143). Considering these tensions of division, it illustrates the 'historical individuality' that various nation states had acquired, including Russia, Germany, England and France, thus the difficulty in any chances of unification as a European empire. Thus, the division accounts for the struggles that occur between the ''protagonists of different conceptions of European modernity'' (Strath and Koskenniemi 2009, p. 2). Additionally, the concept of a power struggle and the power politics of Europe was a major factor in contributing to the tension and interdependence of the ideas of empire and the nation state in Europe. .
The power struggle present in Europe, exemplifies the idea of the tension with deciding who would be given the responsibility and authority to control Europe. In order to maintain the public order of Europe, two main conceptions were present; the first being the regional stability which was recognized by events such as the Holy Alliance of 1815 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014) and the European Concert during the post Napoleonic era (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). The other concept was the idea of ''emerging international law of sovereign equals as alternative modes of stabilisation'' (Strath and Koskenniemi 2009, p. 3). The relationship that was present between the two main conceptions, were more prominent in the inception of the German empire in 1870, thus contributing toward changing the power interplay of Europe. Therefore, this contributed to tension between the national and international, in which the idea of European nation states and European empires played into power politics (Strath and Koskenniemi 2009, p. 3). Focusing more towards the interdependence of nation state and empire, is found in post Congress of Vienna, where the interdependence between empires and monarchies, illustrates the tensions that were also present once the expanding beliefs of nationhood were becoming evident.
