The Congress of Vienna

This unit we studied the Congress of Vienna and the different principles and rights put in place after it met.

The essential question for this unit asked what people in power should do when their power is threatened. Those in power should make every attempt to destroy revolutions and any further spread of revolutions. Although they should try to meet the needs of smaller sects of their people, they must first think of what would most benefit the entire country as a whole. They should work together with other powerful nations to crush revolutions and the spread of revolutions. In class we experienced deciding on how to respond to the threat of power from Metternich’s point of view. We were given scenarios that the Congress of Vienna dealt with and were asked to choose a response that we thought Metternich would have agreed with.

The Congress of Vienna was called to meet in 1814 to settle the many unresolved issues brought about by Napoleon conquering the majority of the continent. The background reading we received in class explained that the Congress of Vienna was a much needed peace conference for those of the war torn continent and the millions of families that lost loved ones during Napoleon’s domination. Together the Congress of Vienna agreed upon the Principle of Intervention. The Principle of Intervention was the ideology that gave the great powers the right to send troops into a country to stop revolutions and restore the monarchs. Since the amount of troops powerful countries were sending into revolution ridden countries outnumbered those in the revolution, revolutions were much more easily put out.

I think the powerful people at the Congress of Vienna made a poor choice. Instead of allowing large countries to separate into some smaller countries they wanted to keep them all together. Independent countries can be more successful than trying to keep the whole country as one. Smaller countries can celebrate their own cultures and religions. If the smaller countries were allowed to rule themselves there would be no need for violent revolutions. The powerful should be willing to sacrifice some of their power in order to keep their entire country from revolting against them.

In class, making the decisions on how to respond from Metternich’s point of view was helpful in understanding why the decisions were made. Looking at it from our point of view and already having an idea of how history played out would have influenced our decisions.