Why a congress? Europe after Napoleon
From 1792 to 1815 France fought almost all of Europe. At the top of his power, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled a huge empire. He was beaten in 1814 and again at Waterloo in June 1815 (after his short return, called the Hundred Days).
The winners wanted two things: peace and safety from revolution. They met in the city of Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. This meeting is the Congress of Vienna. A congress is a big meeting of leaders to decide something together.
The main people were Prince Metternich (Austria), Tsar Alexander I (Russia), Lord Castlereagh (Britain), ministers of the Prussian king and, for defeated France, the clever Talleyrand.
What Vienna decided
Three guiding ideas
- Balance of power: no country should be strong enough to rule the rest.
- Legitimacy: old ruling families (like the Bourbons in France) got their thrones back.
- Compensation: the winners got land as a reward.
Main changes
- France went back to about its old size, with a Bourbon king, Louis XVIII.
- A strong state was built next to France: the Netherlands and Belgium were joined into one kingdom.
- Prussia got land along the Rhine. Austria got parts of northern Italy.
- About 39 German states were tied together in a loose German Confederation led by Austria.
- The great powers promised to meet again if trouble came. This is later called the Concert of Europe.
The new order brought about 40 years without a war between the big powers. But it ignored what ordinary people wanted, such as a say in government and a country of their own. That is why revolutions came in 1830 and 1848.
How the Polish lands were divided in 1815
Poland had vanished as a state in the partitions of 1772-1795. Napoleon had made a small Duchy of Warsaw from some of the land. After he fell, Vienna shared it out again:
- Russia got most of the Duchy of Warsaw. It became the Kingdom of Poland (also called Congress Poland) with its own constitution, but the Russian tsar was its king.
- Prussia kept the west, called the Grand Duchy of Poznan.
- Austria kept the south, called Galicia.
- Krakow became a tiny Free City, watched over by the three powers (until 1846).
So the Poles were again under three rulers. Hopes for a free country stayed alive and led to uprisings such as the November Uprising of 1830.
Note: the 3D pie is only a picture of the idea, not a real map.
The Industrial Revolution: key inventions
The Industrial Revolution is the change from making things by hand at home to making them by machine in factories. It began in Britain in the 1700s and spread over Europe in the 1800s.
- Spinning jenny (1764) and power loom (1785): machines that spin thread and weave cloth many times faster than one person.
- Steam engine (improved by James Watt, 1769): burns coal to boil water; the steam pushes a piston. It powers factories, pumps and mines.
- Railway (first public steam railway 1825; Stephenson's Rocket 1829): carries coal, goods and people fast.
- Steamship and telegraph: send goods and news across seas and countries.
- Iron and later steel: make strong machines, rails and bridges.
Where industry grew first, and who lived there
Where
Factories needed coal (for steam), iron (for machines), rivers or canals, and many workers. So industry grew first in Britain (Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, South Wales), then in Belgium, northern France, the Rhine and Ruhr area, Saxony and Bohemia. In the Polish lands the early centres were textile Lodz and the coal and iron of Upper Silesia.
New social groups
- Factory owners and merchants (the industrial middle class): got rich and wanted more say in politics.
- Factory workers (the working class): left farms to work 12-14 hours a day for low pay. Many were women and children.
- Rich landowners (nobles) lost some importance; many farm labourers lost work.
Living conditions
Towns grew very fast. Workers rented small, damp rooms in crowded streets with dirty water. Diseases like cholera spread. Factories were noisy and dangerous. Later, laws (for example Britain's Factory Act of 1833) limited child work, and workers joined trade unions to ask for fair pay and safety.
Try it: balance on a table and a town in 100 years
- Balance game: use a ruler and a pencil as a see-saw. Put 2 coins on one side and 5 on the other. Does it tip? Now move coins until it is level. You have just done "balance of power".
- 3D slider: in the last step, move the year from 1800 to 1900. Before you move it, guess: will the fields go up or down? Then check.
- Ask at home: ask an older person which things in your home are made in a factory and which by hand. Make two lists.
Key formulas and definitions
- Congress of Vienna: meeting of the great powers in Vienna, 1814-15, to rebuild Europe after Napoleon
- Balance of power: states stay about equal so that none can rule all
- Legitimacy: old royal families are put back on their thrones
- Concert of Europe: great powers promise to meet and keep the peace
- Kingdom of Poland (1815): small kingdom with the Russian tsar as king
- Industrial Revolution: move from hand work at home to machine work in factories
- Industrial middle class: factory owners and merchants
- Working class: people who work for wages in factories
Worked examples
1. Why did the winners of 1815 want a "balance of power"?
Step 1: Napoleon had shown that one strong country could conquer almost all of Europe. Step 2: The winners feared another such ruler. Step 3: So they kept the big states about equal and strengthened the neighbours of France. Then, if one state grew too strong, the others could join together against it.
2. List how the Polish lands were shared in 1815 and who ruled each part.
Step 1: The centre (most of the old Duchy of Warsaw) became the Kingdom of Poland, ruled by the Russian tsar as king. Step 2: The west (Poznan) stayed with Prussia. Step 3: The south (Galicia) stayed with Austria. Step 4: Krakow was a small free city under the three powers. So Poles lived under three rulers.
3. Explain why the first factories grew in places like Lancashire and Silesia.
Step 1: Factories used steam engines that burn coal. Step 2: Machines and rails were made of iron. Step 3: Lancashire and Silesia have coal and iron close by, so fuel and metal were cheap. Step 4: Canals, rivers and later railways carried the goods, and nearby villages gave workers. So industry started where these things came together.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Congress of Vienna only punished France. France was made smaller but was also given a place at the table, so that it would not want revenge.
- Mixing up "partition" and "Congress of Vienna". The partitions (1772-1795) ended the old Poland; Vienna in 1815 shared the Duchy of Warsaw again and made a small Kingdom of Poland.
- Thinking the Industrial Revolution happened overnight. It took about 100 years and spread country by country.
- Thinking all workers liked factory life. Many worked long hours in unsafe places; this is why unions and factory laws came.