Congress Of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a gathering of diplomats of many European nations. But there was really one man running the show, his name was Klemens Von Metternich. He was an Austrian diplomat and during the Congress of Vienna he served as the Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire. Metternich was leading the congress and he was faced with many problems that needed to be solved.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Metternich and the Congress came of with four concepts that addressed some of the issues of their time. Napoleon was no longer the ruler of France, which meant the Congress had to appoint a new rulers. France's current boundaries were far to large, and so land distribution had to take place. Revolutions on the rise in different countries need to be addressed. And the most important of all, making sure that the situation never happens again, they didn't want another man like Napoleon coming into power and take over almost all of Europe.

The Congress came up with four ideas to address each and every concern. They appointed Louis XVIII as the king of France; creating a constitutional monarchy, and claiming Principle of Legitimacy. They placed all the old rulers of countries back in power, claiming that they ruled with Divine Right. The congress distributed the land between the five powers. Prussia gained more land to make it a major power. Russia, England and Austria gain significant amounts of land. France got downsized back to the size they were before. Germany was separated into many different kingdoms and were ruled by Austria and Prussia. This maintained a balance of power between the 5 powers. To address the springing revolutions the Congress created the Principle of Intervention which gave the 5 powers the right to send in troops into a country to stop revolutions and restore monarchs, England did not participate. Lastly, the Congress created the Holy Alliance so no, one country can become to powerful; England did not participate.

Klemens Von Metternich

Through the Congress of Vienna, Metternich gained substantial land for Austria, the right to rule over some of the German kingdoms, an Alliance with the great powers of Europe, and he took Napoleon out of power. For Austria the Congress of Vienna was very beneficial, Metternich was a very intelligent and sneaky person. He dishonored a treaty between Austria and France in order to take Napoleon out of power. There was a king of Austria but Metternich was the one in command.

Overall the Congress of Vienna served to be a strong peace treaty. There wasn't a war between the 5 major powers of Europe until 1853. Napoleon was the enemy in the eyes of Europe, so France was not disdained. Some revolution were able to be suppressed, Louis XVIII sent an army to prevent an uprising in Spain. But other revolutions weren't able to be suppressed, the Revolutions of 1848; Metternich lost his power and fled Austria. The resolutions that were brought about during the Congress of Vienna ultimately brought balance and peace to Europe for a period of time.