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Congress of Vienna 1815
Final Act of the Congress of Vienna
1815
The Congress of Vienna convened from
September 18, 1814 - June 9, 1815.
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Image Above
Delegates
at the
Congress of Vienna.
Standing in front:
Prince Metternich
Engraving by Jean
Godefroy.
© BPD |
The Final Act of the Congress of
Vienna (German: Wiener Schlussakte) was
signed on June 9, 1815.
Who Attended the
Congress of Vienna?
All in all, approx. 200
different delegations gathered at the Congress of Vienna, in
Austria.
The main European powers were
represented by
Klemens von Metternich
for Austria (host country)
Robert Stewart
Castlereagh
for Great Britain
Czar Alexander I
himself
for Russia
Karl August von
Hardenberg
and
Wilhelm von
Humboldt
for Prussia
Charles-Maurice de
Talleyrand
for France
Some delegates arrived after
September 18, 1814. Talleyrand and his posse, for example,
entered Vienna on September 23, 1814.
What Was the
Purpose of the Congress of Vienna?
The
First Treaty of Paris had been signed on May
30, 1814. In this treaty, a gathering at
Vienna had been decided upon.
The congress was a meeting of
all European leaders (except the Ottoman Empire) who had survived the
Napoleonic Wars and were ready to adjust the European map,
now that
Napoleon
had been exiled.
Or so they thought.
On March 1, 1815, Napoleon was back on
the European mainland and ready to take back control. After some eventful
Hundred
Days, Napoleon was once more taken care of and the Congress
was able to conclude its assembly with the
Final Act of the
Congress of Vienna (German: Wiener Schlussakte) signed on June 9, 1815.
On June 18, 1815, the
Battle of Waterloo
was fought and that was the end of Napoleon's power.
This time for
real.
What Was the Outcome
of the Congress of Vienna?
Some of the adjustments that were made by the Congress of
Vienna were
-
the partition of Poland between Prussia and
Russia
-
the restoration of the Bourbons in France (Louis
XVIII once more after Napoleon's Hundred Days)
-
Prussia
gained the Rhine province, Westphalia, and half of the
Kingdom of Saxony
-
Austria gained Tyrol, Vorarlberg,
Salzburg, the Innviertel, Illyria, Lombardy and Venetia
-
forming of the
German Confederation.
And this is the map of Europe after the
Congress of Vienna in 1815.
1815
Congress of Vienna
More specifically with regards to Switzerland
and its added territories, see this map:
Map of
Switzerland: Territories added by the Congress of Vienna
How
Effective Was the Congress of Vienna?
With one or two exceptions, the
map that was agreed upon at the Congress of Vienna was kept
for the next 40 years, which went by relatively peacefully.
But it must be said that,
although the Final Act was created with
the goal to achieve a balance of power in Europe, it was inspired by monarchist principles.
People's rights and
revolutionary ideas had been ignored. As case in point
serves the
toothless treatment of the abolition
of slavery.
Meanwhile in
Ghent . . .
Great Britain and the United
States had their respective delegates meet at Ghent,
Belgium, from August 8 to December 24, 1814.
The outcome was the
Treaty of Ghent
that ended the
War of 1812.
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