The Congress of Viena took place from 1814 to 1815 and was conducted between the powers of Europe to decide what to do in a post-Napolean Europe. They had three main principles in the congress, the first being that they did not want France to feel isolated or wronged by the proceedings. They did not want France to be able to nurse bitter resentments that would only lead to more war. France was able to send representatives to the Congress and it was able to keep all its land from before Napolean. After several years France was able to join as one of the leading powers of Europe. This is contrasted with the Treaty of Versailles after World War 1 where Germany was not allowed to the proceedings and kept isolated from Europe. The leaders of the Treaty even studied the Congress of Viena to do the opposite of what they did. The Congress placed an emphasis on legitimate rulers, meaning that Louis XVIII was restored to power as king of France, though he was held back from full power by a constitutional charter. Balance of power was another key principle of the Congress of Viena. This was to make sure no one country held all the power, so often smaller countries would have to give up some territory of move borders in order to balance power, especially the power of the four main countries governing the proceedings, Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia. The Congress of Vienna was able to successfully reintegrate France into Europe after the turmoil of Napolean.
In response to the revolutionary ideas and revolts, particularly in France but in other places as well, in the post-Napoleonic era, there was something called the Conservative Reaction. This was a tendency to suppress any revolutionary ideas and uprisings and to get things back to the way they were before the French Revolution. Many governments limited the freedom of speech and press in order to do this. One example of this is the Carlsbad decrees from the states in the German confederation. They were originally set in place because a deranged university fraternity member murdered a conservative writer. In response the Austrian Klemens Wenzel von Metternich drew up the Carlsbad decrees. The decrees had three sections. The first was for universities. All university fraternities were disbanded and teachers had to be approved by the government. A government or government-approved censor would reside at universities to make sure no dangerous ideas were being spread. The second area was the press. No daily publication exceeding twenty sheets could be published without the approval of the government. The government could suppress any publication and no appeal could be made from these decisions. The final area was an investigating committee. An investigating committee was to be made to find the origins and facts about any revolutionary plots.