Putting Europe Back Together: Congress of Vienna (1815)

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Putting Europe Back Together Congress of Vienna
(1815)
Special Thanks to Ms. Stewart
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• What was the meeting which attempted to restore
  Europe to what it had been before the French
  Revolution and Napoleon?
•  What was the significance of the Congress of
  Vienna?
•  What is the belief that no one country should be
  more powerful than the others?
•  What was the legacy of Napoleon?
•  What was the legacy of the Congress of Vienna?

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The Big Players
Russia Tsar Alexander I
Britain Lord Castlereagh
Austria Metternich
Prussia King Frederick William III
Frances Talleyrand
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Congress of Vienna(1814-1815)

• European monarchs sought to turn back the clock
  to 1789 and restore Europes Old Regime
• Members included the Big Four and France
• Austria Prince Metternich
• England Duke of Wellington and Lord Castlereagh
• France Talleyrand
• Prussia Frederick William III, Hardenberg, and
  Humboldt
• Russia Tsar Alexander I

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Basic Agenda
1. Decide what to do with France 2.
Maintain a balance in power in Europe 3.
Restoration of European monarchies
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Metternich (1773-1859)

• Conservative leader at the Congress
• Opposed democracy and nationalism
• Claimed that he was guided by the principle of
  legitimacy lawful monarchs from the royal
  families that had ruled before Napoleon would be
  restored to power

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General Principles
Balance of Power
Legitimacy
Compensation
Liberalism
Conservatism
Nationalism
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Compensation and Legitimacy

• Compensation
• Napoleons enemies rewarded with land
• Other nations compensated for land taken
• Redrew the map of Europe
• Legitimacy
• Restoration of pre-Napoleon rulers
• House of Bourbon France, Spain, and the two
  Sicilies
• House of Braganza Portugal
• House of Orange Netherlands
• House of Savoy Sardinia
• German princes territories in the Confederation
  of the Rhine
• Pope and Catholic Church Papal States

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Territorial Changes

• Austria gained Lombardy, Modena, Parma, Tuscany,
  and Venetia (all are areas in Italy)
• England gained Cape Colony, Ceylon, Heligoland,
  Guiana, and Malta (areas in Africa, the Americas,
  and Asia)
• Holland gained Austrian Netherlands (Belgium)
• Prussia gained part of Poland, land along the
  Rhine River, 40 of Saxony, Swedish Pomerania,
  and Westphalia
• Russia gained Finland and part of Poland
• Sweden gained Norway

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Europe After the Congress of Vienna
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Fate of Nationalism

• People had no say over territorial changes
• Language, nationality, and religion werent taken
  into consideration
• Ideas of democracy and self-government were
  rejected by European leadership
• Soon enough, concessions were made

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Louis XVIII of France

• No more divine right of kings
• Charter (Constitution) granted in 1814
• Could not restore feudalism and serfdom
• Continuing religious toleration guaranteed

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Buffer States

• Designed to prevent France from again becoming a
  threat
• Holland and Sardinia enlarged and strengthened
• European nations guaranteed Switzerlands
  neutrality

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Results of the Congress of Vienna

• Concert of Europe group of leading nations
  which periodically met to discuss issues
  regarding stability
• Temporary suppression of democratic and
  nationalistic ideals
• The Principle of Intervention the great powers
  of Europe had the right to send armies into
  countries where there were revolutions in order
  to restore legitimate monarchs to power Great
  Britain did not agree with this policy
• International peace no general war in Europe
  until World War I (100 years later)
• Crimean War (1854-1856)
• Austro-Prussian War (1866)
• Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

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Legacy of Congress of Vienna

• Balance of Power doctrine
• Restoration of monarchies
• New political map of Europe
• New political philosophies (liberalism and
  conservatism)

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Review Questions

• What countries made up the Big Four at the
  Congress of Vienna?
• What were the principles of compensation and
  legitimacy?
• How did the Congress of Vienna redraw the map of
  Europe?
• What was the purpose of the Quadruple Alliance?
• What were the results of the Congress of Vienna?

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Prussian gainsSaxony
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Austrian Netherlands
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Finland Sweden
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