What was Treaty of Vienna ?

Talleyrand denied that either the “four” or the “six” (including France and Spain) was a legally constituted body and desired that the congress should be summoned to elect a directing committee. If any other body had rights in the matter, it was the group of powers—Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal—that had signed the 1814 Treaty of Paris with France (thus, the “eight”), which ended the Napoleonic Wars for the first time. The

The core four were much disturbed, knowing that the smaller powers would support Talleyrand if they gave him the chance of appealing to them. They had no intention of giving way, however, and refused to summon a meeting of all the representatives. The opening of the congress was postponed until November 1. No solution could be found, however, and after a meeting of the “eight” on October 30, the opening was again postponed.

Meanwhile, work proceeded without the sanction of the main body of plenipotentiaries. The “four” discussed the main territorial problems informally among themselves

The “eight” assumed the formal direction of the congress; a committee of German states met to draw up a constitution for Germany, and a special committee on Switzerland was appointed by the “four.”

Talleyrand was thus excluded from the main work of the congress, but his protests on behalf of the smaller powers grew fainter as he realized that the “four” were not in agreement; Castlereagh and Metternich gradually won his confidence and at last insisted on Bourbon France’s being admitted to the core group.

It was that committee of five that was the real Congress of Vienna. Between January 7 and February 13, 1815, it settled the frontiers of all territories north of the Alps and laid the foundations for the settlement of Italy. Meanwhile, the committee of eight dealt with more-general matters. The congress as a representative body of all Europe never met.

The major points of friction occurred over the disposition of Poland and Saxony, the conflicting claims of Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, and the adjustment of the borders of the German states.

In general, Russia and Prussia were opposed by Austria, France, and England, which at one point (January 3, 1815) went so far as to conclude a secret treaty of defensive alliance. The major final agreements were as follows.

In return for acquiring Poland, Alexander gave back Galicia to Austria and gave Thorn and a region around it to Prussia; Kraków was made a free town. The rest of the Duchy of Warsaw was incorporated as a separate kingdom under the Russian emperor’s sovereignty.

Prussia got two-fifths of Saxony and was compensated by extensive additions in Westphalia and on the left bank of the Rhine River. It was Castlereagh who insisted on Prussian acceptance of the latter territory, with which it had been suggested the king of Saxony should be compensated.

Castlereagh wanted Prussia to guard the territories of the Rhine region against France and act as a buttress to the new Kingdom of the Netherlands, which comprised both the former United Provinces and Belgium. Austria was compensated by Lombardy and Venice and got back most of Tirol. Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden on the whole did well.

Hanover was also enlarged. The outline of a constitution, a loose confederation, was drawn up for Germany—a triumph for Metternich. Denmark lost Norway to Sweden but got Lauenburg, while Swedish Pomerania went to Prussia. Switzerland was given a new constitution.

In Italy, Piedmont absorbed Genoa; Tuscany and Modena went to an Austrian archduke; and the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza was given to Marie-Louise, consort of the deposed Napoleon. The Papal States were restored to the pope, and Naples went to the Sicilian Bourbons.

Valuable articles were agreed to on the free navigation of international rivers and diplomatic precedence. Castlereagh’s great efforts for the abolition of the slave trade were rewarded only by a pious declaration.

The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna comprised all the agreements in one great instrument. It was signed on June 9, 1815, by the “eight” (except Spain, which refused as a protest against the Italian settlement). All the other powers subsequently acceded to it.

As a result, the political boundaries laid down by the Congress of Vienna lasted, except for one or two changes, for more than 40 years. The statesmen had successfully worked out the principle of a balance of power. However, the idea of nationality had been almost entirely ignored—necessarily so because it was not yet ready for expression.

Territories had been bartered about without much reference to the wishes of their inhabitants. Until an even greater settlement took place at Versailles after World War I, it was customary for historians to condemn the statesmen of Vienna.

It was later realized how difficult their task was, as was the fact that they secured for Europe a period of peace, which was its cardinal need. The statesmen failed, however, to give to international relations any organ by which their work could be adapted to the new forces of the 19th century, and it was ultimately doomed to destruction.

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of the major powers of Europe. It was held in Vienna from November 1, 1814, to June 8, 1815. The chairman was the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich.

Its purpose was to decide about the political situation in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. To be precise there was never one "Congress of Vienna". Instead there were discussions in informal sessions among the Great Powers.

The Congress was concerned with determining the entire shape of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms of peace with France, which had already been decided by the Treaty of Paris, signed a few months earlier, on May 30, 1814.

The four victorious powers hoped to exclude the French from participation in the negotiations, but Talleyrand managed to get into "her inner councils" in the first weeks of negotiations.

Two hundred years ago, European rulers were in the midst of what may well have been the most extravagant celebration in history—the “Congress of Vienna.”

The previous May, they had issued an open invitation to all interested parties to send representatives to Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire, to participate in the reconstruction of Europe. Their intent was to secure the assent of the rest of Europe to their own decisions, but the plan backfired when they failed to reach agreement among themselves before the other guests to the party began arriving.

Hundreds of representatives and their entourages showed up, swelling the population of the walled city along the Danube by more than a third. The Austrian Emperor and his foreign minister, Prince Metternich, played the hosts, and despite the perilous state of imperial finances, they spared no expense in lavishness.