority in China
cally all the states of Europe had foreign offices in order was weakened and something approaching a balance of
to manage and administer their relations with other power emerged temporarily.The Byzantine and Ottoman
states.The head of the foreign office became known as the empires practiced a similar style of diplomacy under sim-
foreign minister, and foreign ministers soon became key ilar situations.
members of the cabinets of all European states, wielding
great power and influence.As diplomacy became increas- The Early Nineteenth
ingly systematized, various commentators began offering Century
books of advice on the best way to conduct diplomacy. Following the brutality of the French and Napoleonic
Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, first published in 1513, wars that began in 1792 and ended in 1815, a new style
is only the most famous of many such volumes. of diplomacy emerged.The Congress ofVienna, held from
September 1814 to 9 June 1815, was intended not only
Early Practice to divide the spoils of war but also to lay the foundations
of Diplomacy for long-term peace in Europe.The Austrian foreign min-
Over the centuries many practitioners of diplomacy have ister, Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859), mas-
left their mark on history. In the seventeenth century the terminded what he hoped would be an enduring state
French cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to king Louis system in Europe.The five major powers of Europe would
XIII from 1624 to 1642, promoted a doctrine known as exist in a balance of power. Rather than acting in their
raison d’état, which held that the good of the state was own interests and hoping that a balance would result nat-
supreme, and that diplomacy must be conducted free of urally, they would act in concert, hence the use of the
sentiment, ideology, or religious faith. Alliances must be phrase “concert of Europe.” Self-interest would be put
forged and broken with the interests of the state as the aside in favor of the larger good, according to Metternich.
only guide. Contemporaries criticized Richelieu for his The larger good meant the supremacy of the conservative,
alleged lack of morality, but Richelieu replied that pro- authoritarian monarchies of Europe, and the struggle to
tecting the state was the highest form of morality. Riche- suppress the new forces of liberalism and nationalism.
lieu was enormously successful, and by the time of his Metternich favored an ideological approach to diplo-
death France had emerged as the dominant power in macy.The Congress (or concert) system was maintained
Europe, a position it maintained for the next 170 years. until the CrimeanWar of 1853–1856. Russia’s defeat in
However,France’s dominant position in Europe threat- 1856 resulted in its alienation from the concert system
ened other European states, leading to the creation of and ushered in fifteen years of instability in Europe.