Picking Up the

Pieces: The
Congress of Vienna
 Objectives
1. Explain what the Congress of
Vienna was.
2. Define and explain “balance of
power.”
3. Define and explain “legitimacy.”
4. Define and explain “nationalism.”
Europe in 1812
The Congress of Vienna
(September 1, 1814 – June 9, 1815)
 Main Objectives
• Undo everything that Napoléon had done:
• Reduce France to its old boundaries;
French frontier were pushed back to 1790
level (to the beginning of the French
Revolution).
• Restore as many of the old monarchies as
possible that had lost their thrones during
Napoleon’s reign.
• Supported the resolution: There is always
an alternative to conflict.
 Key Players
at Vienna

Tsar Alexander I Foreign Minister,

(Rus.) Viscount Castlereagh (Br.)

The “Host”
Prince Klemens von
Metternich (Aus.)

King Frederick
Foreign Minister, Charles
William III (Prus.) Maurice de Tallyrand (Fr.)
Prince Klemens
von Metternich
• The host and most
influential representative
at Congress of Vienna.
• Metternich was a
conservative; he was
opposed to revolution and
preferred gradual change.
• Sought stability, law, and
order over the civil
liberties and rights.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/
Metternich_(c._1835-40).jpg
Two Key Principles Established

at Vienna
• Balance of Power
• Legitimacy
• The leaders of the big five countries wanted a
balance of power, which is a political
situation in which no nation is strong
enough to endanger another.
• They also wanted the stability and continuity of
legitimate governments (governments with
the hereditary right to rule); they did not
want more revolutions.
9

Goals of the Congress of Vienna

1. PREVENT ACTS OF FUTURE AGGRESSION
– Surround France with strong countries.
– Make the weak countries around France stronger.
 
2. TO RESTORE A BALANCE OF POWER: redraw boundaries
so no country can dominate Europe again

3. “TURN BACK THE CLOCK.”

•Restore Europe’s royal families to their thrones.
•Legitimacy: The hereditary right of a monarch to rule.
•Suppress future revolutions and liberal ideas.
•Compensation: countries that fought against France should
receive either land or money
 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
1
1

Congress of Vienna
4. Could not prevent the spread of nationalist
ideas.
Revolts by nationalist groups for
unifications or greater autonomy rose in
Central Europe.
In Britain, the Reform Bill of 1832
extended the vote to most members of the
middle-class, however it failed to produce a
true democratic government for all citizens.
 And One Major Effect

• The decisions made by the Congress of

Vienna kicked off a wave of
nationalism in a number of European
Countries.
• Nationalism is the belief that peoples’
greatest loyalty should be to nation of
people who share common culture or
history, not to king or empire.
Europe in 1812
Balance of Power in Europe Post-Congress
French Power Under Napoleon
French Power After the Congress of
Vienna
 Changes in the Balance of Power
• France was lost all
territory conquered by Napoléon.
• Russia was given most of Duchy
of Warsaw (Poland).
• Switzerland made an independent country.
• Group of 39 German states loosely joined together as a
Germanic Confederation dominated by Austria and
Prussia.
• Austria was given back territory it lost, plus more in
Germany and Italy.
• Austrian Netherlands and Dutch Republic united to
form Kingdom of the Netherlands.
After the Congress, the Balance of
Power was more like this…
Than this.
 Quadruple and Holy Alliances

• Metternich desired to maintain the status quo

and make the Vienna treaties permanent

• Quadruple Alliance of 1815

– Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia
– France joined in 1818
– Pledged to put down democratic or nationalistic revolts

• Holy Alliance
– Organized by Tsar Alexander I of Russia
– Most European monarchs joined
– Pledged to govern with charity, justice, and peace
• But none of them did so
 LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE

Male property WHO Monarchs and

owners SHOULD nobles
RULE
Protect basic GOALS OF Stability and
GOVERNMENT
rights to liberty Order
and property

Republic with FORM OF Monarchy

GOVERNMENT
constitution
and separation
of powers
Laissez faire ECONOMY Controlled by
Capitalism nobles

Freedom of RELIGION Established

religion Church
 Monarchs Restored by the
Congress of Vienna

Louis XVIII of France Ferdinand VII of Spain Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
 Establishing Legitimacy,
Containing Revolution
• Monarchs in France, Spain, and in some
Italian and Central European states
restored. Powers affirmed principle of
legitimacy; hoped monarchs would
encourage stability.
• They believed that monarchs were the
ones that had the right to rule.
They Wanted Rulers Like This
Guy…
Not This Guy
Map of the Germanic Confederation
 Nationalism, and the Long-Term
Legacy of the Congress of Vienna
• Nationalism spread to Italy, Germany,
Greece, and other locations placed under
foreign control.

• For all its flaws, the Congress of Vienna

managed to create a stable Europe for the
next 100 years (until World War I).
 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

• International peace – no general war in Europe until

World War I a hundred years later