Policing Europe: The Origins of a European Security Network, 1794–1815.

This article examines the expansion and internationalization of the Habsburg Ministry of Police between the Jacobin Trials of 1794 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, highlighting its enhanced administrative powers, increased surveillance of urban populations, and cross-border policing of subversive political activity. It details Austria's efforts to monitor revolutionary movements and émigrés not only within its borders but also in foreign territories such as Poland, the Ottoman Empire, the German states, Italy, and among Greek nationalist circles, often cooperating with other European powers including France and the Ottoman Empire. The study challenges the traditional view that the so-called "Metternichian System" of political repression began only after 1815, showing instead that many security structures and international policing collaborations were already established in the preceding decades. It also explores the legal and ideological frameworks underpinning these developments, as well as the tensions between state security measures and adherence to the rule of law during this period of revolutionary upheaval and war.