The Congress of Vienna by
Jean-Baptiste Isabey, (1819). Although representatives from all the states which had participated in the wars were invited, the principal negotiations were conducted by the "Big Four," Britain, Russia, France, and Austria.
The
Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by the Austrian statesman
Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in
Vienna from November, 1814 to June, 1815. Its objective was to settle the many issues arising from the
French Revolutionary Wars, the
Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the
Holy Roman Empire. This objective resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establish the boundaries of France, Napoleon's duchy of
Warsaw, the
Netherlands, the states once part of the
Confederation of the Rhine, the German province of
Saxony, and various Italian territories, and the creation of a
spheres of influence through which France, Austria, Russia and Britain brokered local and regional problems. The Congress of Vienna was a model for the
League of Nations and
United Nations due to its goal to constitute peace by all parties.
The immediate background was
France's defeat and surrender in
May,
1814, which brought an end to twenty-five years of nearly continuous war. Negotiations continued despite the outbreak of fighting triggered by
Napoleon's dramatic return from exile and resumption of power in France during the
Hundred Days of March-July, 1815. The Congress's "Final Act" was signed nine days before his final defeat at
Waterloo on June 18, 1815.
An unusual feature of the "Congress of Vienna" was that it was not properly a Congress: it never met in
plenary session, and most of the discussions occurred in informal, face-to-face, sessions among the
Great Powers of France, United Kingdom, Austria, and Russia, and sometimes Prussia, with limited or no participation by other delegates. On the other hand, the Congress was the first occasion in history where on a continental scale people came together in place to hammer out a treaty, instead of relying mostly on messengers and messages between the several capitals. The Congress of Vienna settlement, despite later changes, formed the framework for European international politics until the outbreak of the
First World War in
1914.
Preliminaries
Partial settlements had already occurred at the
Treaty of Paris between France and the
Sixth Coalition, and the
Treaty of Kiel which covered issues raised regarding Scandinavia. The Treaty of Paris had determined that a "general congress" should be held in
Vienna, and that invitations would be issued to "all the Powers engaged on either side in the present war." The opening was scheduled for July 1814.
Participants
- Although Russia's official delegation was led by the foreign minister, Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, Czar Alexander I was also in Vienna and regarded himself, in fact as well as in name, his own sole plenipotentiary.
The three other signatories of the Treaty of Paris, 1814Others- * Hanover, then in a personal union with the British crown. (King George III had refused to recognize the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and maintained a separate diplomatic staff as Elector of Hannover to conduct the affairs of the family estate, the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, until the results of the Congress were concluded establishing the Kingdom of Hanover.)
Virtually every state in Europe had a delegation in Vienna – more than 200 states and princely houses were represented at the Congress. In addition, there were representatives of cities, corporations, religious organizations (for instance, abbeys) and special interest groups (for instance, there was a delegation representing German publishers, demanding a copyright law and freedom of the press).
Course of the Congress
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 "her inner councils" in the first weeks of negotiations. He allied himself to a Committee of Eight powers (including Spain, Sweden, and Portugal) to control the negotiations. Once Talleyrand was able to use this committee to make himself a part of the inner negotiations, he then left this committee.
The major 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 Talleyrand and the
Marquis of Labrador,
Spain's representative, were invited on September 30, 1814.
Congress Secretary
Friedrich von Gentz reported, "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, whom Talleyrand regarded with disdain. Labrador later remarked of Talleyrand: "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 - Spanish fugitives, sympathetic to France, who had sworn fealty to
Joseph Bonaparte (with whom he had unscrupulous 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.
Final Act
The Final Act, embodying all the separate treaties, was signed on June 9, 1815, (a few days before the
Battle of Waterloo). Its provisions included:
- Russia was given most of the Duchy of Warsaw (Poland) and was allowed to keep Finland (which it had annexed from Sweden in 1809 and held until 1917).
- A German Confederation of 38 states was created from the previous 360 of the Holy Roman Empire, under the presidency of the Austrian Emperor. Only portions of the territory of Austria and Prussia were included in the Confederation.
Polish-Saxon crisis
The most controversial 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 a Polish Kingdom in personal union with Russia and Alexander as king. In compensation, the Prussians would receive all of
Saxony, whose King was considered to have forfeited his throne as 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 fruition.
Though none of the three powers were ready for war, the Russians did not call the bluff, and an amicable settlement was set on October 24, 1814, by which Russia received most of the Napoleonic
Duchy of Warsaw as a "Kingdom of Poland" - called
Congress Poland - but did not receive the district of
Poznań,
Grand Duchy of Poznań, which was given to Prussia, nor
Kraków, which became a
free city. Prussia received 40% of Saxony - later known as the
Province of Saxony, with the remainder returned to King
Frederick Augustus I -
Kingdom of Saxony.
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, (which gained most of the
Duchy of Warsaw) and
Prussia, which acquired
Westphalia and the northern Rhineland. The consolidation of
Germany from the nearly 300 states of the
Holy Roman Empire (dissolved in 1806) into a much more manageable thirty-eight states (4 of which were free cities) 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 the king of Sweden, this sparked the nationalist movement which led to the establishment of the
Kingdom of Norway on
May 17, 1814. Austria gained
Lombardy-Venetia in Northern Italy, while much of the rest of North-Central Italy went to Habsburg dynasties (the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the
Duchy of Modena, and the
Duchy of Parma). The
Papal States were restored to the Pope. 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 his support of Napoleon in the
Hundred Days led to the restoration of the Bourbon
Ferdinand IV 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 (which gained
East Frisia from Prussia and various other territories in Northwest Germany) and
Bavaria (which gained the Rhenish Palatinate and territories in
Franconia). The
Duchy of Lauenburg was transferred from Hanover to Denmark, and
Swedish Pomerania was annexed by Prussia. Switzerland was enlarged, and Swiss neutrality was established.
Swiss mercenaries had played a significant role in European Wars for a couple of hundred years,
and the intention was to put a stop to these actívities once and for all.
During the wars,
Portugal had lost its province of
Olivença to Spain and, at the Congress of Vienna, wanted it back.
Portugal is historically the oldest ally of the
United Kingdom, and with its support succeeded in having their right to the re-incorporation of
Olivença decreed in Article 105 of the Final Act, which stated that the Congress "understood the occupation of
Olivença to be illegal and recognized Portugal's rights". Portugal ratified the Final Act in 1815 but the Spanish would not sign. Thus
Spain became the most important hold-out against the Congress of Vienna. Deciding in the end that it was better to become part of Europe than stand aside alone,
Spain finally accepted the Treaty on May 7, 1817, however,
Olivença and its surroundings have never actually returned to Portuguese control and this question is still unsolved. 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
Heligoland. 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 nineteenth-century and more recent historians for ignoring national and liberal impulses, and for imposing a stifling
reaction on the Continent. It was an integral part in what became known as the
Conservative Order, in which the liberties and civil rights associated with the
American and
French Revolutions were de-emphasized, and peace and stability were purchased instead.
In the 20th century, however, many historians have come to admire the statesmen at the Congress, whose work prevented another widespread European war for nearly a hundred years (1815–1914). Among these is
Henry Kissinger, who wrote his doctoral dissertation,
A World Restored (1957), on it. 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 to its own delegates of how to achieve an equally successful peace. Besides, the decisions of the Congress were made by the Five Great Powers (Austria, France, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom), and not all the countries of Europe could extend their rights at the Congress. For example, Italy became a mere "geographical expression" as divided into eight parts (Parma, Modena, Tuscany, Lombardy, Venetia, Piedmont-Sardinia, the Papal States, Naples-Sicily) under the control of different powers, while Poland was under the influence of Russia after the Congress. The arrangements that made the Five Great Powers finally led to future disputes. The Congress of Vienna preserved the balance of power in Europe, but it could not check the spread of revolutionary movements on the continent.
See also
