|
|
|
|
The Congress of
Vienna, held between September 1814 and June 1815, one of the most significant
international conferences in history, was called to remake Europe after the
downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I. The
Austrian emperor Francis I was the Congress’s host. Among the monarchs who
attended the congress the most important were Czar Alexander I of Russia and
King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. Von Metternich was the chief Austrian
negotiator and presided over the congress; Viscount Castlereagh and, for a time,
the Duke of Wellington represented Great Britain; other members of the Russian
delegation included Count Nesselrode, Count Capo d’Istria, and Carlo Andreo
Pozzo di Borgo; among the Prussian diplomats present were Karl August von
Hardenberg, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Karl von und zu Stein. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand represented France. By exploiting differences among the allies, Talleyrand soon obtained an equal voice for his country. All other European states, that had existed before the Napoleonic wars were represented, but almost all of the important work was carried out in committees under the tutelage of the four major powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great Britain). The problems confronting the congress were rather complex because the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had dismantled the structure of Europe. Although the principle of legitimacy—restoration of the pre-Revolutionary dynastic and territorial states—was often invoked ceremoniously, it was the determination to achieve a balance of power for the preservation of peace that guided the Congress’s decisions. The principle of national self-determination for the states involved was rejected.
Territorial Adjustments Major territorial changes in post-Napoleonic Europe were unavoidable. This was partly because of previous secret agreements reached among individual powers and largely because of the pressure of power politics. Major points of friction were the settlement of the Polish question, the conflicting claims of Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, and the adjustment of the borders of the numerous German states. Russia and Prussia were for the most part opposed by Austria, France, and Britain, which at one point in January of 1815, went so far as to conclude a defensive triple alliance. The shock of this crisis and of the alarming return of Napoleon I from exile so concerned the delegates that the Congress quickly began to find solutions for its difficulties. In the
place of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was created. The
Confederation's constitution was accepted on June 8, 1815, and was incorporated
into the Final Act of the Congress, signed on June 9; nine days before
Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The restoration of Louis XVIII in France and of
Ferdinand VII in Spain were also confirmed. Italy's hopes for unity were destroyed by the Congress: Naples and Sicily were reunited under Bourbon rule; the Papal States were restored; Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla were given to French Empress Marie Louise for her lifetime; Tuscany and Modena were restored to the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine; the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom was set up under Austrian rule; and the formerly Venetian part of Dalmatia also went to Austria. The kingdom of Sardinia was restored and recovered Savoy, Nice, and Piedmont, and it received Liguria with Genoa. Poland was again divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Part of Poland, with Warsaw, was set up as a kingdom in union with Russia; Kraków and its surrounding territory were made a republic under the "protection and guidance" of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Prussia was awarded 3/5 of Saxony as well as large parts of Westphalia and Rhine Province. Great Britain, which more interested in acquiring colonial territories, retained the former Dutch colonies of Ceylon and Cape Colony, received parts of the West Indies at the expense of the Dutch and Spanish, kept Malta and Helgoland, and obtained a protectorate over the Ionian islands. The
former Austrian Netherlands was united with the former United Provinces as the
kingdom of the Netherlands, under the ancient princely house of Orange. Russia
received Finland from Sweden and the
congress confirmed the transfer of Norway from the Danish the Swedish.
Western Pomerania was given to Prussia, which in turn compensated Denmark
with the duchy of Lauenburg. Bavaria received its nearly its present-day
boundaries, as did Württemberg and Baden. Switzerland was enlarged, and its
neutrality guaranteed. Consequences Although the territorial changes brought about by the Congress of Vienna did not last for very long, they represented a practical solution and an attempt at dealing with Europe as a whole. The Quadruple Alliance and the Holy Alliance, intended to uphold the decisions of Vienna and to settle disputes and problems by means of conferences, were an important step toward European cooperation. Some say the most important accomplishment of the Congress was the adoption of standard rules of diplomacy. Serious defects, however, included the disregard of the growing national aspirations and the social changes that brought about the revolutions of 1848, and the failure to include the Ottoman Empire in the settlement and to deal satisfactorily with the “Eastern Question”.
|
