A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The Post-Napoleonic Settlement 571

national states whose borders would correspond to patterns of ethnic resi­
dence. Nationalism threatened the territorial settlements effected by the
Congress of Vienna. The Habsburg Austrian monarchy itself ruled eleven
major nationalities without a state of their own, including Hungarians and
Poles, who had once had fully independent states. In the meantime, German
and Italian nationalists began to call for national political unification.

The Post-Napoleonic Settlement

The allied representatives to the Congress were determined to ensure that
France could not again rise to a position of domination in Europe. Thus,
even before Napoleon’s first defeat and abdication in 1814, representatives
of Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Great Britain formed a coalition, the “Quad­
ruple Alliance,” intended to prevent France or any other state or political
movement from threatening the legitimate sovereigns of Europe.

The Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris was signed in March 1814, thus before the Congress of
Vienna. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838), who had served
Napoleon with flexibility rooted in an uncanny sense of survival, became the
intermediary. He exploited tensions among the allies, especially between
Prussia and Austria. The victorious powers agreed to restore the Bourbons to
the throne of France in the person of the count of Provence, brother of the
executed Louis XVI, who took the throne as Louis XVIII. The allies might
well have forced the French to sign a draconian treaty. But they were dealing
not with the defeated Napoleon but with the restored Bourbon monarch,
whose throne they wanted to solidify against liberal challenges within
France.
France retained lands incorporated before November 1, 1792, including
parts of Savoy, Germany, and the Austrian Netherlands, as well as the former
papal city of Avignon. France gave up claims to the remainder of the Aus­
trian Netherlands, the Dutch Republic, the German states, the Italian states,
and Switzerland. It lost to Britain the Caribbean islands of Trinidad, Tobago,
Santa Lucia, and part of Santo Domingo. The allies demanded no repara­
tions from France. Yet difficult territorial issues remained to be resolved in
central and southern Europe.

Diplomatic Maneuvering at the Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was almost entirely the work of diplomats repre­

senting Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, and Russia. The goals were three­

fold: to redistribute territory in the wake of the French revolutionary and

Napoleonic Wars, to achieve a balance of power that would prevent any one