Württemberg, Kingdom of
Years: 1806 - 1918
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Prince Clemens von Metternich, who directs Austria's foreign policy from 1809 until 1848, is the dominant political figure within the confederation.
He wages a decades-long campaign to prevent the spread of revolution in Europe by seeking to restore much of the political and social order that had existed before the French Revolution.
Metternich's Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 establish a pervasive system of press censorship and regulation of the universities that dampen German intellectual life and hinder the publication of writings advocating the principles of liberalism.
In the 1820s, he engineers the formation of the Holy Alliance of the monarchs of Austria, Prussia, and Russia to quash political, social, and economic developments within Central and Eastern Europe thought to threaten political stability.
Instead, it accepts the disappearance of many small states that had occurred since 1789 and creates the German Confederation.
The confederation consists of thirty-eight sovereign states and four free cities and includes the five large kingdoms of Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and Württemberg.
The confederation meets at a diet in Frankfurt, with an Austrian always serving as president.
Sixteen states in present-day Germany, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (German: Rheinbundakte) in Paris on July 12, 1806, join together in a confederation (the treaty calls it the états confédérés du Rhinelande, with a precursor in the League of the Rhine).
Napoleon is its "protector".
Liechtenstein is given full sovereignty, leading to the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire after eight hundred and forty-four years.
According to the treaty, the confederation is to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) want unlimited sovereignty.
Instead of a monarchical head of state, as the Holy Roman Emperor had had, its highest office is held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the former Arch Chancellor, who now bears the title of a Prince-Primate of the confederation.
As such, he is President of the College of Kings and presides over the Diet of the Confederation, designed to be a parliament-like body although it will never actually assemble.
The President of the Council of the Princes is the Prince of Nassau-Usingen.
In return for their support of Napoleon, some rulers are given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg are made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria become kingdoms.
States are also made larger by incorporating the many smaller "Kleinstaaten", or small former imperial member states.
They have to pay a very high price for their new status, however.
The Confederation is above all a military alliance: the members have to maintain substantial armies for mutual defense and supply France with large numbers of military personnel.
As events play out the members of the confederation will find themselves more subordinated to Napoleon than they had been to the Habsburgs.
Francis II gives up his title of Emperor and declares the Holy Roman Empire dissolved on August 6, following an ultimatum by Napoleon.
In the years that follow, twenty-three more German states will join the Confederation; Francis's Habsburg dynasty will rule the remainder of the empire as Austria.
Only Austria, Prussia, Danish Holstein, and Swedish Pomerania stay outside, not counting the west bank of the Rhine and Principality of Erfurt, which will be annexed by the French empire after the defeat of Prussia in the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt in October, while the surrounding Thuringian states join the Confederation.
According to the treaty, the confederation is to be run by common constitutional bodies, but the individual states (in particular the larger ones) want unlimited sovereignty.
Instead of a monarchical head of state, as the Holy Roman Emperor had been, its highest office is held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the former Arch Chancellor, who now bears the title of a Prince-Primate of the confederation.
As such, he is President of the College of Kings and presides over the Diet of the Confederation, designed to be a parliament-like body though it never actually assembles.
The President of the Council of the Princes is the Prince of Nassau-Usingen.
The Confederation is above all a military alliance: the members have to supply France with large numbers of military personnel.
In return for their cooperation, some state rulers are given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg are made into grand duchies, and Württemberg and Bavaria become kingdoms.
States are also made larger by incorporating the many smaller Kleinstaaten, or small former imperial member states.
The Treaty of Chaumont in 1814 has reaffirmed decisions that had been made already and that will be ratified by this more important Congress.
They include the establishment of a confederated Germany, the division of Italy into independent states, the restoration of the Bourbon kings of Spain, and the enlargement of the Netherlands to include what in 1830 will become modern Belgium.
The Treaty of Chaumont became the cornerstone of the European Alliance that formed the balance of power for decades.
Other partial settlements had already occurred at the Treaty of Paris between France and the Sixth Coalition, and the Treaty of Kiel that covered issues raised regarding Scandinavia.
The Treaty of Paris had determined that a "general congress" should be held in Vienna and that invitations would be issued to "all the Powers engaged on either side in the present war".
The opening had been scheduled for July 1814.
In the last weeks it will be headed by the Earl of Clancarty, after Wellington leaves to face Napoleon during the Hundred Days.
The Four Great Powers had previously formed the core of the Sixth Coalition.
On the verge of Napoleon's defeat they had outlined their common position in the Treaty of Chaumont (March 1814), and negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1814) with the Bourbons during their restoration.
As the Congress's sessions are in Vienna, Emperor Francis is kept closely informed.
Talleyrand had already negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1814) for Louis XVIII of France; the king, however, distrusts him and is also secretly negotiating with Metternich, by mail.
In addition, there are representatives of cities, corporations, religious organizations (for instance, abbeys) and special interest groups—e.g., a delegation representing German publishers, demanding a copyright law and freedom of the press.
The Congress is noted for its lavish entertainment: according to a famous joke it does not move, but dances.
Spain, Portugal, and Sweden had not been part of the Chaumont agreement, but had joined the Treaty of Paris.
Other prominent states include Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, Bavaria, Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Hanover, at this time in a personal union with the British crown (King George III had refused to recognize the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and had maintained a separate diplomatic staff as Elector of Hanover to conduct the affairs of the family estate, the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, until the results of the Congress were concluded, establishing the Kingdom of Hanover.)