!!!Wiener Kongress

Vienna, Congress of, September 19, 1814 - June 06, 1815. Assembly 
agreed upon in the peace of Paris on May 5, 1814, attended by monarchs 
and representatives of the most important countries to reorganise the 
political map of Europe after the  Napoleonic Wars. The 
representatives of the four main allies were: Tsar Alexander I and 
Count K. W. Nesselrode (Russia), King Friedrich Wilhelm III and 
Chancellor K. A. Prince of Hardenberg (Prussia), Viscount Castlereagh 
and the Duke of Wellington (England), Emperor Franz I and the chairman 
of the Congress C. W. Prince Metternich (Austria); The French 
representative C. M. de Talleyrand had ensured France´s 
participation as the 5%%sup th/%  decisive power.

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Small states tried to intervene and the negotiations were 
characterised by tensions (secret alliance between Austria, England 
and France against Russia and Prussia on January 03, 1815), but were 
accelerated by Napoleon´s return from Elba (March 01, 1815). As 
a result Austria was handed back parts of its former possessions 
including Western Carinthia, Carniola, Istria and Dalmatia 
(Vorarlberg, Tirol, Salzburg, the Hausruckviertel and Innviertel 
regions were returned in a barter agreement with Bavaria in 1816), the 
borough of Tarnopol in Galicia (but not New Galicia) and the 
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom in Northern Italy, which secured 
Austria´s dominant position in Italy. The Habsburg 
secundogenitures Tuscany (Ferdinand III, the brother of Emperor Franz 
I) and Modena (Franz IV of Austria-Este) were re-established. Marie 
Louise kept Parma and Piacenza, but Austria surrendered the Vorlande 
with the Breisgau region and the Austrian Netherlands. The  Deutscher 
Bund under the presidency of Austria replaced the  Holy Roman Empire, 
which had been dissolved in 1806; the Act of the German Federation was 
integrated into the final act of the Congress. Further results of the 
Congress: Switzerland was enlarged and given a guarantee for its 
neutrality; Baden, Wuerttemberg and Bavaria remained in existence; 
Kraków became a Free City and Poland joined Russia. 
Furthermore, the droit de legation was codified ("Règlement de 
Vienne") as well as the freedom of international river traffic and the 
outlawry of the slave trade. At the Congress of Vienna Austria once 
more succeeded in asserting its position in Europe and prolonging its 
supremacy in Germany and Italy. The further course of the 19%%sup th/% 
 century was characterised by a competitive relationship with Prussia, 
to which Austria had to yield again and again. The Congress of Vienna 
was accompanied by many social gatherings and put Austria to great 
expense; The Prince of  Ligne coined the phrase "the Congress dances, 
but it does not get anywhere" ("Le congrès danse beaucoup, mais 
il ne marche pas").

!Literature
Wiener Kongress, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1965; P. 
Burg, Der Wiener Kongress., 1984; K. Mueller (ed.), Quellen zur 
Geschichte des Wiener Kongresses, 1986.


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