When designing the Europe of the Restoration at the Vienna Congress in 1815, the victors of Napoleon believed they were creating a lasting work. However, for a century, Europe has been continuously moving and transforming, uniting and dividing at all levels: from Metternich to Napoleon III and from Bismarck to Clemenceau, from the Holy Alliance to the Triple Entente and the League of Nations, from the (Mediterranean and Balkan) 'Europe of the cart' to the (western and northern) 'Europe of the steam engine' and the industrial revolution, from authoritarian monarchies to liberal, national, democratic, and socialist movements, from papal authority to positivist science and its questioning, from romanticism to realism and from national schools and folk traditions to cosmopolitan avant-gardes and mass culture.

While nationalist aspirations ('one nation, one state') stand in contrast to the imperialistic plans for the unification of the continent, the affirmation of national peculiarities goes hand in hand with the realization of transnational interests and ties. How far does this realization reach? Not very far, considering the resurgence of conflicts among European peoples and the outbreak of World War I. On the other hand, the persistent efforts of all origins for a 'European agreement' suggest that quietly, in the shadow of national claims, the idea of an organized Europe has never stopped developing.