The Congress of Vienna

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the conference convened by the victorious powers of the Napoleonic Wars and the earlier French Revolutionary Wars, which had devastated so much of Europe over the last 25 years. The powers aimed to create a long lasting peace, partly by redrawing the map to restore old boundaries and partly by balancing the powers so that none would risk war again. It has since been seen as a very conservative outcome, reasserting the old monarchical and imperial orders over the growth of liberalism and national independence movements, and yet also largely successful in its goal of preventing war in Europe on such a scale for another 100 years. Delegates to Vienna were entertained at night with lavish balls, and the image above is from a French cartoon showing Russia, Prussia, and Austria dancing to the bidding of Castlereagh, the British delegate. With Kathleen Burk Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Tim Blanning Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and John Bew Professor in History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department at King's College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the BBC.
0:02.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:05.0	There's a reading list to go with it on our website.
0:07.0	And you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:12.0	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:14.0	Hello, in 1814, the great European powers met in Vienna
0:18.0	to try to establish your new and lasting order after over 20 years of bloody catastrophic wars.
0:24.0	Diplomats such as Castellet, Talieron and Metanik
0:27.0	worked to balance the power so that no one state or empire could dominate Europe as France had done
0:32.0	or as Russia threatened to do.
0:34.0	They reached agreement in June 1815, days before the Battle of Waterloo, after which they reconvened.
0:40.0	This congress of Vienna has been credited with the century relative peace that followed in Europe.
0:45.0	It's also been blamed for suppressing liberal democratic ideas
0:49.0	and for creating conditions that led to the First World War
0:52.0	and the terrible conflicts that followed that.
0:55.0	We'd meet discuss the congress of Vienna, our Kathleen Burke,
0:58.0	Professor Emeritus of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London,
1:02.0	John Buu, Professor of History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department,
1:06.0	King's College London, and Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern Europe in History
1:10.0	at the University of Cambridge.
1:12.0	Tim Blanning, what condition was Europe in by 1814?
1:16.0	Europe was in a terrible condition in 1814.
	...

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