CHAPTER 'j 5
LIBERAL CHALLENGES TORESTORATION EUROPEAt the Congress of Vienna of 1815, representatives of the allies
who had defeated Napoleon—Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain—
came together to reestablish peace in Europe. They hoped that by imposing
a treaty on France and creating an international mechanism, the Concert of
Europe, they could prevent Europe from again being shaken by revolution in
France or elsewhere. The Congress represented conservative impulses, stand
ing against the liberalism and nationalism that espoused organizing states
along ethnic or national lines and demanded reforms in the name of the
popular sovereignty that conservatives blamed for the French Revolution and
Napoleonic era.
Early nineteenth-century Vienna was a perfect setting for a gathering of
the representatives of Europe’s sovereign powers. The Schonbrunn Palace
on the outskirts of the Habsburg capital and Vienna’s own elegant baroque
buildings still reflected the grandeur of absolutism and traditional court
life, despite the years of warfare that had virtually bankrupted the Austrian
monarchy.
At the Congress, which met between September 1814 and June 1815, the
Austrian hosts staged elaborate dinners, elegant balls, and festive fireworks
displays, and organized hunts helped relieve boredom. Artists stood ready to
paint the portraits of the members of the diplomatic delegations. Aristo
cratic guests amused themselves by trying to guess which of the hundreds
of maids and porters were spying for the Austrians. The antics of some rep
resentatives provided as much comic relief as irritation. A Spanish diplomat
insisted that his country should have the right to several small Italian states.
The other representatives were so annoyed by this demand that they invited
him to go on a ballooning excursion, and sent him off in the general direc
tion of the Alps.
What the English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), called
“that base pageant,” the Congress of Vienna provided an opportunity for the
informal discussions that had always been an important part of traditional