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French Revolution!!!
France
• France was geographically the largest country in
Europe, the wealthiest country, and had the largest
population
• But, most of the country was agricultural and most
people barely survived from day-to-day
• Many of the peasants owned no land and depended upon
common land and employment by the wealthy
landowners
• The rich people paid almost no taxes – they were exempt
from the taille (land tax) and the corvée (labor tax)
• There was one national tax that everyone hated, the
gabelle (salt tax)
• In addition, the nobility could tax peasants who used the
village ovens, mills, or wine presses
• Without an adequate tax collection system the
government was running deeper and deeper into debt
• One of the largest cost was the funding of the American
Revolution – not because the French loved liberty or the
United States – they hated the English
• The cost of French military also drained the economy
• The cost of the monarchy was also a factor
• The main cause of the revolution was financial
problems:
The collected taxes paid:
50% on the interest of the debt
25% military
6% Versailles
The Three Estates
1%
1%
C
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g
y
N
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98%
Peasants
Bourgeoisie - Artisans - Peasants
• In addition to the inadequate tax system and the
financial payments, unemployment and inflation were
also increasing
• Those who lost their jobs migrated to the cities
• The textile industry also witnessed an enormous decline
in production, which increased unemployment and
reduced revenues
• 1788 was a terrible harvest, especially the grape crop
• As the financial crisis worsened so the nobility increased
pressure on the peasants to recoup their losses
• The last major factor was the increasing population
• The Revolution was caused by the financial crisis, but
the situation was not helped by political inefficiencies
and/or long-accepted social practices
Louis XVI
• Old Regime (ancien regime)
• Became king in 1774, aged 20, but he was not interested
in being king
• He was an absolute monarch
• Weak monarch
• Most of the debt held by the nobles
Marie Antoinette
•
•
•
•
•
Married Louis when he was 16
Sister of Austrian King Leopold II
Vivacious
Older
Give them cake (maybe?)
Pre-Revolutionary Troubles
• Louis tried to find a finance minister who could remedy
the situation Anne Robert Turgot was appointed
controller general
• Turgot was sympathetic to the ideals of the
Enlightenment, including free trade
• Turgot proposed six edicts, which, though radical in
nature, promised some reform
• Louis agreed with Turgot and presented the edicts to the
Parlement of Paris, but did not support Turgot against
the nobles
• The members refused to change practices that had been
in place for centuries and insisted the peasants should be
responsible for the financial burden
• Louis wanting peace, fired Turgot
• Next Louis appointed Jacques Necker, a Swiss banker
with a reputation as a financial genius
• Over 5 years Necker realized there was little that could
be done so he altered the records to make things look
better and then he resigned (before he was fired)
• In 1783 Necker was replaced by Charles Alexandre de
Calonne who aggressively sought a solution
• He persuaded Louis to convene the Assembly of
Notables (which had not met for over 150 years) in an
attempt to by-pass the Paris Parlement
• De Calonne wanted the nobles to surrender some of
their privileges to help the situation – they refused
• Louis was embarrassed that he had asked the nobles for
concession that he believed should be given
• The nobles asserted they should not pay taxes
• Calonne was replaced by Loménie de Brienne, the leader
of the opposition to Calonne
• De Brienne took Calonne’s proposal to the Parlement of
Paris
• De Brienne met similar opposition and was forced to
resign in 1788 – Necker was reappointed
• The aristocracy united against the monarchy and
became a solid political unit
• In 1789 the king agreed to convene the Estates General
• The members from the three estates then united against
the king and shared ideas
• This was the first act of the French Revolution
The Estates General
• The Estates General had not been called since Louis
XIII in 1614
• The population was divided among the 3 Estates which
having the same number of representatives
• First Estate – Clergy
Second Estate – Nobility
Third Estate – the rest
• The king and Parlement agreed that voting should be
by estate – not individuals
• In 1789 Abbé Sieyès wrote “What is the Third Estate?
Everything.”
• Sieyès and others demanded more of a role for the
Third Estate
The Three Estates
• Many of the priests in the First Estate and the liberal
nobles in the Second Estates sympathized with the Third
Estate
• Louis asked the Estates to make a list of grievances
(cahiers de doléances)
• In 1789 about 1,000 representatives of the Third Estate
traveled to Versailles
• The king welcomed the members of the First and Second
Estates but ignored the Third Estate
• The Abbé Sieyès proposed the Third Estate be called the
National Assembly because it really represented the
people
• The First Estate now voted to join the Third
• On June 20 rumors circulated that the king was going
to enforce measures to repress the Third Estate and
representatives found their meeting hall had been
locked for ‘repairs’
• The members moved to an indoor tennis court and
swore an oath not to split until they had a new
constitution and they demanded that the king’s
authority be clearly defined
• The king responded by declaring the Third Estate
invalid
• However the king also abolished the taille and corvée,
and eliminated internal tariffs and tolls
• He also agreed to let them vote by individuals but only
on matters that did not concern the constitution or
ancient practices – it was not enough
The Bastille
• By 1789 almost half the people needed relief
• People started to see more troops in Paris and there were rumors
of a conspiracy of the nobles who wanted to profit from the food
shortages and that the National Assembly would be squashed
• July 11, Louis exiled Necker, the people rioted
• July 14 1789 a large crowd of demonstrators marched to the old
fortress – the Bastille, believing weapons and gunpowder were
stored there
• They demanded entry but the commander of the guard refused
• The crowd stormed the Bastille only to find 7 prisoners
• The commander was beheaded and his head placed on a pike and
carried around the city
• After a day of hunting Louis wrote in his diary “July 14: Nothing”
• Turned a political event into revolution
• Chateaubriand, “The patricians began the Revolution,
the plebeians finished it”
The Great Fear
• The peasants hoped that the Estates General would ease
their financial pressure
• When news of the storming of the Bastille reached the
peasants they started to attack the châteaux of the
nobility and destroyed tax files and property deeds
• Fearing reprisals by the nobles the peasants formed
armed militias
• When news of the riots reached Paris the National
Assembly was galvanized into action
• On August 4 the National Assembly abolished feudalism
(later a clause protecting property was added)
• They also guaranteed freedom of worship and other
sweeping reforms that abolished the practices of the
ancien regime
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen
• In August 1789 the National Assembly redefined the
relationship between the king and the subjects
• Natural rights liberty, property security
freedom from oppression innocent until proved
• Didn’t guarantee economic equality but it was intended
to establish a constitutional monarchy (some ideas very
similar to Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence)
• Article one: “All men are born free and equal” (no
reference to women)
• It was clearly a product of the Enlightenment
Riots
• The king, queen, and National Assembly were taken to
Paris
• As the clergy and the nobility continued to resist the
revolutionary movement so the movement became even
more radical and extreme
• Many nobles simply emigrated to other countries to
avoid the conflict
• In Paris the National Assembly started to create a new
Constitution to limit the power of the monarchy
• They proclaimed Louis to be the king of the French –
not the king of France
• Church land was sold to raise money to relieve the debt,
but it was sold to the nobles and the prosperous
peasants
• The assembly printed paper money called assignats,
which was backed by the value of the Church’s land
• However, because of a lack of public confidence the
assignats lost their value
• The Assembly also issued the Civil Constitution of the
French Clergy
• Made Church property, national property and forced
the clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the nation. Only
half did.
• Pope Pius VI denounced the Declaration and the Civil
Constitution
• As the clergy resisted so a counter-revolutionary
movement evolved
• The Assembly created the Constitution of 1791
The king could still direct foreign policy
All citizens were equal before the law
Hereditary titles were abolished
Granted citizenship to Protestants and Jews
Only men paying taxes could vote
Ended monopolies
• Critics like Marat and Danton claimed, in limiting the
vote they simply replaced one bad system with another
• The Assembly also abolished slavery in France, but not
in the colonies (led to the slave revolt on Hispaniola)
• Slavery was abolished in the colonies in 1794
• Olympe de Gouges published The Rights of Women and
asked for equal rights for women
• In June 1791 Louis and his family tried to escape to
Austria, “flight to Varennes” (Leopold was Marie’s
brother)
• When Louis was captured at Varennes and returned to
Paris public sentiment turned against him
• By September 1791 the National Assembly announced
its work completed, Louis accepted the constitution
• The Assembly declared the Revolution over!
• Resistance to the revolution
was increasing
• Political clubs started to form,
especially in Paris
• Parisian revolutionaries
became known as sans-culotte
because they did not wear the
fancy pants of the aristocracy
• By 1792 the Revolution had turned radical because of:
a) a counter revolution led by the king, church, and
Catholic peasants
b) economic, social, and political discontent among the
peasants, artisans, and wage earners (sans-culottes)
• Louis made several concessions to the Assembly but he
never intended to keep them
• The people still loved the king and blamed his ministers
for the problems
• Leaders in Paris, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre
abandoned the idea of a constitutional monarchy
• The country split as some wanted to restore the
monarchy, others wanted to spread the revolution to
other countries, and others wanted a more radical
revolution
• In April 1792 France declared war on Austria and
created the Second Revolution
• July 25, Brunswick Manifesto: Austria and Prussia
promise revenge if the monarch is hurt
• Prussia joined Austria to create the First Coalition
• The French were easily defeated, but the leaders of the
Coalition argued amongst themselves
• Gradually the French the gained the upper hand and a
wave of patriotism swept the country
The Second Revolution
• The sans-culottes insisted it was the duty of the
government to protect them
• Wanted the government to increase wages, fix prices,
and end shortages
• They wanted to prevent extremes of wealth
• Wanted a democratic republic liked the ideas of Thomas
Paine
• In August 1792 they attacked the Tuileries Palace and
killed several hundred guards
• The royal family was forced to flee and ask the Assembly
for protection
• The second phase was much more radical
• By September Paris was in turmoil
• “September Massacres” - slaughtered prison inmates
because of a rumor that they were planning to escape
and attack the army from the rear
• On September 21st, 1792 France was declared a
Republic
• The Assembly became the National Convention
• The king was imprisoned by the National Convention
which was now dominated by the Jacobins
• Louis was put on trial in December - executed by one
vote
• February 1, 1793 France declares war on Britain,
Holland, Austria, and Prussia (later Spain)
• Revolutionaries divided into two groups:
moderate Girondins, and the more radical
Jacobins led by Robespierre and Danton
• Both advocated war
• In the spring France was pushed from Belgium
National Constitutional
Convention
• In March a counter-revolution started especially in
western France
• The Convention set aside the recently approved, new
Constitution of 1793
• The Convention passed laws stating that insurgents
could be tried in special courts without juries
• May 31 1793, the Commune, under sans-culottes
pressure, has the Girondins arrested
• Sans-culotte emerge as the most powerful group in
Paris
• Robespierre (disciple of Rousseau) formed the
Committee of Public Safety to ensure success of the
revolution
• Mandated economic controls, but too weak to enforce,
except the price of bread
• Nationalized the war effort
• Arrested thousands of suspected counter-revolutionaries
and expelled Girondins from the Convention
• Robespierre wanted to create a Republic of Virtue
• The Jacobins centralized the government and
implemented the Reign of Terror against those
considered enemies of the state
Reign of Terror
• Leaders of the Girondins were executed including
Danton
• Robespierre wanted to
install Enlightened
philosophies - barbaric
deaths
• Revolutionary courts tried
enemies of the state
• Dictatorship
• 40,000 executed, 300,000
imprisoned
• Authorized Levée en masse
• Robespierre tried to dechristianize
the country
• New calendar with no Christian
holidays or Sundays - Sept. 1, 1792
was day one, year one.
• Each month had 30 days, with 10
day weeks
• Marie Antoinette beheaded Oct. 16,
1793
• June 1794 Robespierre introduced
the cult of the Supreme Being in
which the Republic acknowledged
the existence of God
• Notre Dame cathedral became a
‘temple of reason’
• Alienated Catholics
Thermidorean Reaction
• Robespierre wanted an ideal democratic republic
without rich or poor
• Through despotism and the guillotine he eliminated all
opposition
• Robespierre was arrested by the Convention and tried
to commit suicide but failed
• He was executed along with several hundred supporters
(July 28, 1794) by fearful middle class who really
benefited from his removal
• Inflation increased, self-indulgence increased, people
turned to religion, wealthy people benefited the most
• National Convention abolished economic controls and
wrote a new constitution and abolished Jacobin clubs
The Directory
• In 1795 leadership passed to five Directors, but same
old leaders - people who had survived - dominated by
bourgeoisie
• Less people participated in the political process
• The Directory ended the Thermidorean reaction but it
did not fix the problems nor did it make life
better/easier for the people
• The gap between the rich and poor widened – with an
end to price controls the poor people could not afford to
eat
• Most of the available food was conscripted for the army
• Lowered prices, opened churches, alleviated hunger,
reorganized the tax system, won military victories,
wrote a constitution which incorporated Belgium
• Napoleon was called on to suppress
demonstrations in Paris, which he did with a
“whiff of grapeshot”
• In 1795 Louis “XVII” died, the Count de
Provence, brother of Louis, claimed to be Louis
“XVIII” and promised never to negotiate or
compromise
• Sieyès, one of the Directors, realized that the
army was the strongest institution in France and
that the country needed a strong leader, logically
one who could command the army
• The obvious choice was the ambitious Napoleon
Bonaparte
• 18 Brumaire three Directors, including Sieyès, staged a
coup
• They annulled the elections, imposed censorship, and
exiled troublemakers
• Napoleon was summoned back to Paris to ensure the
success of the coup
• The Directory was over and the era of Napoleon was
about to start
• When Napoleon staged the coup he almost failed and
only succeeded because of the fast actions by his brother
Lucien, who was president of the lower assembly
• Power was delegated to Napoleon and Sieyès
• People had faith in Napoleon to restore order
Napoleon Bonaparte
• Napoleon had grown up during the Enlightenment
• He believed he was freeing the people of Europe from
oppression
• Because of the almost continual fighting and emigration
of many leading military figures, dynamic men like
Napoleon rose through the ranks of the military
• At the start of the Revolution, Napoleon organized a
National Guard on his native island of Corsica
• He joined the Jacobins and he successfully put down a
royalist rebellion in Paris
• He married Josephine de Beauharnais, a lover of one of
the Directors
• During the Directory, Napoleon became increasingly
more powerful
• In 1796 Napoleon was appointed commander of the
Army of Italy
• In 1796 he defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi
• The British had problems: social unrest, rebellion in
Ireland, cost of the war, naval mutinies and started talks
with the French
• The French demanded more concessions and talk
stopped
• October 1797 the Hapsburgs signed the Treaty of
Campo Formio, which left only Britain at war
• November 1797 Napoleon returned to Paris a hero, and
planned to invade Britain
• He persuaded the Directory to let him invade Egypt to
cut Britain off from India
• August 1, 1798 Admiral Nelson annihilated the French
fleet in the Battle of the Nile
• While in Egypt he was responsible for discovering the
Rosetta Stone
• In Egypt he lost to the British but kept his reputation
• December 1798, Tsar Paul I of Russia signed with
Britain to create the Second Coalition, later Austria and
the Ottomans joined
• May 1799 Sieyes was elected a Director and started to
plot against the government
• “confidence from below, power from above”
• By December the Consulate ran the country and
Napoleon was in charge
The Consulate
• The Consulate offered political stability, with Napoleon
being the first Consul
• Napoleon offered King George III peace but Britain
refused to negotiate
• June 1800 at Marengo he crushed the Austrians
• 1801 Treaty of Luneville expanded French control over
Italy and western Germany
• 1802 Peace Amiens with Britain restored peace to
Europe
• Napoleon could now focus on France
• Created a new administrative system run by prefects
who had far greater power than the intendants
• The prefects maintained Napoleon’s control over the
whole country
• Napoleon eliminated many newspapers which criticized
him
The Concordat of 1801
• Napoleon wanted peace with the Catholic Church
• He believed the Church should not have an institutional
role in the affairs of the state
• Pope recognized the sale of church land and the right of
the government to appoint bishops
• Pope gained an acknowledgment of Catholicism as the
main religion of France - but not state religion
• Church was allowed to hold services, but state pays
salaries
• This detached the Church from the monarchists
• 1802 Organic Acts stated the state was supreme over
the church – the pope was not consulted
• May have been the height of Napoleon’s career
• December 1800 assassination attempt
• Duke d’Enghien ( a Bourbon) was the chief suspect
• French troops arrested him, put him on trial and
executed him
• Fouché rounds up all suspects – Napoleon can now
legally eliminate all opposition
• 1800 Bank of France created
• 1801 government discusses Civil Codes
• 1802 educational reform
• 1802 issues amnesty to émigrés
a) swear an oath of loyalty
b) had no claim on lost property
• Old Regime was dead and most very happy
• Consulate suggested Napoleon be made consul for life 3,568,885 to 8,374
• In 1802 Napoleon became “consul for life”
• Napoleon created the Legion of Honor headed by
himself - with pay and privileges for a selected few despite Constituent Assembly
• May 1803 Britain declares war on France
• French troops prepare to invade Britain, sold Louisiana
to gain money (15c an acre)
• Civil Code of 1804 reasserted two principles of the
Revolution:
a) equality for all male citizens
b) absolute security for wealth and property
• Very rationalistic:
strengthened laws on property, religious toleration,
equality before the law for all- except women,
strengthened the rights of employers
• Dec. 1804 Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral,
attempts to crown Napoleon
• Napoleon crowns himself emperor
• 1807 the Civil Codes became the Napoleonic Codes
• Alexander I of Russia sees himself as Napoleon’s
eastern counterpart
• August 1805 Russia, Austria, Britain form the Third
Coalition
• At Ulm Napoleon defeats the Austrians but lost
French-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar
• Defeated Austria at Austerlitz (favorite victory)
• Treaty of Pressburg with Austria gave him full
sovereignty over Italy
• 1806 forms the Confederation of the Rhine and
dissolves the Holy Roman Empire
• 1806 Prussia joins the war against France
• Battles of Jena and Auerstädt, Prussia easily defeated
• Napoleon declared Britain to be a “nation of
shopkeepers”
• 1806 Berlin Decree closed continental ports to British
ships
• 1807 Milan Decree - ships not complying would be
treated as hostile
• President Jefferson - passes the Embargo Acts
Peninsular War
• 1808 Napoleon forced the king of Spain to abdicate Joseph becomes king
• Civil uprising forces Joseph to flee and Nap. has to
send and army to help Joseph
• Nap. found himself in a guerrilla war against Spain
(supported by Britain)
• Wellesley (Wellington) drove the French from
Portugal
• 1813 Napoleon forced from Spain
• “It was the Spanish ulcer that ruined me”
• Friedland French defeated the Russians
• Tsar signs the Treaty of Tilsit, Prussia lost half her
population and Russia accepted Napoleon’s control of
Europe and promised to help blockade Britain
• Napoleon’s empire had three parts:
i) The core - France
ii) dependent satellite kingdoms
iii) independent, but allied states
• 1809 Austria rose against France but crushed at Battle
of Wagram - Treaty of Schonbrunn
• But neither Russia nor France trusted the other
• France had occupied Holland and not helped Russia
fight the Ottomans
• Napoleon blamed Russia for the failure of the
Continental System
• June 24 1812 the Grande Armee invades Russia
• Battle of Borodino, France win costly victory
• September 14 he occupies Moscow
• Five weeks later he retreats to France, only about 30,000
men escaped
• Prussia deserts France to join the Russians
• Austria joins the Grand Alliance - subsidized with
British money
• Battle of the Nations France is defeated
• Talks start about abdication
• Allies could not all agree on terms
• Problem was:
a) future of Napoleon
b) borders of France
• November 1813 Frankfort Proposals were drawn up by
Prussia, Russia, Austria, and agreed to by Britain:
a)France would return to her natural borders;
b) Napoleon would still be emperor;
c) Prussia would be compensated
• Napoleon wanted better terms - so allies refused
• March 9, 1814 Treaty of Chaumont created the
Quadruple Alliance to last for 20 years
• Napoleon offered the Island of Elba
• Napoleon was allowed to keep his title and a pension of
2m. francs a year
• The allies wanted to restore the Bourbon monarchy
The Hundred Days
• May 3 Napoleon abdicated, Louis XVIII became
king of a constitutional monarchy
• May 30 “first’ Peace of Paris signed with plans
for Congress in Vienna in September
• One of the 4 great treaties of modern history
a) Westphalia - 1648
b) Utrecht - 1713
c) Congress of Vienna - 1815
d) Peace of Paris - 1919
• No European war until 1850s - Crimean
• No major war until 1914
• Until 1815 economic and political revolutions were
usually separate
• After 1815 they fused into the “dual revolution” (Eric
Hobsbawn)
Main Objectives
e
It’s job was to undo everything that Napoléon
had done:
V Reduce France to its old boundaries  her
frontiers were pushed back to 1790 level.
V Restore as many of the old monarchies as
possible that had lost their thrones during
the Napoléonic era.
e
Supported the resolution: There is always an
alternative to conflict.
Key Players
at Vienna
Foreign Minister,
Viscount Castlereagh (Br.)
Tsar Alexander I
(Rus.)
The “Host”
Prince Klemens von
Metternich (Aus.)
King Frederick
William III (Prus.)
Foreign Minister, Charles
Maurice de Tallyrand (Fr.)
Key Principles Established
at Vienna
V
Balance of Power
V
Legitimacy
V
Compensation
e
Coalition forces would occupy France for
3-5 years.
e
France would have to pay an indemnity of
700,000,000 francs.
Changes Made at Vienna (1)
V
V
V
V
V
V
France was deprived of all
territory conquered by Napoléon.
Russia was given most of Duchy
of Warsaw (Poland).
Prussia was given half of Saxony, parts of
Poland, and other German territories.
A Germanic Confederation of 30+ states
(including Prussia) was created from the
previous 300, under Austrian rule.
Austria was given back territory it had lost
recently, plus more in Germany and Italy.
The House of Orange was given the Dutch
Republic and the Austrian Netherlands to rule.
Changes Made at Vienna (2)
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
Norway and Sweden were joined.
The neutrality of Switzerland was guaranteed.
Hanover was enlarged, and made a kingdom.
Britain was given Cape Colony, South Africa, and
various other colonies in Africa and Asia.
Sardinia was given Piedmont, Nice, Savoy, and
Genoa.
The Bourbon Ferdinand I was restored in the
Two Sicilies.
The Duchy of Parma was given to Marie Louise.
The slave trade was condemned (at British
urging).
Freedom of navigation was guaranteed for many
rivers.
• Second Treaty of Paris
a) Fat old Louis XVIII
(brother of Louis XIV)
restored again
b) France lost territory - 1790
c) Indemnity of 700 million
francs
d) Army of occupation
(150,000) for five years
• The Quadruple Alliance
agreed to meet periodically to
discuss events
• Marked the start of the
European “congress system”
• January 1815, Austria, Great Britain, and
France signed a secret agreement against
Russia and Prussia
• Fear of war caused Russia and Prussia to
reduce their demands
• 1815 Austria, Prussia, and Russia create the Holy
Alliance against the dual revolution based on Christian
principles, to lend support to protect religion, peace, and
justice
• Austria was both a German state and the most
important province in an empire of many nationalities
• Germany was the main language
• The Habsburgs needed the German middle-class to
support him
• Metternich kept the Magyar nobles loyal by fear of a
lower-class uprising
• Prussia and Austria both feared Russia, especially in the
Balkans
• Britain gradually withdrew from European affairs
Congress System
• The aim of the Congress of Vienna was to keep
the peace in Europe with two policies:
a) the balance of power
b) returning the monarchy to power
• Balance of power was to ensure that any one
nation did not become too powerful and threaten
the stability of the continent
• Restoring the monarch would provide
governments with an air of legitimacy
• Many thought the problems caused by France
were because of a failure of these two principles
• In reality the Congress of Vienna worked – there were
some minor wars – the first being the Crimean War in
the 1850s and three wars involving German unification,
but no major war until the outbreak of World War I in
1914
• In the early 19th century the traditional dangerous
power in Europe was France (At the end of the century
people would shift their attention from France to
Germany)
• One of the goals of the Congress was to ensure that
France was surrounded by strong states or there was a
buffer between France and her potential enemies
• One big question was the issue of Poland
Poland
• Poland had been partitioned by Russia, Austria, and
Prussia in 1795
• Tsar Alexander I’s troops occupied much of Poland and
they wanted the rest to enlarge his Russian empire
• Britain, France, and Austria all feared Russian and
Prussian expansion into Europe so they formed an
alliance against Russia and Prussia
• The Congress of Poland was created from land seized by
Austria and Prussia – but it was a Russian protectorate
with the tsar on the Polish throne
• Prussia received land on the Rhine to act as a buffer
against possible French aggression
• In 1815 the Congress created the German Confederation