Transcript Congress of Vienna

Putting Europe Back Together:
Congress of Vienna (1815)
• 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?
Nationalism in Napoleonic Europe
 What is nationalism?
o Common definition is a passion/zeal for ones country
o Not what we mean when we talk about nationalism in the 19th
Century
 What nation comes to mind when we think nationalism?
The United States
 Some look at the American Revolution as the birth of
nationalism
 Not true: some argument over it, but it’s largely
recognized that the American Revolution didn’t happen
because of a question of identity (indeed 1/3 of Americans
still considered themselves British)
 America is separated by regional differences
o Take pride in their state! E.g. I’m a Texan!
o Nationalism is not having a zeal for ones country
 Identifying a common culture, tradition,
language, etc. Seeing oneself and others as a
member of a nation
o The French Revolution is the birth of nationalism
 The first time in modern history that the people
of a state recognize themselves as members of a
nation
 What would you say was the turning point of the French
Revolution? Death of Louis XVI
o Revolutionaries called a war against the tyrants of Europe,
hoping to end monarchism.
o Focus: Liberate other countries from oppression
 When the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies are
conquering Europe, what do you think they are doing in the
process?
o The Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars
will catalyze the spread of the values of the French
Revolution
o Armies are conquering Europe! The Army is acting as a
vector for these values
o When Napoleon conquers an area various reforms are put into
place
Also meant to gather support: bolster
the area for defensive purposes, and
allow the extract of raw materials
 Problem:
o Do you think these nations are going to just accept foreign
rule?
o Armies didn’t just reform states: meant to extract materials for
France
 Italy was banned from importing certain types of machinery
and had a disadvantageous tariff imposed
 Netherlands: The Dutch economy, once prosperous, was
brought to a standstill
 Spain: Saw the French as conquerors not liberators
 Poland: Napoleon promised independence, but Poles started to
doubt his sincerity and look to Prussia/Russia for liberation
 Germany
o The French Revolution declared a war on tyrants, yet Napoleon
seemed to be oblivious to the irony
 Also not necessarily aware of the side effects that the spread
of nationalism and liberalism will have
o Many people at first had a lot of admiration for Napoleon.
 Germany had a lot of writers, philosophers, composers
(Beethoven) who admired Napoleon
 Began to see him as a tyrant
 Beginning of an anti-French attitude that would last straight
through to World War II
o Germany a series of small states (some 300) with the largest being
Prussia
 Remember: Regional identities, didn’t see themselves as
German
 German writers, philosophers, etc. start to argue over the
existence of a “Germany”
 People who shared a common history, religion, tradition,
and language
 What do you think their next step is?
 Some rumblings of unification… mostly amongst intellectuals
and idealists, most aren’t interested in it
The Big Players
Russia: Tsar Alexander I
Britain: Lord Castlereagh
Austria: Metternich
Prussia: King Frederick William III
France’s Talleyrand
Congress of Vienna
(1814-1815)
• European monarchs sought to turn back the clock to 1789
and restore Europe’s 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
Basic Agenda
1. Decide what to do with France
2. Maintain a balance in power in Europe
3. Restoration of European monarchies
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
General Principles
Balance of Power
Legitimacy
Compensation
Liberalism
Conservatism
Nationalism
Balance of Power: so that no one country can ever
dominate Europe again. France has a proper place in
that balance, so shouldn’t be overly weakened.
Legitimacy: the desire of the great powers to restore
rulers and frontiers as they had existed prior to the
FR and Napoleonic Wars, insofar as it was
possible/desirable.
Compensation: Victorious allies (esp. Britain and
Russia) expected to be rewarded for their efforts in
defeating Napoleon, and penalized countries that had
helped Napoleon.
Liberalism: philosophy that supports guarantees for
individual rights, liberties, legal equality, and
popular sovereignty
Conservatism: philosophy that supports the
traditional social and political order and resists
changes; condemn the FR b/c it upset the traditional
way of governing by monarchy and nobility
Nationalism: philosophy including loyalty and
devotion to a nation and the belief that each nation
has the right to govern itself, and not be dominated
by another nation
Compensation and
Legitimacy
• Compensation
– Napoleon’s enemies rewarded with land
– Other nations compensated for land taken
– Redrew the map of Europe
• Legitimacy
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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
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
Europe After the Congress of Vienna
Fate of Nationalism
• People had no say over territorial changes
• Language, nationality, and religion weren’t
taken into consideration
• Ideas of democracy and self-government were
rejected by European leadership
• Soon enough, concessions were made
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
Buffer States
• Designed to prevent France from again becoming
a threat
• Holland and Sardinia enlarged and strengthened
• European nations guaranteed Switzerland’s
neutrality
• Keep Russia from acquiring much more territory
 Prussia receives some territory on the Rhine
River
Does that sound familiar? The Rhine?
Recall back to Post-WWI Germany…
 Later discovered to be one of the world’s
largest coal deposits
 Allows for Prussia/Germany’s rapid
industrialization/militarization
Results of the
Congress of Vienna
• Concert of Europe – group of leading nations which periodically met to
discuss issues regarding stability
• Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and later the defeated France all join
in an alliance
• Planned to meet annually, and join together to put down anything that could
threaten the status quo whether it’s a radical movement or another nation
• 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)
Those wars which did break out were in large part
expressions of the leading European countries’ own
desires for nationalism and unification.
Crimean War (1854-1856)
Austro-Prussian War (1866)
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
 Conservatism
o What does this whole Congress of Vienna start to sound like?
o NOT a League of Nations or a United Nations
o Two interests
 Maintaining the status quo and balance of power
 Restoring the old ways
o They are fine with war, so long as it doesn’t disrupt the balance of
power
 Small conflicts between one another is fine
o Restoring the old ways
 Want to stop the values and ideas of the French Revolution
from spreading or growing
 What happens if ideas of nationalism and liberalism
spread?
 Consider a nation like Austria, that controls
territories made up of Germanic, Hungarian,
Saxon, Bavarian, Silsesians, Hanoverians, Italian,
Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, etc.
 What happens to Austria if those people start
seeing themselves as a people and a nation?
oThey are going to lose out, and one day some
Serbian secret society will, in the name of
independence, stage a political assassination
against the Arch-duke of Austria and start the
next major European war.
oThese people are going to want to break away
from the nation, they want to be independent
 Lose power
o They believe that the majority of the people can’t
effectively govern themselves
 True to some extent, can’t trust wage labourers
and farmers to make important political
decisions. They just don’t have the education.
o The Congress itself is a return to old values
 The congress wasn’t so much a diplomatic event but an
assembly of people engaged on lavish expenditures and
dinner parties
 The British representative and his wife took dancing
lessons, for example.
o Furthermore, they aren’t necessarily against change.
They are against rapid advanced change
 Recall back to Edmund Burke and his thesis on the
French Revolution
 Klemens von Metternich was the most influential
(if not dominating force) at the discussion table
during the Congress of Vienna.
 You can tell he’s a noble because of the “von”
Legacy of Congress of Vienna
• “Balance of Power”
doctrine
• Restoration of monarchies
• New political map of
Europe
• New political philosophies
(liberalism and
conservatism)
Prussian
gains
Saxony
Austrian Netherlands
Finland &
Sweden
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?