Although the Quadruple Alliance halted only a few revolutions, and Metternich was disappointed when Britain left the alliance in , the "balance of power" system remained in place throughout the rest of the century.
So influential was Metternich's diplomacy that the era from to is often referred to as the "Age of Metternich. After , Metternich devoted increasing amounts of his time to Austria's severe internal problems.
The Austrian Empire was a conglomeration of 11 nationalities which had been forced under the rule of the Habsburg family by military conquests in the 17th century. The French Revolution had proved to be a threat to the multinational Habsburg Empire, since it fanned the nationalism of some groups in the Empire, such as the Hungarians.
Metternich saw nationalism and liberalism as serious threats to the survival of the Austrian Empire and tried to suppress both. At the Congress of Vienna, he also worked to create confederations in both Germany where he succeeded and Italy where he failed.
In Metternich's time, Italy and Germany were what he called "geographic expressions"—divided into many individual governments with no national central government.
Italy had more than ten governments. Until Napoleon's invasion of Germany, there were more than political divisions in that country, each with its own petty monarch; the Congress of Vienna reduced this to 35, of which the two largest and most powerful were Austria and Prussia.
Metternich would have preferred a Germany united under Austrian leadership. With typical self-confidence, he worked to convince the Austrian emperor Francis II to allow himself to be made ruler over all of Germany.
Liberalism—a 19th-century middle-class movement to weaken monarchies and create parliaments or legislatures—also threatened the Austrian monarchy.
Metternich saw liberalism as a child of the French Revolution of Innately suspicious of new political systems or ideas, Metternich proudly said that "everything changes but me.
Between and , Metternich watched suspiciously as liberal revolutions weakened monarchs in western Germany. When secret student fraternities at German universities the Burschenschaften staged patriotic demonstrations, he charged that the demonstrators were really promoting liberal goals. Secret societies were "the gangrene of society," he proclaimed; "as a device for disrupting the peace, fanaticism is one of the oldest things in the world.
After a politically conservative German playwright was assassinated by a student in , Metternich convinced Prussia that the two largest German states should intervene. For many in Germany, Metternich became a hated symbol of reaction and repression. What Metternich feared most was that the liberal and national ideas would tear apart the multinational Habsburg Empire, causing each nationality under Habsburg rule to go its own way and establish its own separate government.
In the 18th century, the Austrian emperor Joseph II had decided that the way to unify the Empire was to centralize the administrative part of the government and standardize the law. Metternich disagreed, believing that the best way to discourage independence movements was to allow each section of the Empire to have its own distinctive rules and laws.
Yet Metternich's ideas regarding Austria were rejected. Although he was appointed Austrian state chancellor in , his influence was restricted to foreign affairs by Count Kolowrat, the minister of state, who had the ear of the new emperor, the mentally retarded Ferdinand.
If it were not for Metternich's skills in diplomacy, his career would have been regarded as a virtual failure. At times, he himself thought that way. When word arrived that the French monarchy which had been restored by the Congress of Vienna had fallen victim to another revolution in , Metternich collapsed at his desk, exclaiming, "My life's work is destroyed!
When ultimately unsuccessful revolutions broke out in the Austrian Empire in , Metternich, the "last great master of the principle of balance," became the target of angry mobs. Forced to resign, he went into exile in England before returning to Vienna in He died there a year later. Metternich believed he had unfairly become a symbol of reaction and oppression. His real aim, he said, was to avoid the chaos that he believed would follow in the wake of the major political changes demanded by European revolutionaries.
In a hundred years, historians will judge me quite differently than do all those who pass judgment on me today. Memoirs of Prince Metternich, Edited by Prince Richard Metternich. Translated by Mrs. Alexander Napier. Scribner, Kissinger, Henry A. Houghton, Schroeder, Paul W. Metternich's Diplomacy at Its Zenith, University of Texas Press, Schwarz, H. Heath, All rights reserved. Milne, Andrew. Palmer, Alan.
Harper, Metternich and His Times. Darton, Longman, and Todd, Kraehe, E. The Metternich Controversy. Krieger Publishing, May, Arthur J. In diplomacy he was no match for Metternich, whose influence soon overshadowed his own. During his late career he acquiesced to reactionary policies along the lines of the rest of the Congress.
He sought a negotiated secure peace so as to perpetuate the gains of the French revolution. He allied himself to a Committee of Eight lesser powers including Spain, Sweden, and Portugal to control the negotiations. Once Talleyrand was able to use this committee to make himself a part of the inner negotiations, he then left it, once again abandoning his allies. Talleyrand protested against the procedure we have adopted and soundly [be]rated us for two hours. It was a scene I shall never forget.
Virtually every state in Europe had a delegation in Vienna — more than states and princely houses were represented at the Congress. In addition, there were representatives of cities, corporations, religious organizations for instance, abbeys , and special interest groups e. The Congress was noted for its lavish entertainment: according to a famous joke it did not move, but danced.
Participants of the Congress of Vienna: 1. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 2. Joaquim Lobo Silveira, 7th Count of Oriola 3. Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich 7. Count Karl Robert Nesselrode 9. Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Count of Palmela Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh Emmerich Joseph, Duke of Dalberg Baron Johann von Wessenberg Prince Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky Charles Stewart, 1st Baron Stewart Wacken Recorder Friedrich von Gentz Congress Secretary Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt William Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart Prince Karl August von Hardenberg Count Gustav Ernst von Stackelberg.
The goal of the Congress of Vienna was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The Congress of Vienna — dissolved the Napoleonic world and attempted to restore the monarchies Napoleon had overthrown, ushering in an era of conservatism.
The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other. France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria, and Russia made major territorial gains. Russia gained parts of Poland. The new Kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before and included formerly Austrian territory that in became Belgium. The Final Act, embodying all the separate treaties, was signed on June 9, , a few days before the Battle of Waterloo.
The consolidation of Germany from the nearly states of the Holy Roman Empire dissolved in into a much less complex system of 39 states four of which were free cities was confirmed. These states formed a loose German Confederation under the leadership of Austria and Prussia. Representatives at the Congress agreed to numerous other territorial changes. This sparked the nationalist movement which led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Norway on May 17, , and the subsequent personal union with Sweden.
The Papal States were restored to the Pope. The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored to its mainland possessions and gained control of the Republic of Genoa. A large United Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed for the Prince of Orange, including both the old United Provinces and the formerly Austrian-ruled territories in the Southern Netherlands. Other, less important territorial adjustments included significant gains for the German Kingdoms of Hanover which gained East Frisia from Prussia and various other territories in Northwest Germany and Bavaria which gained the Rhenish Palatinate and territories in Franconia.
Switzerland was enlarged and Swiss neutrality was established. Swiss mercenaries had played a significant role in European wars for several hundred years; the Congress intended to put a stop to these activities permanently. Despite the efforts of the Great Powers of Europe to prevent conflict and war with the Congress of Vienna, in many ways the Congress system failed by The rest of the 19th century was marked by more revolutionary fervor, more war, and the rise of nationalism.
With the Concert of Europe, the territorial boundaries laid down at the Congress of Vienna were maintained, and even more importantly there was an acceptance of the theme of balance with no major aggression. Otherwise, the Congress system failed by In the British decided not to become involved in continental issues that did not directly affect them.
They rejected the plan of Tsar Alexander I to suppress future revolutions. The Concert system fell apart as the common goals of the Great Powers were replaced by growing political and economic rivalries.
It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history. These diverse revolutionary movements were in opposition to the conservative agenda of the Congress of Vienna and marked a major challenge to its vision for a stable Europe. The revolutions were essentially democratic in nature, with the aim of removing the old feudal structures and creating independent national states. The revolutionary wave began in France in February and immediately spread to most of Europe and parts of Latin America.
Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation between their respective revolutionaries. According to Evans and von Strandmann , some of the major contributing factors were widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for more participation in government and democracy, demands for freedom of press, demands made by the working class, the upsurge of nationalism, and the regrouping of established governmental forces. The uprisings were led by shaky ad hoc coalitions of reformers, the middle classes, and workers, which did not hold together for long.
Tens of thousands of people were killed and many more forced into exile. Significant lasting reforms included the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark, and the introduction of parliamentary democracy in the Netherlands. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, the states that would make up the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy, and the Austrian Empire.
Before Britain and France dominated Europe, but by the s they had become deeply concerned by the growing power of Russia and Prussia. Victory over Napoleonic France left the British without any serious international rival, other than perhaps Russia in central Asia.
Russia was defeated. Russia denounced this claim, since it claimed to be the protector of all Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. France sent its fleet to the Black Sea; Russia responded with its own show of force. In , Russia sent troops into the Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia. Britain, now fearing for the security of the Ottoman Empire, sent a fleet to join with the French, expecting the Russians would back down.
Diplomatic efforts failed. The Sultan declared war against Russia in October Most of the battles took place in the Crimean peninsula, which the Allies finally seized. London, shocked to discover that France was secretly negotiating with Russia to form a postwar alliance to dominate Europe, dropped its plans to attack St.
Petersburg and instead signed a one-sided armistice with Russia that achieved almost none of its war aims. The Treaty of Paris, signed March 30, , ended the war. It admitted the Ottoman Empire to the Concert of Europe, and the Powers promised to respect its independence and territorial integrity.
Russia gave up a little land and relinquished its claim to a protectorate over the Christians in the Ottoman domains. The Black Sea was demilitarized and an international commission was set up to guarantee freedom of commerce and navigation on the Danube River. After the creation and rise of the German Empire as a dominant nation restructured the European balance of power.
For the next twenty years, Otto von Bismarck managed to maintain this balance by proposing treaties and creating many complex alliances between the European nations, such as the Triple Alliance. As an extension of the vision of the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian and Russian Empires formed the Holy Alliance September 26, to preserve Christian social values and traditional monarchism.
The intention of the alliance was to restrain republicanism and secularism in Europe in the wake of the devastating French Revolutionary Wars, and the alliance nominally succeeded in this until the Crimean War — Every member of the coalition promptly joined the Alliance, except for the United Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy with a more liberal political philosophy.
Britain did however ratify the Quadruple Alliance, signed on the same day as the Second Peace Treaty of Paris November 20, by the same three powers that signed the Holy Alliance on September 26, It renewed the use of the Congress System, which advanced European international relations.
The alliance first formed in to counter France and promised aid to each other. It became the Quintuple Alliance when France joined in Much debate has occurred among historians as to which treaty was more influential in the development of international relations in Europe in the two decades following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In the opinion of historian Tim Chapman, the differences are somewhat academic as the powers were not bound by the terms of the treaties and many of them intentionally broke the terms if it suited them.
It gained support because most European monarchs did not wish to offend the Tsar by refusing to sign it, and as it bound monarchs personally rather than their governments, it was easy to ignore once signed.
Although it did not fit comfortably within the complex, sophisticated, and cynical web of power politics that epitomized diplomacy of the post Napoleonic era, its influence was more lasting than contemporary critics expected and was revived in the s as a tool of repression when the terms of the Quintuple Alliance were not seen to fit the purposes of some of the Great Powers of Europe.
The Quadruple Alliance, by contrast, was a standard treaty and the four Great Powers did not invite any of their allies to sign it. The primary objective was to bind the signatures to support the terms of the Second Treaty of Paris for 20 years.
This meant that the first conference in dealt with remaining issues of the French wars, but after that, meetings were arranged on an ad hoc basis to address specific threats such as those posed by revolutions. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content.
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