After studying ideologies in history class, we moved on to a
new topic; the Congress of Vienna. The essential
question that we have been challenged to answer is, “What should people in
power do when their power is threatened?”
In our designated groups we read the background essay that discussed the
Congress of Vienna, titled “The Congress of Vienna: Decision Making Process.” We then discussed, as a group, what we
obtained from this reading following the provided guidelines. Afterwards, we watched a short excerpt of a
video that included a scene where Klemens Von Metternich tried to persuade
Napoleon to stop his army from going to war which Napoleon refuses to do. After watching the video and answering questions,
we then took notes on the three problems that the Congress of Vienna had to
address.
This is a painting of the Congress of Vienna.
One of
the three problems that the Congress of Vienna had to resolve was to decide who
would replace Napoleon and rule France.
The Congress wanted to return France to a traditional monarchy and
follow conservative values. They
assigned Louis XVIII to be the new king of France. The principle that guided the Congress into
making this decision was the principle of legitimacy, which restored lawful
monarchs. Monarchs were chosen from
royal families, instead of by force which was how Napoleon became emperor. Making France a monarchy was punishment
enough following Napoleon, so to ensure that there would be no revolutions in
France, the Congress of Vienna made France a constitutional monarchy. This form of monarchy gave limited rights to
the people of France, along with protection also. These rights stated that all Frenchmen are
equal before the law, no matter what their title or social status. However, even though everyone, generally, had
the same rights, people coming from a higher social status had more power with their
rights. In addition, to make sure that
there would be no religious turmoil in this new monarchy, as there had been in
the past with the Huguenots, the Congress made revisions in religious tolerance. This new revision stated that everyone may
profess their religion with equal freedom and shall be allowed to worship their
religion under protection. Using the
principle of legitimacy, the Congress of Vienna was able to find a solution to
who would rule France.
This is a portrait of the king of Austria, Metternich.
Although
the five powers, which included France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Great
Britain, did not break out in war with each other for the next forty years, I don’t
think that the Congress of Vienna made the best decision when deciding who
should rule France after Napoleon and how the country should be ruled. The French Revolution was an “Atlantic”
Revolution that created many of Europe’s problems. The monarchy lived in outlandish luxury while
the citizens lived in squalor. Why would
the Congress of Vienna want to reestablish a system that would result in their
current economic and social problems? I
understand that because the five powers, especially Metternich, were following
the ideology of conservatism, which stated that monarchy should be the governing
system, and that the five powers wanted to punish France in some way, but it
was not wise to reestablish a monarchy in France. Instead, I think the Congress of Vienna
should have devised a different government system in France, similar to a
democracy or a republic. That way, the
citizens of France would have had their own say in government choices and would
not have tumbled down into another dark tunnel that resulted in yet another
revolution. Instead of worrying about maintaining
a conservatism standpoint in France, the Congress of Vienna should have been
more concerned in creating a government system that would not lead to another
revolution in France.
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