The Holy Alliance: Prerequisites, Creation and Plans for Establishing International Law

Abstract

The article describes the prerequisites, the creation and the plans of the Holy Alliance to establish international law and order. The end of the Napoleonic wars was marked by the Congress of Vienna. Its participants sought to restore the rule of the nobility in the conquered states of Napoleon. Based on the so-called principle of legitimacy, Congress supported the restoration on the thrones of former dynasties and noble orders in many countries. In the first place, each of the participating countries sought to meet their invasive goals, to profit from the redistribution of Europe and the colonies. In order to consolidate the conquests of, Alexander I initiated the formation of a permanent organization – the Holy Alliance. It was a kind of ideological and military-political superstructure over the “Viennese system” of diplomatic relations, founded under the guise of Christianity.
 The text of the union treaty in its form and content was atypical, unlike other international agreements. This has led many international law professionals to treat it as a declaration. The organization had existed until the mid-19th century before the Crimean War, although contradictions in the alliance have been around since the 1920s.
 The treaty of the Holy Alliance was concluded in Paris on September 14 (26) 1815 by the governments of Russia, Austria and Prussia. It was a rather vague statement about the mutual assistance and cooperation of all Christian states.
 Under the terms of the treaty, everyone who recognized him could join the alliance. After approval, almost all European rulers, except the Pope, the head of the Christian world who considered his signature superfluous, and the Turkish Sultan who professed Islam, joined him. England also did not join the alliance, though proposals from the founders were. It should be said that in England, the treaty was treated with the greatest caution. The absence of the Holy See’s signature in England did not prevent her from being an active participant in all its congresses.
 The original task of the Holy Alliance was to fulfill the role of a communication platform in which the leading powers of the world would coordinate their actions to ensure peace in Europe, preventing aggression that could harm the security of international law and order on the continent. With varying success, but in the first years of existence of the alliance these goals were achieved.
 The Holy Alliance was the first collective security institution in the world after the Napoleonic wars.