The Congress of Vienna 1815 is the organ that reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic wars. It existed a round 1814 some few months after resignation of Napoleon I’s and the last act was completed before Waterloo campaign in 1815. The settlement became the greatest agreement Europe had ever experienced in its entire history. Prussia, Russia, the Great Britain, and Austria are the four powers that had played a crucial role in overthrowing leadership of Napoleon then they formed an alliance called known as the Treaty of Chaumont.1 The Greek War for independence led to the formation of recognition of the region as a monarchial state.
The procedure of this Congress was based on the matters to be resolved and their difficulty and complexity in them. The organization of the whole body was to be determined by the four powers on behalf of the territories they had conquered and communicated to France and Spain. Sweden and Portugal were also added to those in control of the whole organ as they were also present when they signed the Treaty of Paris. “The Powers signed the Treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th of May 1814, having assembled at Vienna” according to the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna. The ‘four’ mainly discussed the issues affecting them within their territories as the others assumed the direction taken. When Germany decided to draft the constitution a special committee was selected by the whole organ and sent to Switzerland. This all happened with the aim to gain a balance of power in the land, establish conservative regimes, contain France, and work together for peace.
The Congress finally made decisions following the agreements reached in their meetings. It was signed on June 9, 1815, by all the eight except Spain who had failed to agree on an Italian settlement that had happened earlier on. The political boundaries were established to handle any territorial changes and lasted for over 40 years. The concept of balance of power was implemented by the statesmen to enhance the rule in the regions. The idea of nationalism had mostly been ignored because of the fact that there was necessarily no readiness for expression. The inhabitants of an area would be humiliated and new laws imposed on them without their wishes being referred to.3 The delegates, however, failed to give international relations an organ to work on the same which came later in the 19th century.
The battle of liberation took place from 1821 to 1832 to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. It led to the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Greece. It originated from the desire of the inhabitants of the region to be free as occasionally advocated for by the Greek Orthodox Church. They had a sense of Greek nationality called Hellenism taught to them. It was inhabited by the Turks who responded by fighting him back and won. Revolts broke out on the 25th of March 1821 against the Turkish rule in the Northern parts of Greece mainly the Peloponnese, Gulf of Corinth, and other several Islands.4 In January 1822, the rebels managed to gain control over Peloponnese from Turkish rule. The Turks made three attempts to invade them between 1822 and 1824 all in vain as they did not manage to retrieve the area.
Internal rivalries hindered the Greeks from firmly establishing their control in Peloponnese. In 1823, a civil war began between a guerilla leader and Georgios Kountouriótis, who was the leader of the government. He had to migrate to the island Hydra and was later affirmed as the leader after a second civil war that broke out in 1824. His government was however threatened by the arrival of Egyptians who were led by Ibrahim Pasha. They came in an attempt to help the Turks regain power over them the Ottoman Empire.5 Since Egypt had a strong sea power, they successfully invaded them and went on to capture Missolonghi in the April of 1826 alongside the town of Athina and the Athenian acropolis in 1827, June.
The ‘eight’ European powers came to the aid of the Greek cause. The nations volunteered to mediate between Greek and Turks through forming autonomous state. The Turks refused and as a result of this, Great Britain, Russia, and France were forced to send their naval fleets to a place called Navarino in the December of the year 1827 and destroyed the Egyptian navy.6 This greatly demoralized the Ottoman forces but the war went on with the occurrence of the Russo-Turkish war from 1828 to 1829.
The European powers too found a settlement for the same in London in February 1830. During this time, they declared Greece a sovereign monarchial state under their protection. This was done in a conference held in London by the ‘eight’ powers and the agreement named Greco-Turkish settlement. The Bavarian Prince of Otto had accepted to be crowned and the Sultan of Turkey recognized and accepted the independence of Greece in a treaty called Constantinople in 1832.
The Greek War of Independence largely affected the objectives of the ‘eight’ powers of Europe including working for peace and balance of power. Greece looked on to the US which had recently gained independence and had a democratic constitution. It became the pivotal turning point for the whole European geopolitical map. It tilted it away from the ethnicities and autocratically models of rules of the 18th century. Later in 20th century states were founded which the European powers initially failed to establish.7 Other states in the continent were formed in the same model including Belgium in the year 1831. Germany and Italy were also formed in 1871, then Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania in 1878.8 This later led to the cold wars which were against the goals of the eight front-runners of the continent at large.
The revolution in the Greece region led to international ties and co-operations. These were a result of the emulation of the American’s way of overthrowing the existing government so as to gain its own power. These revolts later forced the intervention of the then global community that included France, Russia, and the Great Britain. None of them would allow having an agreement that favored either among them. The Greek War of Independence went against the expectations of the European powers and the objectives they had put in place.
Works Cited
Campbell, Thomas P., ed., With Essays by Pascal-François Bertrand, Charissa Bremer-David, Koenraad Brosens, Thomas P. Campbell, Guy Delmarcel, Isabelle Denis, James G. Harper, Wendy Hefford, and Lucia Meoni, 2007.
Hansard, The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time…, vol. 32, no.1, February to 6 March 1816, T.C. Hansard, 1816. pp. 71,113.
Hertslet, Edward. The Map of Europe by Treaty; Showing the Various Political and Territorial Changes Which Have Taken Place Since the General Peace of 1814, London, Butterworths, 1875, p. 208.
Palieraki, Eugenia. “Patriots and Internationalist: The Greek Left, the Cyprus Question, and Latin America.” Cypriot Nationalisms in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018, pp. 307-328.
Petrakis, Panagiotis E., and Pantelis C. Kostis. The Evolution of the Greek Economy: Past Challenges and Future Approaches. Springer Nature, 2020.
Steiner, Jürg. “Decision Modes Toward Separatist Movements: Some Conceptual and Theoretical Considerations.” New Nationalisms of the Developed West. Routledge, 2020, pp.147-156.
Stivachtis, Yannis A. “‘International society’versus’‘world society’: Europe and the Greek War of Independence.” International Politics, vol. 55, no.1, 2018, pp. 108-120.
Footnotes
- Hansard “The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time,” 71-113.
- See Thomas et al. “Threads of Splendor.”
- See Jürg Steiner, “Decision Modes Toward Separatist Movements,” 147-156.
- See Jürg Steiner, “Decision Modes Toward Separatist Movements,” 147-156.
- Eugenia Palieraki, “Patriots and Internationalist,” 307-328.
- Edward Hertslet, “The Map of Europe by Treaty,” 208.
- Panagiotis Petrakis and Pantelis Kostis, The Evolution of the Greek Economy.”
- Stivachtis, Yannis Stivachtis, “International society’versus’‘world society,” 108-120.