The Congress of Vienna of 1814-15, which gave rise to the Restoration and the contemporary age

The Congress of Vienna It was a conference held in Schönbrunn Palacein the capital of the then Austrian Empire. It opened theNovember 1, 1814 and finished the June 9, 1815. He was summoned to discuss the territorial and political reorganisation of Europe after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic epic. Representatives of many European states participated in the Congress, but the most important decisions were taken by four powers: Austria, Russia, Prussia and the United KingdomThe Congress established two fundamental principles, that of balance and that of legitimacy, giving rise to the period of Restorationin which the European monarchies tried to undo the changes that had taken place since the French Revolution. The delegates gathered in Vienna did not realize that some changes were irreversible, but they managed to define international relations in a way that ensured the continent a long period of peaceThe Congress of Vienna is so important that, according to the traditional division of historical eras, it marks the transition from the modern age to the contemporary age.

What was the Congress of Vienna and who participated?

The Congress of Vienna was convened to discuss the structure of Europe after the upheavals caused by the French Revolution, Napoleon’s campaigns and following the First Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814 after Bonaparte’s exile on Elba. The proceedings opened on 1 November 1814 at Schönbrunn Palace.

All the major European countries were represented, but the most important decisions were taken by the four powers that had been most active in the wars against Napoleon and had in fact emerged victorious:

• theAustriarepresented by the Minister of State (and future Chancellor) Klemens Lothar, Prince of Metternich;
• there Prussiarepresented by Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg;
• there Russiarepresented by Tsar Alexander I and Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode;
• The United Kingdomrepresented first by the Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh, then by the Duke of Wellington and finally by the Earl of Clancarty.

France was also present, represented by Charles Maurice de Talleyrandwho had been Napoleon’s foreign minister but later sided with the Bourbons.

The progress of the works and the return of Napoleon

Most of the decisions were made in small meetingsThe only plenary meeting of the Congress was the one called to sign the Final Act.

The work did not stop in March 1815, when the news arrived that Napoleon had fled from Elba and had regained the French throne. The powers gathered in Vienna organized a coalition to attack France, rejecting the peace proposals, and continued the work of the congress. The Congress closed on June 9 with the signing of theFinal actwhich collected the treaties previously concluded in restricted meetings. The Act was signed nine days before the Battle of Waterloo, which sanctioned the definitive defeat of Napoleon and allowed the decisions of the Congress to be applied.

For its time, the Congress was highly innovative: until then, diplomatic negotiations had always taken place through exchanges of notes and bilateral meetings; in Vienna, a summit was convened for the first time with delegates from all the countries affected by the decisions. However, the diplomats did not only devote themselves to politics: on the sidelines of the congress proceedings, meetings were organised numerous parties and dances.

The main decisions of the Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna established two fundamental principles:

• The principle of equilibriumaccording to which no European state was to acquire a position of supremacy over the others.
• The principle of legitimacy, under which the sovereigns deposed during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period had the right to return to the throne. In France, for example, the Bourbon monarchy was restored. However, the principle was not applied perfectly.

Territorial changes

The Congress redrew the map of Europe, incorporating some changes decided by the treaties signed after Napoleon’s defeat. Among the most important changes, it is worth mentioning the foundation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (which also included Belgium), to act as a buffer between France and the German Confederation. Furthermore, the France lost all the territories conquered by Napoleon, the Russia expanded to the West, annexing Finland and part of the Duchy of Warsaw, the Poland was definitively dismembered, ceasing to exist as a State, and in Germany a confederation of 39 political entities was created.

Even the Italian Peninsula remained divided into various states, but not all the political entities that existed before Napoleon were restored. For example, the Republic of Venice, ceded to Austria in 1798, was not refounded.

The consequences of the Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna received a lot of criticismboth at the time of the facts and by historiography, because he proved incapable of accepting the changes that European society was undergoing. The aristocrats gathered in Vienna did not realize that the principles of liberty and equality affirmed by the French Revolution could not be completely suppressed and that one could no longer ignore theidea of ​​nationaccording to which every people had the right to establish its own State. It is no coincidence that in the nineteenth century numerous revolutionary movements of liberal and national origin took place.

From a geopolitical point of view, however, Congress guaranteed a long period of peace: the territorial structure established in Vienna, despite some changes such as the unification of Italy and Germany, will collapse only with the First World War.