Encyclopedia
The
Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in
Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman
Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in
Vienna, Austria, from September 1, 1814, to June 9, 1815. Its purpose was to redraw the continent's political map after the defeat of
Napoleonic France the previous spring.
The discussions continued despite the ex-Emperor
Napoleon I's return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815, and the Congress's Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat at
Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Technically, one might note that the "Congress of Vienna" never actually occurred, as the Congress never met in plenary session, with most of the discussions occurring in informal sessions among the
Great Powers.
The Congress was concerned with determining the entire shape of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms of peace with France, which had already been decided by the Treaty of Paris, signed a few months earlier, on May 30, 1814.
Participants
At the congress, the
United Kingdom was represented first by its Foreign Secretary,
Viscount Castlereagh; after Castlereagh's return to England in February 1815, by the
Duke of Wellington; and in the last weeks, after Wellington left to face Napoleon in the
Hundred Days, by the Earl of Clancarty.
Austria was repres]\nted by
Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Foreign Minister, and by his deputy, Baron Wessenberg.
Prussia was represented by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor, and the diplomat and scholar
Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Louis XVIII's France was represented by its foreign minister,
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Although
Russia's official delegation was led by the foreign minister,
Count Nesselrode, Tsar
Alexander I for the most part acted on his own behalf. Initially, the representatives of the four victorious powers hoped to exclude the French from serious participation in the negotiations, but Talleyrand managed to skillfully insert himself into their inner councils in the first weeks of the negotiations.
The Allies' indecision on how to conduct their affairs without provoking a united protest from the lesser powers led to the calling of a preliminary conference on protocol, to which both Talleyrand and the
Marquis of Labrador,
Spain's representative, were invited on September 30, 1814. Congress Secretary Friedrich von Gentz would report that "The intervention of Talleyrand and Labrador has hopelessly upset all our plans. Talleyrand protested against the procedure we have adopted and soundly [be]rated us for two hours. It was a scene I shall never forget." The embarrassed representatives of the Allies replied that the document concerning the protocol they had arranged actually meant nothing. "If it means so little, why did you sign it?" snapped Labrador.
Talleyrand’s policy, directed as much by national as personal ambitions, demanded the close but by no means amicable relationship he had with Labrador. Talleyrand regarded Labrador with "Olympian disdain"; of Talleyrand, the testy Spaniard would remark: "that cripple, unfortunately, is going to Vienna." Talleyrand skirted additional articles suggested by Labrador: he had no intention of handing over the 12,000
afrancesados , with whom he had shady business connections, nor the bulk of the documents, paintings, pieces of fine art, and works of hydrography and natural history that had been looted from the archives, palaces, churches and cathedrals of Spain.
Most of the work at the Congress was performed by the five main powers .
On some issues, these powers cooperated with:
...
.
Most of the delegations, however, had nothing much to do at the Congress, and the host, Emperor
Francis of Austria, held lavish entertainments to keep them occupied. This led to the Prince de Ligne's famous comment that "
le Congrès ne marche pas; il danse."
Territorial changes
...
was transferred to
Sweden ...
,
Baden,
Hesse-Darmstadt, and
Nassau under the mediatizations of 1801-1806 were recognized. Bavaria also gained control of the Rhenish Palatinate and parts of the Napoleonic Duchy of Würzburg and
Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Hesse-Darmstadt, in exchange for giving up the Duchy of Westphalia to Prussia, was granted the city of
Mainz.
- Austria regained control of the Tirol and Salzburg; of the former Illyrian Provinces, and of Lombardy-Venetia in Italy. Former Austrian territory in Southwest Germany remained under the control of Württemberg and Baden, and the Austrian Netherlands were also not recovered.
- Habsburg princes were returned to control of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena
- The Papal States were restored to their former extent, with the exception of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, which remained part of France.
- Britain was confirmed in control of Cape Colony, South Africa; Tobago; Ceylon; and various other colonies in Africa and Asia. Other colonies, most notably the Dutch East Indies and Martinique, were restored to their previous owners.
- The King of Sardinia was restored in Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, and was given control of Genoa
- The Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were given to Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife.
- The Duchy of Lucca was created for the House of Bourbon-Parma, which would have reversionary rights to Parma after the death of Marie Louise.
- The Bourbon Ferdinand IV, King of Sicily was restored to control of the Kingdom of Naples, but only after Joachim Murat, the king installed by Bonaparte, rose up and supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days.
- The slave trade was condemned
- Freedom of navigation was guaranteed for many rivers, including the Rhine.
Polish-Saxon crisis
The most contentious subject at the Congress was the so-called Polish-Saxon Crisis. The Russians and Prussians proposed a deal in which much of the Prussian and Austrian shares of the partitions of
Poland would go to Russia, which would create an independent Polish Kingdom in personal union with Russia with Alexander as king. In exchange, the Prussians would receive as compensation all of
Saxony, whose King was considered to have forfeited his throne because he had not abandoned Napoleon soon enough. The Austrians, French, and British did not approve of this plan, and, at the inspiration of Talleyrand, signed a secret treaty on January 3, 1815, agreeing to go to war, if necessary, to prevent the Russo-Prussian plan from coming to accomplishment.
Although none of the three powers was particularly ready for war, the Russians did not call the bluff, and an amicable settlement was soon worked out, by which Russia received most of the Napoleonic
Duchy of Warsaw as a "Kingdom of Poland" , but did not receive the district of
Poznan , which was given to Prussia, nor
Kraków, which became a
free city. Prussia received 40% of Saxony , with the remainder returned to King Frederick Augustus I .
Other changes
The Congress's principal results, apart from its confirmation of France's loss of the territories annexed in 1795 - 1810, which had already been settled by the Treaty of Paris, were the enlargement of
Russia, and
Prussia, which acquired Westphalia and the northern Rhineland. The consolidation of
Germany from the nearly 300 states of the
Holy Roman Empire into a much more manageable thirty-nine states was confirmed. These states were formed into a loose
German Confederation under the leadership of Prussia and Austria.
Representatives at the Congress agreed to numerous other territorial changes.
Norway was transferred from
Denmark to
Sweden. Austria gained Lombardy-Venetia in Northern Italy, while much of the rest of North-Central Italy went to Habsburg dynasts . The Pope was restored to the
Papal States. The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored to its mainland possessions, and also gained control of the Republic of
Genoa. In Southern Italy, Napoleon's brother-in-law,
Joachim Murat, was originally allowed to retain his Kingdom of
Naples, but following his support of Napoleon in the
Hundred Days, he was deposed, and the Bourbon
Ferdinand IV was restored to the throne.
A large
United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created for the Prince of Orange, including both the old
United Provinces and the formerly Austrian-ruled territories in the Southern Netherlands.
There were other, less important territorial adjustments, including significant territorial gains for the German Kingdoms of
Hanover and
Bavaria . The
Duchy of Lauenburg was transferred from Hanover to Denmark, and
Swedish Pomerania was annexed by Prussia.
Switzerland was enlarged, and Swiss neutrality was guaranteed.
The treaty also recognized Portuguese rights to
Olivenza, but these were ignored, and the area remained under Spanish control.
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland received parts of the West Indies at the expense of the Netherlands and Spain and kept the former Dutch colonies of
Ceylon and the
Cape Colony, and also kept
Malta and
Helgoland. Under the Treaty of Paris, Britain obtained the protectorate over the
United States of the Ionian Islands and the
Seychelles.
Later criticism
The Congress of Vienna was frequently criticized by 19th century and more recent historians for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling reaction on the continent. The Congress of Vienna was an integral part in what became known as the Conservative Order in which peace and stability were traded for the liberties and civil rights associated with the
French and
American Revolutions.
In the twentieth century, though, many historians have come to admire the statesmen at the Congress, whose work, it was said, had prevented another European general war for nearly a hundred years . Among these is
Henry Kissinger, whose doctoral dissertation was on the Congress of Vienna. Prior to the opening of the Paris peace conference of 1918, the British Foreign Office commissioned a history of the Congress of Vienna to serve as an example for its own delegates to achieve an equally successful peace.
Notes
See also
