Fighting Terror after Napoleon

The Paris Conference was, if possible, an even more imperial set. With their far-reaching interventions, the Allied ministers waged peace and managed collective security. But they did so in governing over the heads and on the backs of smaller nations, minorities, specific factions and regions. With their centralizing and imperial policies, they managed to tame the terror in France in the short run, but sowed the seeds of discord and discontent for the near future, not just in France, but also elsewhere in Europe and beyond. Many a minister or general that convened on a daily basis in Paris to ponder France's and Europe's destiny had made his career in the colonies. What they had learned and achieved in India, Crimea or the newly colonized Prussian lands in the east, they put into practice in Europe in turn: the colonizing of hearts and minds, the implementation of new institutions and the administration of indigenous populations. This also indicated a policy of identifying those considered radical, seditious, revolutionary, or simply 'immoderate' or 'jealous', be it individual citizens or countries, cities or minorities in Europe or far beyond, in the Americas. Enlightened theories on modern governance and management, on security and the common good went hand in glove with authoritarian, imperialist and exclusive attitudes.