The+Fall+of+Napoleon

The Congress of Vienna was an international conference in Europe to decide the new course of the continent after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte I. The conference was convened in Vienna, Austria between Sept. 1814 and June 1815. The main goal of the conference was to create a balance of power to preserve the peace. At the conference, the four major powers of the time, Prussia, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria, held the most influence in many of the decisions. Minister of state of Austria Prince Klemens von Metternich chaired the Congress as Russian Emperor Alexander I, Prussian delegate Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, and Lord Castlereagh, and later Arthur Wellesley, the first duke of Wellingtom debated on the future of Europe. Countries like Spain and France did not have much voice in huge decisions; that was until diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand of France got France to have an equal voice in the major decisions and was a deciding vote in many of the decisions. Some of the important decisions that were decided at the Congress of Vienna was that all lands conquered by Napoleon had to be taken away from France, the Dutch Republic was to unite with the Austrian Netherlands under the House of Orange to form the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden were joined under a single ruler, Switzerland was declared neutral, Russia got Finland and good control over Poland, Prussia was given much new territory while Austria got back all of the lands it lost and parts of Germany and Italy, Britain got several good new colonial territories and control of the sea, France was restored under Loius the XVIII again and Spain was restored under Ferdinand VII. The Congress of Vienna was a success because it was the first time in a while the great powers of Europe came together and the balance of power they created undistrubed peace for almost 40 years.
 * The Congress of Vienna of 1814 to 1815** **10/6/10**

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