Both Congress of Vienna and Treaty of Versailles (in French: Traité de Versailles) had similar goals in which was the recreation and restoration of peace in European. Both of them aimed to maintain the balance of power within Europe. It was said that Treaty of Versailles was not successful and less effective than the Congress of Vienna. Both happened after some major wars. The Congress of Vienna took place after the Napoleonic Wars while Treaty of Versailles after the World War I. The differences between those two are much more prevalent, both in terms of the enforcement, the agreements and the settlements.
The Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna, one of the most important international conferences in European history was convened in June 1815 by the four European powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great Britain) to settle political territorial questions arising right after the Napoleonic era, the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armeé and his abdication earlier in 1814. The meeting took place in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The Austrian emperor Francis I (formerly Holy Roman Emperor Francis II) was the host. Almost every state in Europe was represented. Among the monarchs attended the congress that were most important were The Tsar of Russia, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, the Habsburg Emperor and many other European Kings.
The congress’s objective was to restore a balance of power in Europe and also providing long-term peace for the whole of Europe due to the most of Europe’s structure swept away by the Napoleonic Wars. In an easy-understandable wording, Congress of Vienna means to re-drew Europe’s map, restoring monarchy to the territories which Napoleon had captured.
The first goal of the congress was to establish a new balance of power in Europe which would prevent imperialism within Europe (such as the Napoleonic empire) and to maintain the peace between the Great Powers. The second goal was to prevent political revolutions, such as the French Revolution, and maintain the status quo.
Territorial settlement is based on three principles; compensation of victors, punishment for the defeated and balance of power. The indemnity and occupation payments were not as heavy as they probably should have been, for France itself had suffered little devastation from the Napoleonic Wars. Since French boundaries were restored as they had existed in 1790, France lost little land and even retained a few minor acquisitions. Apart from the provisions of the second Treaty of Paris, France received French Guiana from Portugal, Guadeloupe from Sweden, and Martinique and the Isle of Bourbon from Great Britain.
The measures to maintain the balance of power were so successful. For example, Polish-Saxon question, Britain, Austria and France rejected their demands. As a result, Russia was only allowed to get part of Poland and Prussia only got 2/5 of Saxony. In addition, the influence of the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs was balanced. Austria and Prussia were both included in the German Confederation so that neither one could become too powerful.
Besides, these settlement laid the foundation for the German and Italian Unification. By the congress, Piedmont Sardinia was strengthened by giving Genoa and Savoy so that Sardinia was strengthened and powerful enough to play as the leader in the Italian Unification movement. Like Italy, giving 2/5 of Saxony and the Rhineland strengthened Prussia and so Prussia was strong enough to be the leader of the German Unification later.
To preserve the arrangement, Austria, Great Britain, Russia, and Prussia signed the Quadruple Alliance later in 1815 to establish the Concert of Europe which was an agreement to hold conferences from time to time to settle problems among them. According to the Quadruple Alliance, Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia agreed to meet at fixed period to discuss common problems. They were later joined by France in 1818. Although Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated by the alliance, France was not treated as a defeated country. She was then invited to take part in the congress and was admitted as one of the Big Five. The Concert of Europe sought to preserve the settlement for at least twenty years through periodic conferences (several of which were held between 1818 and 1822) to deal with liberalist-nationalist challenges to the settlement in Greece, Spain, and the Italy.
However, the Vienna Settlement ignored the force of liberalism that is a belief that all men are free and equal by birth and that they are entitled to enjoy liberties such as freedom of speech, expression, etc. They restored that the practice of absolute monarchy in which the people’s rights and freedoms were not protected. To the great states of Europe, particularly Austria, the spread of liberal ideas in Europe would produce unfavorable effects. First, it would lead to revolutions, which might upset law and order. It would also weaken the social and political order which most of them were following. It would also lead to the loss of their power. To maintain their established interests, they therefore applied the principle of legitimacy and restoration. These said restoration of legitimate rulers was one of the more unclear principles. It became quite evident, that this principle was applied only when it suited the interests of the Great Powers.
Furthermore, the Vienna Settlement also ignored the force of nationalism that is a belief of a loyalty of individual is to the state but not to the king and that everyone can have a rightful and lawful claim to self-government. However, European rulers were restored to rule over a foreign country where the people’s language and customs were very different from their own. For example, Belgium, Norway, Finland and Poland were given away or partitioned. Germany and Italy were divided.
It was obvious that the interest of smaller states was ignored as the Vienna Settlement was drawn up by the Great Powers only. Thus, they only re-mapped the Europe to suit their convenience. The small states were scarified to achieve the aims of the Vienna Settlement. Owing to the divergent opinions at the time, it was very difficult to arrive at a conclusion acceptable to all. However, since the statement at Vienna aimed mainly at the maintenance of peace and stability in Europe, so it was said that the Vienna Settlement was actually successful.
In addition to that, the Congress of Vienna gave Europe forty years of comparative peace. This peace of Europe was mainly due to the success of the congress in achieving a balance of power. The Great Powers of Europe were at peace with each until 1854 when the Crimean War emerged.
The Congress of Vienna considered succeeded because the congress re-established a balance of power among European countries and brought peace between the nations. However, from beginning to end, the Congress of Vienna remained almost exclusively a congress of the Great Powers, the smaller states being summoned to participate only in the discussion of minor matters which pertained to them individually.
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles, formed the core of peace settlement after the World War I. The treaty ended the war between the Germany and the Allied Powers. It was assigned on June 28, 1919 exactly 5 years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which was one of the events that triggered the start of World War I. Germany, reluctantly signed the Treaty of Versailles as part of the Paris Peace Conference in the Halls of Mirrors at Palace of Versailles in France on June 28, 1919. The conference was led by the Allies and the ‘Big Four’, and had representatives from 27 nations. They were determined not to make the mistakes made in the Congress of Vienna (Aristocrats reactionary and ignoring liberalism) and wished to keep eternal peace.
However, the Treaty of Versailles considered as a failure and not considered as a good treaty because it basically what causes the World War II to emerge, in which Germany is forced to hold blame for the entire war (even though the war started because of the Austria-Hungary’s blaming of Serbia for the assassination of their Archduke).
In this Treaty of Versailles, the victorious powers (the United States, the Great Britain, France and other allied nations) imposed punitive territorial, military and economic provisions on defeated Germany. The major effect of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, including :
a) Forcing Germany to give massive amounts of land to the Allies.
- Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France which was seized by the Germany earlier
- Poland received parts of West Prussia and Silesia from Germany.
- Danzig, a major port in East Prussia was to be under international rule.
- All German and Turkish Colonies were taken away and put under Allied control.
- Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Czechoslovakia were made independent.
- Austria-Hungary was split up and Yugoslavia was created.
In sum, Germany forfeited 13% of its European territory (more than 27,000 square miles) and one-tenth of its population (between 6.5 and 7 million people)
b) Germany to pay exorbitant amounts of reparation money to the Allies
In 1921, the cost of reparations was announced as – £6.6 billion in gold or 33 billions American dollars for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allied powers and their property. It was to include raw material, such as the coal from the Saar and the Ruhr regions given to the France for 5 years.
c) Limit the size of the German army to a fraction of its former size.
Germany’s army was to be limited to a token 100,000 men, and its navy to 15,000 men, to have 36 ships with no submarines, and a ban on conscription. She was not permitted to have an air force, nor tanks, and was prohibited from producing or importing weaponry.
The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to ensure a lasting peace by punishing Germany for their actions on causing the Great War and setting up a League of Nations so that each nation can choose its own government and also to solve diplomatic problems. The League of Nations had many failures around the world for example, Japan invaded China. The League of Nations also has an appeasement to Germany and because of that, Adolf Hitler defies the Versailles treaty and rebuilds his army and takes over Rhineland. Instead of being successfully enforced, The Treaty of Versailles left a legacy of political and geographical difficulties which started the World War II.
Settlement comparisons
The Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Versailles are a very important and controversial conferences with each of them has specific pros and cons in terms of making decisions and enforcing the settlements.
The Congress of Vienna’s settlement was the most-comprehensive treaty that Europe had ever seen since its placed importance to the benefits of the European. The representatives did not ignore France, in fact they made her part of their alliance. They aimed to establish and maintain peace in Europe without causing to any revengeful feeling of France. This is opposed to what Treaty of Versailles proposed which was to weaken Germany that eventually led to another major wars in European history. The Congress and Settlement of Vienna managed to control and discourage war between the Great Powers in Europe. They also managed to restore the balance of power to effectively build a peaceful Europe. Significantly, the Congress of Vienna was used as a model in creating the League of Nations as well as the United Nations in Treaty of Versailles. However, in my opinion, I would see this about as good as one can expect with leaders from the ‘old age’ trying to solve problems of a ‘new age’ in the old way.
The Treaty of Versailles in the other hand, failed to bring everlasting European stability and peace for which the Allied Powers’ governments seen they would be. The matter was that, the treaty was put together in haste and the Germany refused to sign it because it treated them so badly. What stopped the Treaty of Versailles from approaching success and be successful as it could, was the reluctance to enforce the terms by the Allies.
While the Congress of Vienna tried to revert to a monarchist Europe, the Treaty of Versailles put Germany extremely weak and politically unstable. However, the Treaty of Vienna had more realistic demands of the French empire while the Germans were left very vulnerable, which set the stage for Nazi Germany. If Congress of Vienna was about adopting a fair policy of no rewards and no punishment; the Treaty of Versailles was all about punishing the Germany. When comparing the Settlement of Vienna and its aftermath to the Treaty of Versailles’ aftermath, it becomes clear which one solved the problems that mattered the most.