Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/626

 BOOK IX. WESTERN EUROPE, 1814-1914 CHAPTER XXXVI EUROPE AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA I. RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE BY THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 839. Decisions of the Congress of Vienna, There are few more important chapters in the political history of Europe than the reconstruction of the map which was arranged by that impressive assembly of monarchs, princes, and statesmen who met at the international Congress of Vienna. They had no idea of establish- ing things as they had been before the Napoleonic period, for the reason that Austria, Russia, and Prussia all had schemes for their own advantage that interfered with so simple an arrangement. The allies quickly agreed that Holland should become a heredi- tary kingdom under the House of Orange, which had long played so conspicuous a role in the history of the Dutch Republic ( 561 ff). In order that Holland might be the better able to check any new encroachments on the part of France, she was given the former Austrian Netherlands. Switzerland was declared independent, as were all the small Italian states which had existed prior to the changes made by Napoleon, except the ancient republics of Venice and Genoa, neither of which was restored. Genoa was given to the king of Sardinia ; Venetia to Austria, as an indemnity for her losses in the Netherlands. Austria also received back her former territory of Milan and became, by reason of her con- trol of northern Italy, a powerful factor in determining the policy of the whole Italian peninsula. As to Germany, no one desired to undo the great work of 1803 and restore the old anarchy. The 476