The Congress of Vienna

The story

After the storm

In April 1814 Napoleon had surrendered, and Europe, after more than twenty years of almost uninterrupted war, breathed again. But there were many problems to solve. What should be done about France? How should the conquered and reconquered territories be divided? How could they stop a new revolution or a new conqueror from starting another war? To decide, the rulers and ministers of the victorious countries arranged to meet in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian empire, in the autumn of 1814.

It was an unprecedented event: emperors, kings, princes and diplomats arrived from almost all of Europe, with a retinue of secretaries, cooks, musicians and servants. The host was the Emperor of Austria, Francis I, but the proceedings were led by his foreign minister, Prince Klemens von Metternich. There were representatives of Russia, with Tsar Alexander I in person, of Prussia, of Great Britain, with Lord Castlereagh, and of defeated France, with a highly skilled diplomat, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand.

Dances and negotiations

The congress, which lasted from September 1814 to June 1815, was famous for its balls, parties, concerts and hunts: Vienna had an intense social life. An old prince, Charles de Ligne, joked: “The congress dances, but it does not move forward”. In fact the parties also served to create chances to meet, and to pick up confidences, because a great deal was discussed behind the scenes. The real negotiations took place in small private meetings of the representatives of the major powers.

The victors were guided by three principles. The first was “legitimacy”: the rulers driven out by the revolution and by Napoleon had to return to their thrones, because they were the “legitimate” ones by birth. The second was balance: no power should become so strong as to dominate the others. The third was compensation: the countries that had fought against Napoleon were to gain territory in return.

The decisions

France went back to its borders of 1790–1792, with King Louis XVIII, the brother of Louis XVI, on the throne. Talleyrand, with great skill, prevented it from being treated too harshly, and even put it back among the great powers. Around France the neighbouring countries were strengthened: the Netherlands were joined to Belgium in a single kingdom, and Piedmont grew by gaining Genoa. Prussia received territories in the Rhineland and in Saxony; Russia, most of Poland; Great Britain, important colonies, including the Cape of Good Hope and Malta; Switzerland was declared neutral.

In Germany, where there had previously been hundreds of states, a Confederation of thirty-nine states was created, led by Austria. In Italy, the old order was largely restored, but split into many states: the Kingdom of Sardinia, in the north-west; Lombardy–Venetia, under Austria; the duchies of Parma, Modena and Lucca; the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; the Papal States, in the centre; the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in the south. Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy was wiped out, and Austria became the dominant power on the peninsula.

The Congress also condemned the slave trade in a declaration, and set out free navigation on the great rivers and rules for diplomats. Soon afterwards, in September 1815, the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia signed the “Holy Alliance”, a pact to defend Christian principles and order together against new revolutions.

The Restoration

This period, in which attempts were made to bring Europe back to the order that had existed before the revolution, is called the “Restoration”. The great powers met regularly to settle crises and to act against revolutionary uprisings: this was the “Concert of Europe”. But the Restoration did not manage to wipe out the new ideas completely: the desire for freedom, for constitutions and for national independence stayed alive, and expressed itself in secret societies such as the Carbonari, and in revolutionary uprisings in 1820–21, 1830–31 and 1848.