Versailles and the Congress of Vienna

Compare and contrast the Congress of Vienna to the Versailles peace process. What did each try to achieve, how well did they succeed, and why?

Since the 17th century there has been a major war at least once every hundred years that would completely reshape European boarders and governments. Wars such as the 30 years’ war and the war of Spanish succession had left millions of dead and led to the European balance of power that existed before the Napoleonic wars and no doubt contributed to the desire to diplomatically build a peaceful Europe. This was attempted several times, most notably once in the 19th century though the congress of Vienna, and once again after the first world war with the treaty of Versailles.

While the most obvious main goal of both treaties was to establish a peaceful Europe, there were a few key differences that led to very different outcomes.  The congress of Vienna was aimed at preventing another French empire by attempting to restore the balance of power that had existed before Napoleons rise to power. The main powers that controlled the congress of Vienna were Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain.  The treaty of Versailles did not attempt to establish a balance of power in Europe, instead it aimed to totally crush Germany financially so that it could never be a threat to Europe again. The congress of Vienna was arguably much more successful than the treaty of Versailles because it actually managed to maintain a relative peace in Europe for about a century while the treaty of Vienna ended up creating an even more powerful Germany that would lead to the bloodiest war of all time. 

The congress of Vienna saw the allied European powers restore Frances boarders to its original size and split up the territory among fewer and more powerful nations. A cordon sanitaire was created around France in order to further deter French ambitions of conquest. Because the allied powers went into the congress of Vienna with the goal of preventing another French war rather than punishing the French people, they chose not to humiliate France the way that Germany was humiliated during the treaty of Versailles.  The first fundamental difference was that France was actually allowed to have a representative at the congress of Vienna, while Germany was not allowed a voice in the treaty of Versailles. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, the French representative skillfully negotiated with the powers and by exploiting differences among the allies actually managed to gain an equal footing in the negotiations.

Germany on the other hand was not invited to participate in the treaty of Versailles and so they simply had to accept whatever the allies decided for them. Without a German representative there really wasn’t any way for a skilled diplomat to affect the outcome of the treaty the way that Talleyrand was able to. This led to a much more punitive result for Germany. They were forced to admit that they were completely at fault for the war, they had to pay incredible high reparations, and they were no longer able to have any sort of army. The allies wanted Germany to be so weak that they could never pose a threat to Europe again. The result was that the German people felt completely crushed and were not even close to being able to feed their population. Because of the reparations and the intentional starvation of the German people almost a million Germans had starved to death in the two years after the war ended. Author and Historian Richard Hoveth summarizes the state of affairs in Germany in the years following the war, “Increasingly deprived of the means to wage war, or even to feed her population, the violent response was insurrection; apathy and demoralization the mute consequence of dashed hopes and thin potato soup.”

Now a fundamental question in 20th century history is the question of whether Nazi Germany gained power because of the charisma and scheming of Hitler, or whether this kind of mentality was created and fueled by the desperation of the German People.  I tend to believe that the German people by the 1930’s were ready to do something radical, and when Hitler actually started to improve the economy and save their neighbors from starvation, the German people were ready to get on board with anything. Hitler played off the German people decimated pride in their nation and basically promised the German people wealth and revenge on the countries that they felt had oppressed them. Had the treaty of Versailles been about preventing another war rather than punishing Germany, this desire for revenge would not have been nearly so prevalent and its plausible that they may have even decided to accept the new world order the way the France did after the congress of Vienna.