The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon PDF
Preview The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon
The Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna 6 POWER AND POLITICS AFTER NAPOLEON BRIAN E. VICK Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2014 Copyright © 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Vick, Brian E., 1970– T he Congress of Vienna : power and politics after Napoleon / Brian E. Vick. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 72971- 1 (alkaline paper) 1. Congress of Vienna (1814– 1815) 2. Napoleonic Wars, 1800– 1815—Peace. 3. Napoleonic Wars, 1800– 1815—Treaties. 4. Napoleonic Wars, 1800– 1815— Diplomatic history. 5. Europe— Politics and government—1789– 1815. I. Title. DC249.V45 2014 940.2'744—dc23 2014004758 Contents Introduction 1 1 Peace and Power in Display 21 2 Selling the Congress 66 3 Salon Networks 112 4 Negotiating Religion 153 5 Eu rope in the Wider World 193 6 Between Reaction and Reform 233 7 Poland, Saxony, and the Crucible of Diplomacy 278 Conclusion 321 Notes 335 Ac know ledg ments 423 Index 427 The Congress of Vienna Introduction In pop u lar memory, and pop u lar history, the Congress of Vienna lives as much as a grand spectacle of parties, dancing, and festivities as it does as a diplomatic summit convened to settle the future of Eur ope in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat. Images of waltzes, pseudo- medieval knightly tournaments, and sexual intrigues dance alongside those of the diplomatic intrigues, and the illustrious fi gures of the statesmen Prince Talleyrand, Prince Metternich, and Lord Castlereagh alongside the rulers Tsar Alex- ander, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prus sia, and Emperor Franz I of Austria. Scholarly accounts of the Congress on the other hand have mostly screened out the festive dimension in order to center on the diplomatic maneuverings as the essence of the event. Offer and counteroffer, the play of power politics, and the rules both intricate and unsubtle of raison d’état and Realpolitik stand at the core of such analyses. Yet the diplo- macy, like the diplomats themselves, did not remain in a hermetically sealed room or black box, somehow set apart from broader society, cul- ture, and ideas. The days of diplomatic relations as solely sovereign ar- cana, secret and out of the public eye, w ere long gone by 1800, even if the day of a completely transparent system of international relations oper- ating in the full light of public scrutiny had not yet arrived (has, for that matter, still not arrived). Nor do the festivities, socializing, and cultural exchanges simply represent local color, or titillating details to spice up the historical narrative. Knowledge of the wider culture and pol iti cal culture is essential to understanding both the Congress of Vienna and Eu ro pe an international relations, while at the same time, renewed attention to the
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