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| Congress of Vienna |
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C. W. Fürst Metternich
Vienna, Congress of, September 19, 1814 - June 06, 1815.
Assembly agreed upon in the peace of Paris on May 5, 1814, attended
by monarchs and representatives of the most important countries to
reorganise the political map of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.
The representatives of the four main allies were:
Tsar Alexander I and Count K. W. |
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Nesselrode (Russia), King
Friedrich Wilhelm III and Chancellor K. A. Prince of Hardenberg (Prussia),
Viscount Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington (England), Emperor
Franz I and the chairman of the Congress C. W. Prince Metternich (Austria);
The French representative C. M. de Talleyrand had ensured France´s
participation as the 5th decisive power.
Small states tried to intervene and the negotiations were
characterised by tensions (secret alliance between Austria, England
and France against Russia and Prussia on January 03, 1815), but were
accelerated by Napoleon´s return from Elba (March 01, 1815). As a
result Austria was handed back parts of its former possessions
including Western Carinthia, Carniola, Istria and Dalmatia
(Vorarlberg, Tirol, Salzburg, the Hausruckviertel and Innviertel
regions were returned in a barter agreement with Bavaria in 1816),
the borough of Tarnopol in Galicia (but not New Galicia) and the
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom in Northern Italy, which secured Austria´s
dominant position in Italy. The Habsburg secundogenitures Tuscany
(Ferdinand III, the brother of Emperor Franz I) and Modena (Franz IV
of Austria-Este) were re-established. |
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| Marie Louise kept Parma and Piacenza,
but Austria surrendered the Vorlande with the Breisgau region and
the Austrian Netherlands. The Deutscher Bund under the presidency of
Austria replaced the Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in
1806; the Act of the German Federation was integrated into the final
act of the Congress. Further results of the Congress: Switzerland
was enlarged and given a guarantee for its neutrality; Baden,
Württemberg and Bavaria remained in existence; Kraków became a Free
City and Poland joined Russia. Furthermore, the droit de légation
was codified ("Règlement de Vienne") as well as the freedom of
international river traffic and the outlawry of the slave trade. At
the Congress of Vienna Austria once more succeeded in asserting its
position in Europe and prolonging its supremacy in Germany and Italy.
The further course of the 19th century was characterised by a
competitive relationship with Prussia, to which Austria had to yield
again and again. The Congress of Vienna was accompanied by many
social gatherings and put Austria to great expense; The Prince of
Ligne coined the phrase "the Congress dances, but it does not get
anywhere" ("Le congrès danse beaucoup, mais il ne marche pas"). |
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Text source in extracts: |
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| aeiou - das kulturinformationssystem des bm:bwk |
| 14.000 keywords and 2000 images from
Austrian history, geography, politics and economics |
| www.aeiou.at |
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| Elements of the Treaty |
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Russia was given most of the Duchy of
Warsaw (Poland) and was allowed to keep Finland (which it had
annexed from Sweden in 1809 and held until 1917). |
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Prussia was given two fifths of Saxony,
parts of the Duchy of Warsaw (the Grand Duchy of Posen), Danzig, and
the Rhineland/Westphalia. |
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A German Confederation of 38 states
was created from the previous 300, under the presidency of the
Austrian Emperor. Only portions of the territory of Austria and
Prussia were included in the Confederation. |
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The Netherlands and the Southern
Netherlands (approx. modern-day Belgium) were united in a
constitutional monarchy, with the House of Orange-Nassau providing
the king. |
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To compensate for the Orange-Nassau's
loss of the Nassau lands to Prussia, the United Kingdom of the
Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were to form a
personal union under the House of Orange-Nassau, with Luxembourg
(but not the Netherlands) inside the German Confederation. |
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The Dano-Norwegian union was dissolved
and Norway transferred to Sweden (in personal union). |
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Sweden ceded Swedish Pomerania
to Prussia. |
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The neutrality of Switzerland was
guaranteed. |
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Hanover gave up the Duchy of Lauenburg
to Denmark, but was enlarged by the addition of former territories
of the Bishop of Münster and by the formerly Prussian East Frisia,
and made a kingdom. |
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Most of the territorial gains of
Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau under the
mediatizations of 1801-1806 were recognized. Bavaria also gained
control of the Rhenish Palatinate and parts of the Napoleonic Duchy
of Würzburg and Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Hesse-Darmstadt, in
exchange for giving up the Duchy of Westphalia to Prussia, was
granted the city of Mainz. |
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Austria regained control of the Tirol
and Salzburg; of the former Illyrian Provinces, and received
Lombardy-Venetia in Italy and Ragusa in Dalmatia. Former Austrian
territory in Southwest Germany remained under the control of
Württemberg and Baden, and the Austrian Netherlands were also not
recovered. |
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Habsburg princes were returned to
control of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena. |
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The Papal States were under the rule
of the pope and restored to their former extent, with the exception
of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, which remained part of France. |
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The United Kingdom was confirmed in
control of Cape Colony, South Africa; Tobago; Ceylon; and various
other colonies in Africa and Asia. Other colonies, most notably the
Dutch East Indies and Martinique, were restored to their previous
owners. |
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The King of Sardinia was restored in
Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, and was given control of Genoa (putting
an end to the brief proclamation of a restored Republic). |
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The Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and
Guastalla were given to Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife. |
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The Duchy of Lucca was created for the
House of Bourbon-Parma, which would have reversionary rights to
Parma after the death of Marie Louise. |
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The Bourbon Ferdinand IV, King of
Sicily was restored to control of the Kingdom of Naples, but only
after Joachim Murat, the king installed by Bonaparte, rose up and
supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days, triggering the Neapolitan
War. |
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The slave trade was condemned. |
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Freedom of navigation was guaranteed
for many rivers, including the Rhine. |
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Text source in extracts: |
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| WIKIPEDIA - the free
encyclopedia |
| Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia
with more than 100 languages, where everyone can
contribute with their knowledge |
| de.wikipedia.org |
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