<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> <P> In the 18th century, this led to the stately quadrille, with a number of major European powers--such as Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, and France--changing alliances multiple times to prevent the hegemony of one nation or alliance . A number of wars stemmed, at least in part, from the desire to maintain the balance of power, including the War of the Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, the War of the Bavarian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars . Following Britain's success in the Seven Years' War, many of the other powers began to see Great Britain as a greater threat than France . Several states entered the American War of Independence in the hope of overturning Britain's growing strength by securing the independence of the Thirteen colonies of British America . </P>

Explain how the congress of vienna tried to restore the balance of power in europe