Congress of Vienna

To start off this unit we paired up to read and explain the background essay on the Congress of Vienna. After, we watched a video about Napoleon and Klemens Von Metternich. The video described Napoleon's reaction to Metternich's changes and the Congress of Vienna. Also, we watched a clip that showed how the map of Europe changed from the changes imposed by the Congress of Vienna. Our essential question, What should people in power do when their power is threatened, relates to this because the members of the Congress of Vienna needed to protect their power from angry revolutionists. There are four principles which the European powers used to protect their power, Balance of Power, Principle of Legitimacy, Holy Alliance and Principle of Intervention.

Tzar Alexander spearheaded the idea of making a Holy Alliance within The Congress of Vienna. A Holy Alliance prevents revolt by saying that Monarchs had the divine right to rule and any revolution was treason against God. This principle worked fairly well because it was going back to the old ways before Napoleon when things were mostly stable. Also, the people in power had the support of the church making it not such a good idea to revolt. Overall, The Congress of Vienna mostly undid the physical aspects of Napoleon's conquest however, Napoleonic ideas spread throughout Europe, sparking some revolutions that could not be contained. One of these revolutions even pushed Metternich out of power. Also, there was no fighting between the five nations of the Congress of Vienna up to 1853.

I think the members of The Congress of Vienna could have made better choices. They mostly thought about themselves and expanding their already large countries. Instead, they could have accommodated the smaller countries and listened to their people. They could have given the people more say in the governments which would have been more effective at stopping revolts. The people in power should have given up some of their power so that everyone was satisfied.