Germans II

Habsburg Monarchy 1438-1806

The Habsburg Monarchy is an unofficial appellation among historians for the countries and provinces within and outside the Holy Roman Empire that were ruled by the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg.


House of Habsburg 1438-1740

The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was occupied by the Habsburg between 1438 and 1806 except for a short break between 1740 and 1745, and followed by a close relative of the Habsburg. The house also produced emperors and kings of the Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Illyria, Portugal, and Spain, and rulers of several Dutch and Italian principalities.

In 1282, the Habsburgs gained the ruler ship of the Duchy of Austria, which they then held for over 600 years. By marrying Elisabeth of Luxembourg, the daughter of Emperor Sigismund in 1437, duke Albert V became the ruler of Bohemia and Hungary, expanding the family's political horizons. Albert V was crowned as the King of the Romans as Albert II next year. Frederick III was chosen to succeed Albert II after his death in 1439.

One of Frederick's main achievements was the Siege of Neuss (1474–75), in which he forced Charles the Bold of Burgundy to give his daughter Mary of Burgundy as wife to Frederick's son Maximilian. After Mary's early death in 1482, Maximilian finally secured the Burgundian inheritance to one of his and Mary's children Philip the Handsome.

Maximilian was proclaimed the new King of the Romans as Maximilian I in 1486. After the failure of his attempt to march to Rome and be crowned by the pope, in 1508, Maximilian proclaimed himself as the "chosen Emperor" (Emperor-elect) and this was also recognized by the Pope due to changes in political alliances.

This had a historical consequence that the Roman King would also automatically become Emperor, without needing the Pope's consent. In 1530, Emperor Charles V became the last person to be crowned as the Emperor by the Pope. From Ferdinand I onward, all Habsburg emperors were merely emperors-elect, although they were normally referred to as emperors.

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Albert II	Habsburg	18 Mar 1438		27 Oct 1439	4th in descent from Albert I; son-in-law of Sigismund
Frederick III	Habsburg	2 Feb 1440	16 Mar 1452	19 Aug 1493	4th in descent from Albert I; 2nd cousin of Albert II
Maximilian I	Habsburg	16 Feb 1486	4 Feb 1508 Emperor-Elect	12 Jan 1519	Son of Frederick III; King of Germany under his father, 1486–1493; adopted the title Emperor-elect in 1508 with the pope's approval
Charles V	Habsburg	28 June 1519	24 Feb 1530	3 Aug 1556	Grandson of Maximilian I; King of Spain (Charles I) 1516-1556; died 21 Sept 1558
Ferdinand I	Habsburg	5 Jan 1531	14 Mar 1558 Emperor-elect	25 July 1564	Grandson of Maximilian I; brother of Charles V; King of Germany under his brother Charles V 1531–1556

Maximilian's rule (1493–1519) was a time of great expansion for the Habsburgs. Through marriage of his son Philip the Handsome to eventual queen Joanna of Castile in 1498, Maximilian helped to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles to be the first King of Spain, Charles I in 1516.

Charles was the heir of three of Europe's leading dynasties: Valois of Burgundy, Habsburg of Austria, and Trastámara of Spain. 

1.  As heir of the House of Burgundy, he inherited areas in the Netherlands and around the eastern border of France (Burgundian Netherlands) after the death of his father Philip the Handsome in 1506;

2. As a grandson of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, from the Spanish House of Trastámara he inherited the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon, which included a Mediterranean empire extending to southern Italy. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right (as a unified Spain) in 1516;

3. As a Habsburg, he inherited Austria and other lands in central Europe, and was a candidate to succeed his grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor.

Habsburg Netherlands 1482-1581

Charles was born (1500) and raised in the Flemish city of Ghent; he spoke French. Charles extended the Burgundian territory with the annexation of Tournai, Utrecht, Groningen and Guelders. He introduced the title Lord of the Netherlands.

Name	Reign start	Reign end	Notes
Maximilian I	1482	1494	Holy Roman Emperor; Husband of Mary of Burgundy
Philip II	1494	1506	Philip the Handsome, Philip I of Castile; Son of Maximilian I
Charles II	1506	1555	Son of Philip the Handsome; Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king Charles I of Spain; Regent: Maximilian I (1506 to 1515); Margaret of Austria (1507-1530) and Mary of Austria (1531-1555)
Philip III	1555	1581	King Philip II of Spain and Lord of the Netherlands; Son of Charles I of Spain;  Governors: Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy (1555-1559) and Margaret of Parma (1559-1567)

In 1515 he left to become king of Spain. Charles turned over control to regents (his close relatives), and in practice rule was exercised by Spaniards he controlled. In 1548, he granted the Netherlands status as an entity in which many of the laws of the Holy Roman Empire became obsolete.

Emperor Charles V 1519-1556

The Habsburg dynasty achieved the position of a true world power by the time of election of Charles as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1519.

Emperor Charles V brought together under his rule extensive territories of in Spanish Empire, Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg Netherlands in Europe,and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. He was the "World Emperor" ruling an "Empire on which the sun never sets".

Emperor Charles V was able to establish his dominance in Italy to a greater extent than any German Emperor since Frederick II. During the Italian Wars, he drove the French from Milan in 1521, prevented an attempt by the Italian princes, to reassert their independence in the League of Cognac, sacked Rome in 1527 and brought the Medici pope Clement VII to submission, conquered Florence where he reinstalled the Medici as Dukes of Florence.

Following the death of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács against the Turks, his brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (younger brother of Charles V) was elected the next King of Bohemia and Hungary in 1526, according to the treaty signed by Louis II and Maximilian I at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515.

The Habsburg Monarchy was then composed of territories within the Holy Roman Empire (Austria, Bohemia) as well as Kingdom of Hungary (including Croatia), united only in the person of the monarch.

In 1556, at the end of the Italian wars, Emperor Charles V voluntarily stepped down from these positions by a series of abdications in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip II as King of Spain and Netherlands. Vienna became the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor since 1556.

Protestant Reformation 1517-1555

It was a schism from the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin and other early Protestant Reformers in 16th century Europe, when there was much discontent occasioned by abuses such as indulgences in the Catholic Church, and a general desire for reform.

In 1517 the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luther's 95 Theses; Luther began by criticizing the sale of indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. He posted them in the town square and gave copies of them to German nobles.

In 1521 Luther was outlawed at the Diet of Worms. But the Reformation spread rapidly, helped by Gutenberg's printing press and the Emperor Charles V's wars with France and the Turks of that time. Hiding in the Wartburg Castle, Luther translated the Bible from Hebrew and ancient Greek to German.

Luther's German Bible and its widespread circulation facilitated the emergence of a standard, modern German language for the German-speaking peoples throughout the Holy Roman Empire. A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language of that time. After the publication of his Bible, his dialect suppressed the others and evolved into what is now the modern German.

Central and northeastern Germany were by this time almost wholly Protestant, whereas western and southern Germany remained predominantly Catholic. In 1547, Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Protestant rulers. The Peace of Augsburg (1555), signed by Charles V, ending the war between German Lutherans and Catholics and establishing that:

• Rulers of the 224 German states could choose the religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) of their realms according to their consciences;

• Lutherans living in a prince-bishopric (a state ruled by a Catholic bishop) could continue to practice their faith.

Although the Peace of Augsburg created a temporary end to hostilities, it did not resolve the underlying religious conflict. Beginning in Bohemia as a Protestant struggle against the Catholic Habsburg King, the Thirty Years War gradually involved France, Sweden and German states within the Holy Roman Empire to against the Habsburg powers in Europe.

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Maximilian II	Habsburg	22 Nov 1562	25 July 1564 Emperor-elect	12 Oct 1576	Son of Ferdinand I; King of Germany under his father 1562–1564
Rudolf II	Habsburg	27 Oct 1575	2 Nov 1576 Emperor-elect	20 Jan 1612	Son of Maximilian II; King of Germany under his father 1575–1576
Matthias	Habsburg	13 June 1612	13 June 1612 Emperor-elect	20 Mar 1619	Son of Maximilian II
Ferdinand II	Habsburg	28 Aug 1619	28 Aug 1619 Emperor-elect	15 Feb 1637	Great-grandson of Ferdinand I
Ferdinand III	Habsburg	22 Dec 1636	15 Feb 1637 Emperor-elect	2 April 1657	Son of Ferdinand II; King of Germany under his father 636–1637

Thirty Years War 1618–1648

The war began when the newly elected Emperor, Ferdinand II, tried to impose religious uniformity on his domains, forcing Roman Catholicism on its peoples. The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose that had been granted in the Peace of Augsburg, banded together to form the Protestant Union. Ferdinand II was a devout Roman Catholic and his policies were considered heavily pro-Catholic.

These events caused widespread fears throughout northern and central Europe, and triggered the Protestant Bohemians to revolt against their nominal ruler Ferdinand II. After the Prague Defenestration deposed the Emperor's representatives in Prague, the Protestant estates and Catholic Habsburgs started gathering allies for war.

The conflict was widened into a European War by the intervention of Sweden, Spain and France:

1. Sweden, at the time a rising military power, soon intervened in 1630 under its king Gustavus Adolphus, transforming what had been simply the Emperor's attempt to curb the Protestant states into a full-scale war in Europe;

2. Spain, wishing to finally crush the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, intervened under the pretext of helping its dynastic Habsburg ally, Austria;

3. No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the coalition on the side of the Protestants in order to counter the Habsburgs.

Germany became the main theater of war and the scene of the final conflict between France and the Habsburgs for predominance in Europe. The Thirty Years' War devastated entire regions, resulting in high mortality, especially among the populations of the German and Italian states, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Southern Netherlands.

The Peace of Westphalia was signed between May and October 1648 effectively ending the European wars of religion. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic, while the Spain was in control of the Southern Netherlands (modern Belgium).

The power taken by Emperor Ferdinand III in contravention of the Empire's constitution was stripped and returned to the rulers of the Imperial States. This rectification allowed rulers of the Imperial States to decide their religious worship. Protestants and Catholics were redefined as equal before the law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition.

The independence of Switzerland from the Empire was formally recognized; these territories had enjoyed de facto independence for decades.

The majority of the Peace's terms can be attributed to the work of Cardinal Mazarin, the de facto leader of France at the time (the king, Louis XIV, being a child). France retained the control of the Bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun near Lorraine.

The Holy Roman Empire from this point was a powerless entity, existing in name only. The Habsburg Emperors instead focused on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Ferdinand IV	Habsburg	31 May 1653	-	9 July 1654	Son of Ferdinand III; King of Germany under his father
Leopold I	Habsburg	18 July 1658	18 July 1658 Emperor-elect	5 May 1705	Son of Ferdinand III
Joseph I	Habsburg	23 Jan 1690	5 May 1705 Emperor-Elect	17 April 1711	Son of Leopold I; King of Germany under his father 1690–1705
Charles VI	Habsburg	27 Oct 1711	27 Oct 1711 Emperor-Elect	20 Oct 1740	Son of Leopold I

In 1683, the Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna after the imperial city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire, against the invading Ottoman Empire and its vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.

The Turks lost almost all of Ottoman Hungary to the Emperor Leopold I by 1699. The Habsburgs of Austria gradually occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania.

House of Habsburg-Lorraine 1740-1806

After neither Emperor Joseph I nor Charles VI produced a son and heir, the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was issued by Emperor Charles VI, to left the throne to his yet unborn daughter, Maria Theresa.

Maria Theresa started her 40-year reign when her father Charles VI died in 1740. Upon the death of her father, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction they had recognized during his lifetime. Charles Albert, Prince-elector of Bavaria and son-in-law of Emperor Joseph I, rejected the Pragmatic Sanction and claimed the German territories as Charles VII, while Prussia proceeded to invade the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia, sparking the nine-year War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748).

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Charles VII	Wittelsbach	14 Jan 1742	14 Jan 1742> Emperor-elect	20 Jan 1745	Great-great-grandson of Ferdinand II; Husband of Maria Amalia, daughter of Joseph I
Francis I	Lorraine	13 Sept 1745	13 Sept 1745 Emperor-elect	18 Aug 1765	Great-grandson of Ferdinand III; Husband of Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI
Joseph II	Habsburg-Lorraine	27 Mar 1764	18 Aug 1765 Emperor-elect	20 Feb 1790	Son of Francis I and Maria Theresa; King of Germany under his father 1764–1765
Leopold II	Habsburg-Lorraine	30 Sept 1790	30 Sept 1790 Emperor-elect	1 Mar 1792	Son of Francis I and Maria Theresa
Francis II	Habsburg-Lorraine	7 July 1792	7 July 1792 Emperor-elect	6 Aug 1806	Son of Leopold II Dissolved the Holy Roman Empire Emperor of Austria Francis I, 1804–1835.

Maria Theresa fought successfully for recognition of her succession to the throne, however, she had to cede most of Silesia to Frederick the Great. Prussia won recognition as a great power, thus launching a century-long rivalry with Austria for the leadership of the German peoples.

Maria Theresa was the only female ruler; and the last of the House of Habsburg.  She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Milan, Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, had sixteen children, including the two Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. Though she was expected to cede power to Francis and Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled by the counsel of her advisers.

Kings of Prussia 1701–1871

Brandenburg developed out of the Northern March founded in the territory of the Slavic Wends. Its ruling margraves (1157-1806) were established as prestigious prince-electors in the Golden Bull of 1356, allowing them to vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. The state thus became additionally known as Electoral Brandenburg.

In return for supporting Sigismund as Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt in 1410, Frederick VI of Nuremberg, a Burgrave of the House of Hohenzollern, was granted hereditary control over Brandenburg in 1411 as Frederick I, Prince-Elector of Brandenburg. Frederick made Berlin his residence and Berlin became capital of Brandenburg.

Duchy of Prussia 1525-1701

Duchy of Prussia (Herzogtum Preußen) was established during the Protestant Reformation. It was the first Lutheran duchy with dominant German-speaking population, as well as Polish and Lithuanian minorities. In 1525 during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert, secularized the order's Prussian territory, becoming Albert, Duke of Prussia. His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) was established as fief of the Crown of Poland.

As in 1618, Albert Frederick had no surviving male heirs, allowed his son-in-law, Elector John Sigismund of the Hohenzollern branch in Brandenburg, to become the duke's legal successor, thereafter ruling Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia in personal union.

Brandenburg, being a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and Ducal Prussia, being a Polish fief, made a cross-border real union legally impossible. However, Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia were more and more ruled as one, and colloquially referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia, which was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia.

The government of Brandenburg-Prussia was seated in Brandenburg's capital Berlin, mostly appeared under the higher ranking titles of Prussian government. Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm, grandson of Elector John Sigismund) is popularly known as "the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements. He wished to acquire Royal Prussia from Kingdom of Poland in order to territoriality connect his two fiefs. His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, which was achieved under his son Frederick III.

Kingdom of Prussia 1701-1871

Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself "King in Prussia" at Königsberg as Frederick I in 1701. Frederick persuaded Emperor Leopold I to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom. This agreement was ostensibly given in exchange for an alliance against King Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession. Frederick argued that Prussia had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire; the royal title was only valid in the Prussian lands outside the Empire.

Name	Reign start	Reign end	Notes	Family
Frederick I	18 Jan 1701	25 Feb 1713	Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg- Prussia	Hohenzollern
Frederick William I	25 Feb 1713	31 May 1740	Son of Frederick I	Hohenzollern
Frederick II the Great	31 May 1740	17 Aug 1786	Son of Frederick William I	Hohenzollern
Frederick William II	17 Aug 1786	16 Nov 1797	Nephew of Frederick II	Hohenzollern
Frederick William III	16 Nov 1797	7 June 1840	Son of Frederick William II	Hohenzollern
Frederick William IV	7 June 1840	2 Jan 1861	Son of Frederick William III; President of the Erfurt Union (1849-1850)	Hohenzollern
William I the Great	2 Jan 1861	9 Mar 1888	Brother of Frederick William IV; President of the North German Confederation (1867-1871) Emperor of Germany from 1871	Hohenzollern

Frederick the Great

Frederick I’s grandson, Frederick II, became known as Frederick the Great. His achievements included his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the Arts and the Enlightenment in Prussia, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years' War.

Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, Frederick II stunned Europe by launching a surprise invasion of the wealthy region of Silesia of Habsburg Austria. This action triggered the War of the Austrian Succession, which lasted eight years and brought Frederick’s diplomatic and military skills to the fore. The Peace of Aachen ended the conflict in 1748 and formally ceded Silesia to Prussia.

Starting 1772, he took the lead in the partitions of Poland, with Austria and Russia splitting the rest. Prussia occupied the western territories of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that surrounded existing Prussian holdings.

When Frederick I ascended the throne as "King in Prussia" in 1740, Prussia consisted of scattered territories, including Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg in the west of the Holy Roman Empire; Brandenburg, Hither Pomerania, and Farther Pomerania in the east of the Empire; and the Kingdom of Prussia, the former Duchy of Prussia, outside of the Empire bordering the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Frederick II was to declare himself “King of Prussia” after acquiring most of the rest after 1772.

William I

William I was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and the first German Emperor from 18 January 1871 to his death, of a united Germany. In 1862, he appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia, a position Otto von Bismarck would hold until 1890.

Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, they dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890 and Prussia finally achieved the unification of Germany in 1871.

Emperors of Austria 1804-1918

In August 1804 Emperor Francis II, who was also ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria, in which all his lands were included. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, which had functioned as a composite monarchy for about three hundred years.

He did so because he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire, or the eventual accession as Holy Roman Emperor of Napoleon, who had earlier that year adopted the title of an Emperor of the French. To safeguard his dynasty's imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria.

Austrian Empire 1804–1866

For two years (1804 to 1806), Francis carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and "by the Grace of God" Emperor Francis I of Austria, until he declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved and to lay down the Imperial Crown created in the second half of the 10th century (today displayed at the Treasury of Hofburg Palace in Vienna) in August 1806.

The fall of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in the Empire in September 1805. Napoleon's army won the war at Austerlitz in December 1805.  The victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the Empire (which at this time was only a powerless confederation) by motivating or pressuring several German princes to enter the separate Confederation of the Rhine with their lands in July 1806.

Name	Lifespan	Reign start	Reign end	Notes	Family
Francis I	12 Feb 1768 – 2 March 1835	11 August 1804	2 March 1835	Son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor; Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor	Habsburg-Lorraine
Ferdinand I the Benign	19 April 1793 – 29 June 1875	2 March 1835	2 Dec 1848 (abdicated)	Son of Francis I	Habsburg-Lorraine
Francis Joseph I	18 August 1830 – 21 Nov 1916	2 Dec 1848	21 Nov 1916	Nephew of Ferdinand I	Habsburg-Lorraine
Charles I the Blessed	17 August 1887 – 1 April 1922	21 Nov 1916	11 Nov 1918 (resigned)	Great-Nephew of Francis Joseph I	Habsburg-Lorraine

Ferdinand I succeeded on the death of his father Francis II and I on 1835. He was incapable of ruling his empire because of his mental deficiency. Following the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated on 2 December 1848. He was succeeded by his nephew, Franz Joseph.

German Confederations, 1806–1866

The Napoleonic Wars swept across Germany in early 19th century. After Napoleon I, the French Emperor, defeated Austria and Russia in the Battle of Austerlitz, much of Germany was united under Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine, which was largely a puppet state under Napoleon's rule.

Confederation of the Rhine 1806–1813

On 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine in Paris, 16 German states joined together with Napoleon as their "protector". They were providing a separation between French Empire and the largest German states, Prussia and Austria, to the east.

In return for their support of Napoleon, some rulers were given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg were made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms. States were also made larger by incorporating the many smaller former imperial member states. 

On 1 August, members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, and on 6 August, following an ultimatum by Napoleon; Francis II declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.

Under the hegemony of the French Empire (1804–1814), popular German nationalism thrived in the reorganized German states; various justifications emerged to identify "Germany" as a single state.

The experience of German-speaking Central Europe during the years of French hegemony contributed to a sense of common cause to remove the French invaders and reassert control over their own lands.

The confederation collapsed in 1813, in the aftermath of Napoleon's failed campaign against the Russian Empire. Many of its members changed sides after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 when the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden decisively defeated the French army.

Congress of Vienna 1814 - 1815

Congress of Vienna is an assembly in 1814–15 that reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. It began in September 1814, five months after Napoleon I’s first abdication and completed its “Final Act” in June 1815, shortly before the Waterloo campaign and the final defeat of Napoleon. The settlement was the most-comprehensive treaty that Europe had ever seen.

The Congress was held in Vienna, a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by prince von Metternich, principal minister of Austria. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe, not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace.

France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. In return for acquiring Poland, Russia gave back Galicia to Austria and gave Thorn and a region around it to Prussia. The rest of the Duchy of Warsaw was incorporated as a separate kingdom under the Russian emperor’s sovereignty. Prussia got two-fifths of Saxony and was compensated by extensive additions in Westphalia and on the left bank of the Rhine River.

Austria was compensated by Lombardy and Venice and got back most of Tirol, Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden. Hanover was also enlarged. The outline of a constitution, a loose confederation, was drawn up for Germany—a triumph for Metternich.

German Confederation 1815–1866

German Confederation was created by the 9th Act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815, a similar arrangement to replace the former Confederation of the Rhine; only about 40 Germanic states remained of the over 300 that formed the old Holy Roman Empire. A much stronger feeling of German nationalism emerged.

The Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were the largest and by far the most powerful members of the Confederation. They each had one vote in the Federal Assembly. Six other major states had one vote each in the Federal Assembly: the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Saxony, the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Electorate of Hesse, the Grand Duchy of Baden, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse.