<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The European balance of power referred to European international relations before the First World War, which evolved into the present states of Europe . The current European balance of power is a supranational organization known as the European Union rather than the Nineteenth Century political concept that emerged at the Peace of Paris in 1815 . It is often known by the term European State System . Its basic tenet is that no single European power should be allowed to achieve hegemony over a substantial part of the continent and that this is best curtailed by having a small number of ever - changing alliances contend for power, it also meant that none should be able to achieve absolute power . </P> <P> In the 16th and 17th centuries, English foreign policy strove to prevent a creation of a single universal monarchy in Europe, which many believed France or Spain might attempt to create . To maintain the balance of power, the English made alliances with other states--including Portugal, the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands--to counter the perceived threat . These Grand Alliances reached their height in the wars against Louis XIV and Louis XV of France . They often involved the English (later the British) and Dutch paying large subsidies to European allies to finance large armies . </P>

What was the balance of power in ww1