Essays, Notes, School Work

Section 5 The Congress of Vienna Convenes

Metternich Restores Stability

• Metternich a minister of Austria, wants to keep things they way they are stating, “The first and greatest concern for the immense majority of every nation is the stability of laws - never their change.”
• Metternich wanted security for the entire continent so he held meetings called the “Congress of Vienna.”
• He had three goals for the “Congress of Vienna”
• First he wanted to prevent the aggression of the French, by surrounding France with strong countries.
• Second he wanted to restore a balance of power, so that no country would be a threat to others.
• Third, he wanted to restore Europe's royal families to the thrones before Napoleon.
• The Containment of France
• Congress made surrounding France countries stronger
  • Austrian Netherlands and Dutch Republic combined to form Kingdom of the Netherlands.
  • Group of 39 German states joined to form German Confederation, dominated by Austria.
  • Switzerland is now an independent nation.
  • Genoa was added to the Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy.
• Balance of Power
• Leaders of Europe did not want to weaken France too much, then French might take revenge.
• If they broke up France then other countries might take it over.
• France was required to give up all the land Napoleon took over, but France remained in tact. About the same boundaries it had in 1790.
• Legitimacy
• Great powers made up the principle of legitimacy.
• Legitimacy said as many as possible rulers should remain back to their thrones before Napoleon.
  • King Louis XVIII returned back into power. He adopted a constitution and ruled as a constitutional monarch.
  • Many other rulers, though not all, returned to the throne.
• Participants in Congress of Vienna thought return old monarchs would stabilize political relations among nations.
• Until 1853 none of the five great powers caused a war with anyone.
• Some were at peace until the First World War in 1914.

Political Changes Beyond Vienna

• Congress of Vienna was a victory for conservatives.
• Kings and Princes were restored to the countries, following the goals of Metternich.
• Conservative Europe
• Late 1815, Czar Alexander ruler of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria, and King Frederick William III of Prussia entered a league called the Holy Alliance. This was a loosely bound alliance.
• Another series of alliances Metternich created was called Concert of Europe. This means other countries would help each other if revolutions broke out.
• France after 1815 was deeply divided politically.
  • Conservatives happy with monarchy of Louis XVIII wanted to make it last.
  • Liberals wanted king to share more power with chamber of Deputies and grant middle class right to vote.
  • Austria, Prussia, and small German states had ideas and factions that would contribute to revolutions in 1830 and again in 1848.
• Revolution in Latin America
• Actions of Congress of Vienna had other problems beyond Europe
• When Congress restored Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne, Spanish colonial revolts against Napoleons brother King Joseph Bonaparte should have stopped. Instead, conservatives, liberals, and radicals, fought.
• Revolts against the king broke out in many parts of Spanish America.
• Mexico was the only loyal country to Ferdinand. In 1820 liberalists in Spain urged the Spanish King to take more control over Spain and American Colonies.
• Long-Term Legacy
• Europenas modified old economic patterns of taxation and property ownership, and adopted equal treatment for all.
• A new era had begun.