The Congress of Vienna settled Europe for a generation

This edited article about the Congress of Vienna originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 305 published on 18 November 1967.

The Congress of Vienna

With Paris in the hands of his enemies, and beset on all sides by their armies, the Emperor Napoleon abdicated at Fontainebleau on 11th April, 1814, and ‘retired’ to the Mediterranean island of Elba.

Representatives of the victorious Allies – Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia – congregated in Paris after Napoleon’s departure and drew up a treaty of peace with France. It was a remarkably generous one.

The first and most important question was who should now rule France, and to this there was really only one answer: the Bourbon line of Kings which had been dispossessed by the Revolution. The folly of crushing France utterly was wisely realised, and she even gained a little territory beyond her original boundaries. She also regained most of her colonies, was not asked to pay a war indemnity and was even allowed to keep the art treasures to which Napoleon had helped himself during his years of conquest.

A settlement in France, however, did not solve the problems of Europe. It was proposed in Paris that every state which had been involved in the wars should send representatives to Vienna to take part in a Congress there. The Great Powers had no intention, however, of throwing open matters of great importance to general discussion. They intended to decide such matters themselves beforehand.

During September, 1814, Europe’s most important statesmen and rulers began to arrive in Vienna, where they were magnificently entertained by the bankrupt Austrian state. But not all the representatives succumbed to the glittering social round. The greatest statesmen of Europe had come to do business.

Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, was the most illustrious of those sovereigns who came to Vienna to conduct their own diplomacy. He brought with him a handful of expert advisers. Imaginative, intelligent and headstrong, he combined lofty idealism with a strong determination to advance Russian interests, especially in neighbouring Poland.

Lord Castlereagh, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, came to Vienna anxious to ensure that Europe should be made safe from future aggression by any single nation. He worked hard to find a just solution to Europe’s many problems, and his prestige among statesmen was high.

Prince Metternich, at home in his own capital represented the Austrian Emperor, Francis II. Above all an opportunist, he made the most of Austria’s uncertain position at the Congress, and won for her more, probably, than she deserved.

After Napoleon’s departure, France could no longer be regarded as a hostile state, and Talleyrand, France’s representative at Vienna, took full advantage of this fact. Talleyrand had not survived the Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration of the Bourbon King for nothing. In spite of the fact that France had already been provided for by the Treaty of Paris, the wily statesman saw to it that his country was accounted an equal by the Great Powers, and not excluded as a defeated nation.

The smaller European powers, although represented at the Congress, had no part to play in the making of important decisions.

The thorniest problem the Congress had to face was the future of Poland. Poland had been successively partitioned in preceding centuries, and parts of it were under Russian, Prussian and Austrian sovereignty. The Polish people, however, always hoped that their country might be restored to unity.

Their plea was one which fell kindly on the ears of Tsar Alexander. He was happy to restore Poland if he could be its sovereign. Indicating the region on the map, he said, “That’s mine.” And as his troops were in possession anyway, nobody chose to fight for it.

But trouble then arose over the compensation that Prussia and Austria should receive for their losses in Poland. Prussia eventually took over a large area of Saxony – the Saxon kingdom had remained loyal to Napoleon until the end – and, in addition, important and extensive lands on both sides of the Rhine. Austria did very well for herself too. Her influence was extended in Italy with the acquisition of the kingdoms of Lombardy and Venetia. The population under Austrian rule expanded by 4 ½ millions.

Strange as it seems today, no-one considered consulting the wishes of the people who inhabited the regions which were so summarily transferred by the stroke of a pen.

While the Congress was still at a critical stage, news reached the representatives at Vienna – on 6th March, 1815 – that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was making for Paris. Magnetic as ever, Napoleon swept France off her feet, and the Bourbon King, Louis XVIII fled from his capital.

Then followed Napoleon’s famous ‘Hundred Days’ of power.

At Vienna, the startled members of the Congress rallied together, denounced Napoleon and set their great armies in motion once more. Both militarily and diplomatically, Napoleon’s last bid for power was doomed to failure. Europe would have no more of him. He struck out towards Belgium, a land that France had long desired to have within her boundaries. But on the road to Brussels, at Waterloo, he was finally defeated and his army dispersed by the armies of Wellington and Blucher (18th June, 1815).

Napoleon fled to Paris, abdicated in favour of his young son, and was captured by the British as he tried to escape from France.

France had to accept Louis XVIII again, and a new treaty had to be made.

Castlereagh and Wellington again strove for a wise peace. They won the support of Alexander I and Metternich. The little sympathy that France had for her Bourbon King must not be further undermined by a humiliating peace. But she did not get off as lightly as before. She had to give up certain regions to the Netherlands, and several fortresses to the German states. She had to pay a war indemnity of seven million francs, return the stolen art treasures to their rightful owners, and consent to Allied occupation for up to five years. As the nation that had suffered least financially, France was not unduly troubled by these terms. Indeed, the indemnity was speedily paid.

At Vienna, the Congress was brought to a close with the signing of the Final Act – incorporating the most important decisions – on 9th June, 1815. In addition, 27 other treaties were made there during the first half of 1815.

The Congress of Vienna can be criticised on many counts, but the negotiations there gave Europe more than a generation of peace.