Austria's Gains From The Congress Of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna, which took place from September 1814 to June 1815, was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a new layout for the European political and constitutional order following the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The congress was chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich and was held in Vienna. The objective was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars through negotiation. Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain, the four powers chiefly responsible for overthrowing Napoleon, had concluded a special alliance with the Treaty of Chaumont in March 1814, a month before Napoleon's first abdication. The subsequent treaties of peace with France, signed on May 30, stipulated that all former belligerents should send plenipotentiaries to a congress in Vienna. The Congress of Vienna dissolved the Napoleonic world and attempted to restore the monarchies Napoleon had overthrown. Austria gained much of northern Italy, and the balance of power negotiated at the Vienna Congress between the five great powers—Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria, and Prussia—proved to be comparatively stable, lasting almost 100 years until World War I in 1914.

Austria's territorial gains

Austria gained a significant amount of territory as a result of the Congress of Vienna. The country regained control of the Tyrol and Salzburg, as well as the former Illyrian Provinces, the Tarnopol district (from Russia), and Lombardy-Venetia in Northern Italy. The Austrian Chancellor, Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, played a vital role in the negotiations.

The Congress of Vienna, held in 1814-1815, was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The objective was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars through negotiation.

The four major European powers (Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria) wanted to prevent further conflict by establishing a balance of power in Europe. They developed what became known as the Concert of Europe, which was a system of dispute resolution to maintain their power, oppose revolutionary movements, weaken the forces of nationalism, and uphold the balance of power.

The Congress of Vienna dissolved the Napoleonic world and attempted to restore the monarchies Napoleon had overthrown. It was the first occasion in history where, on a continental scale, national representatives came together to formulate treaties instead of relying mostly on messages between different capitals.

The territorial gains made by Austria at the Congress of Vienna contributed to the country's expansion and consolidation of power in Europe.

The Concert of Europe

The goal of the conservatives at the Congress, led by Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria, was to re-establish peace and stability in Europe. To accomplish this, a new balance of power had to be established. Metternich and the other four represented states sought to do this by restoring old ruling families and creating buffer zones between major powers.

Under the Concert of Europe, the major European powers—Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and (after 1818) France—pledged to meet regularly to resolve differences. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution, both of which threatened to upset the status quo in Europe.

The Conservative Order

The Congress of Vienna, which took place between 1814 and 1815, was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a new layout for the European political and constitutional order following the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Congress was chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich and was held in Vienna.

The goal of the conservatives at the Congress, led by Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria, was to reestablish peace and stability in Europe. To achieve this, a new balance of power had to be established. Metternich and the other four represented states—Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria—sought to restore old ruling families and create buffer zones between major powers.

The Concert of Europe, also known as the Congress System or the Vienna System, was a system of dispute resolution adopted by the major conservative powers of Europe to maintain their power, oppose revolutionary movements, weaken the forces of nationalism, and uphold the balance of power. It grew out of the Congress of Vienna and operated in Europe from the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) to the early 1820s.

The Concert of Europe was founded by the powers of Austria, Prussia, the Russian Empire, and the United Kingdom, who were the members of the Quadruple Alliance that defeated Napoleon and his First French Empire. In time, France was established as a fifth member of the Concert. The leading personalities of the system included British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh, Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich, and Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

The Concert of Europe had no written rules or permanent institutions, but at times of crisis, any member country could propose a conference. Meetings of the Great Powers during this period included: Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Carlsbad (1819), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), Verona (1822), London (1832), and Berlin (1878).

The basic tenet of the European balance of power that reigned from 1814 to WWI was that no single European power should achieve hegemony over a substantial part of the continent. This was curtailed by having a small number of ever-changing alliances contend for power.

The Holy Alliance

The avowed purpose of the Holy Alliance was to promote the influence of Christian principles in the affairs of nations and to instil the divine right of kings. The monarchs of the three countries promised to act on the basis of "justice, love, and peace", in both internal and foreign affairs, for "consolidating human institutions and remedying their imperfections". In practice, the Austrian state chancellor, Prince Klemens von Metternich, made the alliance a bastion against democracy, revolution, and secularism. The monarchs used the alliance to band together to prevent revolutionary influences, especially from the French Revolution, from entering their nations.

Klemens von Metternich's role

Klemens von Metternich was a conservative German statesman and diplomat who played a central role in the Congress of Vienna. He was the Austrian Empire's foreign minister from 1809 and chancellor from 1821 until the liberal revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation. Metternich was one of the leading participants of the Congress of Vienna, alongside British foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh and Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

Metternich was the principal architect of the balance of power in Europe and approached the matter from a perspective of conservatism. He was a staunch opponent of liberalism and nationalism, favouring instead the preservation of the status quo in the face of the revolutionary challenge. He was also wary of Russian dominance.

Metternich wanted to secure Austria's predominance by forming two confederations, one German and the other Italian, with Austria as the leading power in both. Within Germany, he proposed the creation of a hereditary German imperial title, and he thought that Austria and Prussia should share the task of protecting Germany's western frontier. Friendship with Prussia on the one hand and with Bavaria on the other thus seemed to him to be the prerequisite of success.

Metternich only partly succeeded in his plans: the German imperial project came to nothing because Francis steadfastly refused to support it; the Italian confederation did not materialise; and the German confederation, when it finally did come into being in June 1815, was based on a brief and noncommittal federal act derived from a Bavarian compromise proposal.

In European affairs, however, Metternich was more successful. He achieved equality of status for France; he obtained a reduction of the Prussian demands on Saxony; and, in particular, he blocked the far-reaching demands of Russia. Both Russia and Prussia were held in check by the common front of Austria, England, and France that Metternich had created.

Metternich's moderation produced a long-lasting European order, which must be ascribed to his diplomatic capability rather than to his political foresight. Austria's status in the German confederation had been strengthened, but the emperor's refusal of the German crown meant that Prussia, with equal status in the confederation, would be able to counterbalance Austria.

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