April Showers bring May Flowers for June Days and the July Haze
Chapter One : The Congress of Vienna
“Whenever Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold”
Chapter One : The Congress of Vienna
“Whenever Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold”
The Congress of Vienna was supposed to assure the forces of reaction a permanent victory. It did not. Even as the Congress of Vienna redraw the boundaries of Europe and parceled out territory the ideals of the French revolution were planted like seeds, waiting to sprout across Europe. However it takes seeds many years to flower, and for the time it seemed that the dreams of the French revolutionaries were dead. These ideas may have remained dead if the Congress of Vienna had not been so intent on dividing the spoils. All of the participants were concerned just as much for the gains of the victors to be moderated as for France to be punished. The results of the Congress of Vienna which redrew the boundaries of Europe were, like any good compromise, unsatisfactory to all. From this dissatisfaction of the Congress by each participant the seeds for Europe’s ills for a century were buried wherein the weeds of revolution would occasionally sprout.
It seems strange that such an important and momentous conference could be decided by so few people. However here, probably more than most other circumstances, the personalities, designs, and the philosophies of the men here who negotiated and schemed would shape millions of lives.
Tsar Alexander I was the chief representative of the Russian delegation and the only head of state to directly participate.
Johann Philipp Stadion, Count von Warthausen, better known simply as Warthausen, was the surprisingly liberal yet machiavellian predecessor and successor to Metternich who represented Austria at the Congress after his abrupt resurgence due to Metternich's untimely death.
Europe 1815 after the Congress of Vienna. The various provisions of the Congress of Vienna are as follows:
Regarding Poland:
The Grand Duchy of Warsaw was reformed into the newly constituted Confederation of Poland.
The Confederation of Poland’s monarch must be approved by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
The first King of the Confederation of Poland would be the Russian Tsar Alexander I, who would rule over Poland in a personal union with Russia.
The Northeastern territories of the Confederation of Poland would be seceded to Russia.
The city of Danzig would be annexed by Prussia.
The western territory of Poznan / Posen would be under the nominal rule of the Polish Confederation but administered by Prussia and Prussia would have a slate of exclusive economic rights and the privilege of stationing troops in the Posen region.
The Polish question (intertwined with the Saxon one) was key to the Congress of Vienna. Russia desired to annex the entire state and was only prevented from doing so for fear of Russian power by the other participants. The agreed compromise particularly angered Austria as it put a (theoretically) independent Poland in direct conflict with Austria over desired territories, but it was an issue which Warthausen simply made no progress on. As attempt to appease Austria somewhat and, according to Britain’s logic make Poland less valuable for whoever ruled it, was the decentralization of power. Later there would be a conscious attempt to foster discord between the magnates of Krakow and Warsaw and foster discord by and the Confederation’s structure was intentionally inefficient.
Saxony had been a key object of Prussian ambition since Frederick the Great, and at Vienna it was finally realized. Strengthening Prussia by giving it Saxony was seen as optimal. While Metternich had been against such a move by Prussia, Warthausen reasoned that Prussia’s annexation of Saxony would be seen as a move which would garner Prussia a lot of power and thus give Austria a free hand elsewhere (such as in Italy).
Regarding Germany:
Swiss neutrality was permanently guaranteed.
Prussia was to annex Saxony.
Westphalia was to be reformed as a to compensate the displaced monarchs of Saxony.
A German Confederation of 40 states was created from the previous 360 of the Holy Roman Empire, under the presidency of the Austrian Emperor. Only portions of the territory of Austria (Austria proper, Bohemia, and Moravia) were included in the Confederation.
To correspond with the German Confederation a new Imperial Diet would be formed with members of each German State sending representatives. The Imperial Diet would be empowered to take actions as agreed upon by the constituent members states for the whole German Nation.
Swedish Pomerania was transferred from Denmark (which had given it to Sweden in exchange for Norway) to Prussia.
Saxe-Lauenburg was transferred to Denmark from Hanover.
Hanover received formerly Prussian East Frisia, parts of Munster, Northeastern Westphalia, and Hanover was made into a Kingdom.
Hanover is to secede to Brunswick territory to connect the state into one continuous entity.
Most of the territorial gains of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau under the mediatizations of 1801–1806 were recognized, though separately negotiated treaties with the new Westphalian Kingdoms would reverse parts of these mediatizations on a case by case basis.
The mediatization involving Munster is to be undone and Munster is to be reformed as an independent entity.
Bavaria gained parts of the Napoleonic Duchy of Würzburg.
Hesse-Darmstadt, in exchange for giving up the Duchy of Westphalia, received Rhenish Hesse with its capital at Mainz.
Austria regained control of the Tyrol and Salzburg; of the former Illyrian Provinces; of Tarnopol district (from Russia); 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.
Warthausen’s sudden ascendancy after Metternich’s untimely death had paved the way for Prussia’s annexation of Saxony and the humiliation of the Polish provisions. In the rest of Germany, Austria had managed to cobble together an Anti-Prussia alliance of those fearful and resentful of Prussian power to not only support his efforts to create an Imperial Diet, but to give it some real power. Prussia, having used much of its diplomatic capital was unable to do much but make the wording vague. Whether this new Imperial Diet would unify Germany or be a meaningless placeholder would be determined with time.
Regarding the Low Countries:
The Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands were united in a constitutional monarchy, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the House of Orange-Nassau providing the king.
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.
Austria retains the right to administer in the name the Netherlands of the Francophone area of Wallonia in the new territory of the Southern Netherlands for a period of 50 years.
In compensation for the transfer of the Austrian Netherlands to the Netherlands, the Netherlands will pay an indemnity equal to that of 5 years of the pre 1789 tax income from said territory in such a time period as the two parties can agree upon.
It should be noted that this provision was never enforced and put into the treaty by the other powers, especially Russia and Prussia, to attempt to satiate Austria. In reality Warthausen only wanted to use it as a “Sword of Damocles” to hold over the Dutch to gain leverage,an alliance, and support in the Imperial Diet via Luxembourg.
The Low Countries’ incorporation into one entity was seen as an important part in containing France’s possible renewed imperial ambitions. The Francophone population in the Southern Netherlands would certainly be a target, but allowing French annexation would simply be impossible. France would thus be contained by a strong Netherlands which, through possible Austrian “forgiving” of Dutch responsibilities and Austrian administration of Wallonia, be a valuable ally not only against France, but also within the German Confederation and its Imperial Diet against Prussia due to the Dutch control over Luxembourg.
Italy:
The King of Sardinia was restored in Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, and was given control of Genoa.
Sardinia was to receive ownership of Corsica from France.
The transfer of Corsica was insisted upon by Britain partly as a means of humiliating France, and partly as a means of strengthening Piedmonte against the assortment of Hapsburg duchies.
The Bourbon Ferdinand IV, King of Sicily was restored to control of the Kingdom of Naples after Joachim Murat, the king installed by Bonaparte, supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days and started the Neapolitan War by attacking Austria.
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.
Habsburg princes were returned to control of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena.
German princes, subject to Austrian approval upon each succession, were given sovereignty over the Duchies of Lucca, Piacenza, and Guastalla.
The Duchy of Parma was to revert to the Bourbons for control.
In Italy Austria was able to engorge its territorial and political demands. The retention of these various states and the prevention of any state as a force to restore the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy was of the upmost importance. Britain was somewhat nervous about Austria possibly gaining puppets across Italy, and it was debated which royal house should inherit which duchy. It was eventually decided that a similar mechanism to the Confederation of Poland. However the acquiescence of Parma back to the Bourbons, Venitia and Lombardy directly into the Austrian Empire, and of Tuscany and Modena directly to the Habsburg line, meant that it was mostly a face saving move for the British. There was (unofficial) talk of having the Duchies of Lucca, Piacenza, and Gustalla all revert to British Royals, but that was eventually scraped.
Beyond Europe and Miscellaneous:
France received back Guadeloupe from Sweden in return for yearly installments to the Swedish king.
Britain was confirmed in control of the Cape Colony in Southern 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.
The slave trade was condemned.
Freedom of navigation was guaranteed for many rivers, notably the Rhine and the Danube.
The Congress of Vienna saw many winners. Warthausen, who had before been relegated to finance and Metternich seen as Austria’s rising star, was credited with the creation of the Concert System and Austria’s about face turn in the negotiations to be seen as an “honorable salvager”. Austria was satisfied with its gains in the German Confederation and in Italy. Prussia felt that it had won because it got what it wanted, Saxony, and didn’t have to accept some other consolation prize (though it did want Posen to be totally annexed). France got what it wanted because it didn’t lose that much. Russia got what it wanted because, even though it desired all of Poland as a direct annexation, it now held control over the totally dependent Polish state which it could direct away from Russia and towards ethnically Polish area in Austria and Prussia. Britain felt that even though its initial designs weren’t all totally met, the balance of power was still more or less preserved on the continent and thus its own security assured.
The Congress of Vienna also saw many losers. Austria was upset that it didn't get to recover more German lands or even gain some more and viewed Italian states and administration of part of their old Austrian Netherlands as consolation prizes, and were very upset at the outcome of the Polish and Saxon situations. Prussia was upset that of all the powers, even though it got what it wanted, it got the least, and felt that for all of the trauma of dealing with Napoleon, that Saxony and a few minor chunks around Germany, were poor consolation prizes France was upset that it still lost territory (Corsica; a finger in the eye for Napoleon’s birthplace) and that while it was able to play kingmaker, it could do little else. Russia was upset in that it didn’t get what it wanted in Poland and that the Holy Alliance it dreamed of for perpetual stability and as a mechanism for destroying the Turks was nothing more than a meaningless commitment. Britain was the “least upset”, but still upset in that it seemed that while the balance of power was more or less intact, it was now a balance between a few giants rather than many smaller actors.
Only time would tell if this new European order would last, but in the Congress the seeds of disorder were already laid.
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