Transcript The Congress of Vienna - Mrs. G`s History Class

Ms, Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS
Chappaqua, NY
Europe in 1812
T he Congress of Vienna
(September 1, 1814 – June 9, 1815)
Coin Commemorating the Opening
of the Congress of Vienna
Key Players
at Vienna
Foreign Minister,
Viscount Castlereagh (Br.)
Tsar Alexander I
(Rus.)
The “Host”
Prince Klemens von
Metternich (Aus.)
King Frederick
William III (Prus.)
Foreign Minister, Charles
Maurice de Tallyrand (Fr.)
Main Objectives
e 1st- Establish a new balance of power in Europe,
which would:
 prevent imperialism within Europe, such
as the Napoleonic empire
 maintain the peace between the great
powers.
e 2nd- Prevent political revolutions, such as the
French Revolution, and maintain the status quo.
The Congress Achieved:
• A fair policy of no great rewards and no great punishments
• A balanced settlement which ensured no major conflict for forty years
(the Crimean War, 1854-6) and then until 1914
• was still generous to the defeated France, so as not to give rise to
French feelings of revenge
• adopted a policy to restore the status quo ante bellum [the situation as
it was before the war] — a return to 1793 as far as possible.
• restored monarchies across Europe
• ignored demands for greater democracy and nationalism; this led to
the majority of conflicts in the Nineteenth Century, between and within
countries
While efforts to restore monarchies seemed
fair in the short term, this opposed the
gathering forces that modernization and the
industrial revolution would bring with it.
Dual Revolutions
1. The Industrial Revolution,
1.
a fundamental change in economic circumstances which caused
profound political and social change.
2. Political revolutions which involve one or a combination of both of the
following:
1.
LIBERALISM,
1. the drive to achieve equality of opportunity which motivated the
revolutionary leadership in the English, American, and French
Revolutions.
2. NATIONALISM,
1. meaning the drive to achieve national unity, replacing systems of the
old regime with systems of government based on mass support by
people from all classes of the society.
2. The ruler/subject relationship was to be replaced by the citizen
relationship.
Changes Made at Vienna (1)
V France was deprived of all
territory conquered by Napoléon.
V Russia was given most of Duchy
of Warsaw (Poland).
V Strong border states were created around
France: The Netherlands, The Rhine region,
Northern Italy
V A Germanic Confederation of 30+ states
(including Prussia) was created from the
previous 300, under Austrian rule.
V Outlawed Atlantic Slave Trade
Implications of the Congress
• The confederation of German states and the re-division of Italy led
to unification
• The buffer state of the Netherlands did not last long. The Belgians
removed Dutch control over their country in 1830.
• Britain became THE European colonial power, even though they got
no land on mainland Europe
• Liberalism and nationalism in Europe was halted, temporarily. It
was not crushed
• Russia gained Poland and Finland and entered western Europe as a
major power and from 1815 onwards played a regular and important
part in European diplomacy.
• This Congress established a “Congress System” where diplomats
tried to use a gentleman’s agreement to achieve peace. This was
the first sign of international cooperation.
Europe A fter the Congress of Vienna
W hat was the
legacy of the
Congress of
Vienna?