European History
Lecture-04 (Congress of Vienna and
Metternich System)
Instructor: Mudasser Yasin ( CSS-2021, MA Pol. Science, PU)
Alliance of the Conservative
Powers
• Concert of Europe to settle European affairs
• Treaty of Chaumont 1814
• Signed among Britain, Austria, Russian, and Prussia
• Aim was to restore the Bourbons and stay in alliance for 20
years
• 2 Treaties of Paris
• 1814: After Napoleon’s defeat
• France was to be reduced to 1792 boundaries
2 Treaties of Paris
• It was made possible because of Talleyrand’s brilliant
diplomacy
• Left bank of the Rhine River to go to Prussia
• 1815: after Waterloo, France was to be reduced to 1790
boundaries
• The Allied garrison would remain in France until 1818
Congress of Vienna
• Russia and Britain were both the flanking powers of Europe
and balanced each other in Central Europe
• Habsburgs and France balanced each other
• This gave the fifth and smallest among great powers-Prussia-
space to expand
• Motives of the Congress
• Stopping a single power in Europe from controlling the whole
Europe
Congress of Vienna (Motives)
• No annexation without ratification
• Balance of power in Europe
• Dynasticism
• Transfer of Territories under
Congress
• Belgium to be separated from Austria and made part of the
Netherlands
Transfer of Territories under
the Congress
• Rhineland was given to Prussia
• German conservation of 39 states under over-lordship of
Austria
• Genoa and Savoy were given to Kingdom of Piedmont
• Austria rewon Lombardy and took Venetia in return of leaving
Belgium
• Papal states went back to the pope
Transfer of Territories under
the Congress
• Norway was transferred to Sweden from Denmark
• Finland was transferred to Russia from Sweden
• Perma, Modena, Tuscany were put under Habsburg princes
• The settlement ignored the national feelings
Map of Europe 1815
The Quadruple Alliance
• Austria, Prussia , Russia, Britain
• Force must be behind the treaty
• Britain’s commercial interests were elsewhere
• She only wanted to stop the rise of a Baonaparte
• She didn’t want to interfere in the internal matters of states
Matternich System
• He was an Austrian statesman
• He was following Richealieu
• Features of the System
• Dynasticism
• BOP in Germany
• Conservatism and status quo
Matternich System
• No Revolution
• Network of spies
• Divide and rule policy of Metternich
• Weak Bundestag
• Horizontal action
• Control of Italy through Habsburg Princes
Matternich System
• Concert Of Europe to settle important European Affairs
• Some of the states had passed liberal constitution in Germany
in 1816
• Student societies were very active in Berlin
• Matternich Carlsband Decrees to suppress patriotic studen
societies
Europe in 1820s
• Prussia gained parts of Saxony and, Westphalia, and Rhineland
• It started consolidating these lands
• In Italy Matternich used Habsburg princes to to control the
peninsula
• In northern Italy there was a bitter resentment against the
system
• Italian states had enjoyed prosperity and unity in Napoleonic
era
Europe In 1820s
• Now Italy was controlled by German bureaucrats
• Italy was truly the Achilles’ heel of the Matternich system
• Matternich tried to make an Italian confederation but states
refused
• Poland too had bitter resentments against the Habsburgs
• Habsburgs controlled large areas of Polish Galicia
Polish Galicia under Habsburgs
Congress Diplomacy
• Matternich knew that France would exploit Austria’s
differences with the Eastern courts of Turkey and Russia
• So, he proposed the congress system
• Four congresses were held under the shadow of the great
Congress of Vienna
•
Aix La Chappalle1818
• Reinstated France into the Concert of Europe
• France was invited to join a Quintuple Alliance
• Secretly, Quadruple Alliance was renewed as well
• Tsar Alexander’s idealistic agenda and appeal to intervene
into America
• Britain opposed
Troppau and Laibach 1820-21
• Spanish king was forced by military revolution to reinstall 1812
constitution
• The Tsar took fright and wanted to intervene
• Britain and Austria refused
• Revolution started in Napples , Piedmont, and Portugal
• Austria intervened in Napples and Piedmont on behalf of
Congress
Verona 1822
• Greek revolt against the Ottomans
• Britain feared that the Tsar would intervene on behalf of the
orthodox Christians
• However, the British PM Canning vehemently opposed
interventions
• Tsar also wanted to intervene in Spain
• France intervened in Spain and restored monarchy
• Things are getting to wholesome state again , everyone for
itself and God for us all- Canning
• 1825: Mehmet Pasha helped Turks
• French, Brattish , and Russian navies thrashed Ottoman navy
• Treaty of Adrianople 1829 : Autonomy to Serbia and Greece
• Russia gained Wallachia and Moldovia and access to Denube
• Turkey would open Dardanells to all commercial ships
