The Congress of Verona met at
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
on 20 October 1822 as part of the
series of international conferences or congresses that opened with the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
in 1814–15, which had instituted the
Concert of Europe
The Concert of Europe was a general consensus among the Great Powers of 19th-century Europe to maintain the European balance of power, political boundaries, and spheres of influence. Never a perfect unity and subject to disputes and jockeying ...
at the close of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
.
[Irby C. Nichols Jr, "The Congress of Verona, 1822: A Reappraisal." ''Southwestern Social Science Quarterly'' (1966): 385-39]
online
/ref>
Representation
The Quintuple Alliance was represented by the following persons:
* : Emperor Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
and Count Karl Robert Nesselrode (minister of foreign affairs). Count George Mocenigo (Ambassador of Russia in Torino) was also present;
* : Prince Metternich
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...
;
* : Prince Hardenberg and Count Christian Gunther von Bernstorff;
* : The duc de Montmorency-Laval (minister of Foreign Affairs) and François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrati ...
;
* : The Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
, who was taking the place of Viscount Castlereagh
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judici ...
after the latter's suicide on the eve of the congress.
Issues
While the representatives of Great Britain and the European powers had at first, during the Congress of Vienna, acted largely in concert, the extent to which the concord epitomized in the expression the "Concert of Europe
The Concert of Europe was a general consensus among the Great Powers of 19th-century Europe to maintain the European balance of power, political boundaries, and spheres of influence. Never a perfect unity and subject to disputes and jockeying ...
" had unraveled in seven years became apparent in the way in which the three main questions before this Congress were handled.
The instructions drawn up by Londonderry, as he then was, for his own guidance, had been handed to Wellington by George Canning without alteration. They defined the British position towards the three questions which it was supposed would be discussed: the Turkish Question (currently surfacing in the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
insurrection), the question of intervention in favor of the Bourbon royal power in Spain and the revolted Spanish colonies in America, and the Italian Question.
Italian Question
The matter of the Italian Question dealt with the continued Austrian rule in Northern Italy. Since Britain could not undertake to support a system in which she had merely acquiesced, Wellington did not even formally present his credentials until the other Powers had disposed of the matter, a British minister (Castlereagh's half-brother and successor in the Londonderry title) attending merely to keep informed and to see that nothing was done inconsistent with the European system and the treaties.
Greek Question
In the Greek Question, the probable raising of which had alone induced the British government to send a minister plenipotentiary
An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...
to the Congress, Wellington was instructed to suggest the eventual necessity for recognizing the belligerent rights of the Greeks, and, in the event of concerted intervention, to be careful not to commit Britain, beyond a supporting role. (See Greek War of Independence.)
As for Russia and Austria, the immediate problems arising out of the Greek Question had already been privately settled between the emperor Alexander and Metternich, to their mutual satisfaction, at the preliminary conferences held at Vienna in September.
Spanish Question
When the plenipotentiaries met in Verona, the only question raised was the Spanish Question, of the proposed French intervention in Spain, in which Wellington's instructions were to express London's uncompromising opposition to the whole principle of intervention.
The discussion was opened by three questions formally propounded by Montmorency:
# Would the Allies withdraw their ministers from Madrid in the event of France being compelled to do so?
# In case of war, under what form and by what acts would the powers give France their moral support, so as to give to her action the force of the Quintuple Alliance, and inspire a salutary fear in the revolutionaries of all countries?
# What material aid would the powers give if asked by France to intervene, under restrictions which France would declare and they would recognize?
A series of gilt-copper medals apparently struck in England represent participants of the Congress in less than flattering lights: the "Count de Chateaubriand" (Ludwig Ernst Bramsen, ''Médallier'') bears an inscription that offers the British view of the French position in a nutshell: "The King of France, my master, demands the freedom of Ferdinand VII to give his people institutions which they cannot hold but from him", while the Emperor Francis I of Austria
Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response ...
asserts "My troops occupy Naples to chastise the Neapolitans for daring to change their constitution."
The reply of Alexander, who expressed his surprise at the desire of France to keep the intervention wholly French, was to offer to march 150,000 Russians through Germany to Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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, demographics1_footnotes =
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, demographics1_info1 =
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, where they could be held ready to act against any Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = P ...
, whether in Spain or France. This solution appealed as little to Metternich and Montmorency as to Wellington; but though united in opposing it, four days of confidential communications revealed a fundamental difference of opinion. Wellington, firmly based on the principle of non-intervention
Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
, refused to have anything to do with the suggestion, made by Metternich, that the powers should address a common note to the Spanish government in support of the action of France. Finally, Metternich proposed that the Allies should hold a common language, but in separate notes, though uniform in their principles and objects. This solution was adopted by the continental powers; but Wellington, in accordance with his instructions not to countenance any intervention in Spanish affairs, took no part in the conferences that followed. On October 30 the powers handed in their formal replies to the French memorandum.
Russia, Austria and Prussia would act as France should in respect of withdrawing their ministers, and would give to France every assistance she might require, the details to be specified in a treaty. Wellington, on the other hand, replied on behalf of Great Britain that having no knowledge of the cause of dispute, and not being able to form a judgment upon a hypothetical case, he could give no answer to any of the questions.
Thus was proclaimed the open breach of Britain with the principles and policy of the Quintuple Alliance, as it had become with the admission of France in 1818, which development is what gives to the congress its main historical interest. The ensuing French intervention ended with the Battle of Trocadero
The Battle of Trocadero, fought on 31 August 1823, was the only significant battle in the French invasion of Spain in support of King Ferdinand VII. French forces defeated the Spanish liberal forces and restored the absolute rule of Ferdinand.
...
, which reinstated Ferdinand VII of Spain
, house = Bourbon-Anjou
, father = Charles IV of Spain
, mother = Maria Luisa of Parma
, birth_date = 14 October 1784
, birth_place = El Escorial, Spain
, death_date =
, death_place = Madrid, Spain
, burial_p ...
and opened a reactionary period of Spanish and European politics that led to the Year of Revolutions, 1848.
References
Further reading
* W. Alison Phillips, in ''Cambridge Modern History'', chapter I: The Congresses
* I. C. Nichols, ''European Pentarchy and the Congress of Verona, 1822''
*
* Nichols, Irby Coghill. ''The European Pentarchy and the Congress of Verona, 1822'' (Springer Science & Business Media, 2012).
* Nichols Jr, Irby C. "The Congress of Verona, 1822: A Reappraisal." ''Southwestern Social Science Quarterly'' (1966): 385–39
online
* Reinerman, Alan. "Metternich, Italy and the Congress of Verona, 1821–1822." ''Historical Journal'' 14.2 (1971): 263–287
online
External links
*
*Full text edition of the Post-Napoleonic congresses as held by the National Archives of Austria
The National Archives of Austria (german: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) Also known as the Austrian State Archives in Vienna is the central archive of the republic of Austria. On the basis of the Austrian Federal Archives Act, it stores the a ...
:
as held by the National Archives of Austria
The National Archives of Austria (german: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) Also known as the Austrian State Archives in Vienna is the central archive of the republic of Austria. On the basis of the Austrian Federal Archives Act, it stores the a ...
:
{{Greek War of Independence, state=collapsed
Post-Napoleonic congresses
Diplomacy during the Greek War of Independence
1822 in Europe
Diplomatic conferences in Italy
19th-century diplomatic conferences
1822 in international relations
1822 conferences
October 1822 events
History of Verona
National questions
François-René de Chateaubriand
Klemens von Metternich
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Alexander I of Russia