Timeline: The Congress of Vienna, the Hundred Days, and Napoleon's Exile on St. Helena
Exiled on Elba, Napoleon's empire was reduced to a small island off the coast of Italy. Napoleon would be allowed to rule Elba, which had 12,000 inhabitants. Perhaps cruelly, the treaty allowed him to retain the title "Emperor." On May 4, 1814, Napoleon, now 45 years old, arrived at Elba's capital, Portoferraio. Saying, "I want to live from now on like a justice of the peace," Napoleon actually worked hard to improve Elba, and to all observers, it seemed as though Napoleon was content to a life of relative retirement. Meanwhile the powers of Europe met to decide the future political shape of the Continent at the Congress of Vienna, which opened in September 1814 and lasted until June 1815, with a brief hiatus during Napoleon's return. Die-hard Conservatives might have deluded themselves that the clock could simply be turned back to the ancien regime, but most realized the effects of the French Revolution and Napoleon had obviously been too profound. Specifically, the members of the Congress were all afraid of a strong France, so they created strong border states. The Netherlands and the Italian Kingdom of Piedmont were created to this end. Prussia got the left bank of the Rhine, while Austria took territory in northern Italy, including Tuscany and Milan. In Naples, Murat was actually allowed to keep his throne (until the 'Hundred Days), and the Bourbons were restored in Spain. Restoring Germany to its previous status as the chaotic, fragmented Holy Roman Empire served no one's purposes. Instead, the relatively large kingdoms of Bavaria, Wurttemberg, and Saxony remained as Napoleon created them. However, no unified Germany would emerge.
The future of Napoleon's Polish Grand Duchy of Warsaw remained the most problematic issue. Alexander had desired the territory for years, but Austria and Prussia both had parts of the old Polish kingdom. The Prussians entered an agreement with Russia, under which Russia would support Prussia's bid for Saxony and Prussia would support Russia's bid for Poland; in addition, Prussia would hand over its share of Poland to Russia. Metternich, however, feared that Russia would become too powerful in this deal. To combat the Russian-Prussian alliance, on January 3, 1815, Metternich, Castlereagh, and Talleyrand signed a secret treaty agreeing to oppose the Prussians and Russians. In the end, the Congress of Vienna created a small Poland ('Congress Poland') with Alexander installed as the king. With Russia satisfied, Prussia lost its ally and only was able to get a small piece of Saxony. For all the trouble France had caused, the Congress was remarkably lenient towards her. France was allowed to keep her traditional, pre-Revolution boundaries.
The Congress was successfully able to stop potentially explosive issues from getting out of hand: the Poland issue could have led to war or further hostility, but it was handled with extreme care by a group of very capable diplomats. The Congress brilliantly established long-term stability in Europe. True, there were some criticisms. Nationalists were not always happy with the established borders that served to maintain the balance of power rather than unifying a given group that shared the same language and culture. Another complaint was that the stability the Congress created helped keep reactionary regimes in power and may have slowed social progress. (Much of the years between 1815 and 1848 were animated by the interaction of liberal and conservative ideals.) But in all, the Congress of Vienna was a success, in that their goal was to design a political landscape wherein no one power could dominate. It created enough powers of similar strength and influence that none of them could go too far without being overwhelmed by a coalition of the others. It mediated numerous tensions and conflicting interest through peaceful negotiations. Furthermore, the Congress managed to address fairly all diplomat's grievances so masterfully that the whole of Europe did not all go to war at once until World War I broke out in 1914. The Congress of Vienna also outlawed the Atlantic slave trade. All of the major powers agreed to this, but only Britain actually did anything to stop the trade, setting up an anti-slaving naval squadron.
Back in France, many people were worried that the new king, Louis XVIII, would try to reverse the positive effects of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Code, such as legal equality. With Napoleon gone, a pro-Bonaparte movement started to form. Napoleon learned of this development by reading the newspapers in Elba. Figuring that the French army would remain loyal to him, he debated whether he should make an attempt to return to Europe. When he asked his mother for her counsel, she told him to "fulfill your destiny." Thus as the leaders of Europe were undergoing difficult negotiations at Vienna, they received the news that Napoleon had sailed from Elba on 25 February with a large contingent of his volunteer troops, landed in France near Cannes on 1 March, and was marching toward Paris picking up more soldiers on the way.
The adventure of the Hundred Days, a gamble that seemed as if it might succeed, shows Napoleon's awareness of the divisions among his enemies. He could still count on considerable support in the army, whose officers and men were threatened with loss of pensions and unemployment. Disillusionment with the restored Bourbons and their reactionary and vengeful supporters was widespread, and peasants in particular feared the restoration of the ancient rights and privileges of the nobility. At the same time, though, among the bulk of the population Napoleon's return engendered neither great enthusiasm nor great hostility. People were prepared to wait and see how things turned out.
By the time Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and the Hundred Days, properly speaking, began, Murat had already attacked the Austrians in Italy and Louis XVIII had fled. An Additional Act to the Constitutions of the Empire created a new, theoretically liberal, empire, guaranteeing basic freedoms and a stronger representative element in government, in order to increase domestic support for Napoleon during these unpredictable times.
Whether Napoleon was serious about instituting these democratic reforms is a question we will never be able to answer, for the Allies quickly put their territorial disputes aside, and united against their old foe, forcing Napoleon to concentrate of militaristic, rather than domestic issues. On 13 March, the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw, banished from the empire. The Austrians defeated Murat in Italy, and Wellington was given overall command of Allied forces. Napoleon's only hope lay in adopting his old strategy of delivering a decisive blow against the enemy's forces to force a negotiation. The battle came in the southern Low Countries on 15 June. At Waterloo, described by Wellington as 'a close-run thing,' Napoleon was overwhelmed by British and Prussian forces, forcing him to abdicate for the second and last time on 22 June 1815. A second Treaty of Paris was signed, in which Louis XVIII was reinstituted as king of France and Napoleon was deemed a prisoner in British custody and was exiled to St. Helena, a remote British island in the south Atlantic, where he lived until his death on 5 May 1821. The four victorious powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) agreed that no Bonaparte would ever be allowed to rule France again. Even Murat, who previously had been left as king of Naples, was now deposed and the Bourbon monarchy restored. After the end of the Hundred Days, the finishing touches were put on the Congress of Vienna. Czar Alexander I, still looking for a collective security system that would prevent anyone from ever building such a large European empire again, convinced most European nations to sign a Holy Alliance. Under the terms of this agreement, which was taken seriously by few besides Alexander himself, the nations promised to strive for the Christian virtues of charity and peace.
Napoleon's combination of military glory, enlightened government, and a 'liberating-minded' empire provided an alternative to the real and apparent conservatism and conformity of the restored order in France and Europe. Adding to the Napoleonic legend was his nephew, Louis Napoleon, subsequently the emperor Napoleon III. As president of the Second Republic, he demonstrated the continuing power of the Napoleonic idea, especially among the French peasantry. Elsewhere in Europe, nationalists and liberals in Poland, Italy, Spain, and other countries continued to look back on the Napoleonic era as a precursor of liberty. His statement, though not entirely genuine, on St. Helena that his Grand Design had been to establish a European Federation of Free Peoples, was viewed through the Romantic spectacles of 19th century liberals as inspiring, and thus they found here a validation to the Napoleonic legend. A more tangible example of Napoleon's influence is deeply evident in terms of the law codes he established in France, Continental Europe, and throughout the rest of the world.