Transcript The Restoration

The Restoration
The Congress of Vienna
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Gathering in Vienna in September 1814,
greatest assembly of diplomats, statesmen,
kings, princes, and clergy that Europe had
ever seen
But the major powers made the decisions
◦ Prince Metternich of Austria
◦ Czar Alexander of Russia
◦ Prince Karl von Hardenberg of Prussia
◦ Lord Castlereagh of England
All realized great powers needed to agree on
important decisions if they were going to be
effective
What about France
French diplomat Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand convinced the major powers
that France should be at the table to
support their goal of stability
 Major powers agreed and they wanted
France to become a partner in the new
peaceful Europe they wanted to create

Principle of Legitimacy
Legitimacy meant that each state had a
legal ruler (the one who ruled prior to
1789)
 Some diplomats wanted a wholesale
restoration of the old regime, but were
willing to make reasonable compromises
 Most disagreements came in the areas of
territory

Germany
Compromises were met with territory in
Poland, Italy
 The German lands were organized into
thirty-nine separate sovereignties (there had
been more than three hundred states before
Napoleon)
 A German Confederation of these states
was established, but it had no real power
 The desires of National unity of the people
in Germany and Italy were ignored by the
congress
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One of the reasons why Germany was not
made a single state was that both Prussia
and Austria had some claim to German
leadership. Both wanted to prevent the
other from leading Germany

A united German state was also seen as a
threat to France and Russia, therefore the
choice was made to keep it as a patchwork
of separate principalities
The Result
The accord at Vienna was the most
significant diplomatic agreement of the
19th Century
 Laid a foundation for a long period of
relative peace by creating a balance of
power
 Did not deal with rising ideas of liberal
and nationalist aspirations leading to
revolutions
 But for the next century after Vienna,
there were no major pan-European wars

The Congress System
November 1815, Britain, Austria, Prussia
and Russia signed the Quadruple
Alliance, by which they agreed to meet
periodically to maintain peace
 At the first of these meetings, in
September 1818, agreed to end
occupation of France and admit it as an
equal member of the Congress system,
thus creating a Quintuple Alliance

The Congress in Action
Uprising in Kingdom of Naples 1820,
posed a threat to Austrian authority.
Metternich asked the Congress to allow
him to suppress it. Britain and France
said no, but Russia and Prussia said yes.
Austrian forces crushed the rebellion
 Austrians also intervened when the Papal
states authority was being threatened

Nationalist Revolutions
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The Orthodox Greeks were under control
of the Muslim Ottoman Empire when they
rebelled they received sympathy from
France, Britain and Russia
In 1827, the three powers signed a treaty to
guarantee Greek independence and the
Ottomans let Greece become independent
in 1830
Belgium became independent in 1831 and
Belgium neutrality was recognized in a treaty
European powers were divided into a
conservative east and more liberal west
The Restoration in France
King Louis XVIII who became king of
France in 1814 would rule until his death
in 1824
 He was a constitutional monarch
 All people had civil rights and were equal
before the law, but political rights were
restricted to males of the propertied and
landed classes

Ultras
Louis XVIII was not the most devout
royalist in France
 A group of “Ultras”, short for ultraroyalists was “more royalist than the king”
 They wanted to end constitutional
government, re-establish monarchical
authority, and return land taken from the
privileged groups during the Revolution
and now owned by the middle class and
peasants. Louis XVIII held them off.

Charles X
Louis’ brother Charles X openly supported
the Ultras
 On July 25th, 1830 he issued an edict that
dissolved parliament and suspended the
freedom of press. He called for an election
with an even more limited franchise
 The July Ordinances brought an
immediate rebellion, the government was
overthrown (again!!!!) and Charles X went
into exile

Duke of Orleans: Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe (Charles X cousin) who had
fought in the Revolution and who had
always proclaimed constitutional principles,
became France’s new King under a new
constitution

He was known as the “Bourgeois
Monarch” and “The Citizen King”
There is no going back
The Revolution of 1830 confirmed that the
people of France still supported the
principles of 1789
 The new king reflected this. He called
himself Louis Philippe, King of the
French. Instead of Louis XIX King of
France
 The fleur-de-lis flag was replaced by the
tricolor flag of the revolution
 King often dressed in middle-class clothes,
and he associated himself with the “new
money” class of France
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