The Invention of Collective Security after 1815

This chapter starts with and reflects on the ruins of Europe that remained in the twilight of Napoleon’s reign over the continent. More than two hundred years ago, Europe was liberated from the yoke of Napoleonic occupation and oppression. The Napoleonic Wars had cost about four million men and boys their lives in Europe alone, while another million had been killed in the colonies. Still more were scarred for life by injuries and trauma, not to mention the socio-economic devastation and financial crisis in which the continent had landed.¹ For historian David Bell, the battles of 1790–1815 could therefore