Britain Pushes the Congress of Vienna to End Slave Trade

The other ambassadors could not understand why he troubled so much about what seemed to them a trivial matter.

Continuing The Congress of Vienna 1814-15,
our selection from Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815 by Henry M. Stephens published in 1900. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The Congress of Vienna 1814-15.

Time: 1814-15
Place: Vienna

Denmark had by the Treaty of Kiel with Bernadotte been promised Swedish Pomerania in the place of Norway. This promise was not kept. Denmark, like Saxony, had been too faithful an ally of Napoleon not to be made to suffer. Swedish Pomerania was given to Prussia, and Denmark received only the small duchy of Lauenburg. By these arrangements both Sweden and Denmark were greatly weakened, and the Scandinavian states, by the loss of Finland and Pomerania, surrendered to their powerful neighbors, Prussia and Russia, the command of the Baltic Sea.

Spain, owing to the ability of the Count of Labrador and the support of Talleyrand, not only lost nothing except the island of Trinidad, which had been conquered by England but was allowed to retain the district round Olivenza, which had been ceded to her by Portugal in 1801. The desertion of Portugal by England in this particular is the chief blot on Lord Castlereagh’s policy at Vienna. The Portuguese army had fought gallantly with Wellington, and there was no reason why she should have been forced to consent to the definite cession of Olivenza to Spain when other countries were winning back their former borders. Portugal was also made to surrender French Guiana and Cayenne to France. England, though she had borne the chief pecuniary stress of the war — had been more instrumental than any other power in overthrowing Napoleon — received less compensation than any other country. She kept Malta, thus settling the question which led to the rupture of the Peace of Amiens; she received Heligoland, which was ceded to her by Denmark, as commanding the mouth of the Elbe, and she was also granted the protectorate of the Ionian Islands, which enabled her to close the Adriatic.

Among colonial possessions England took from France the Mauritius, Tobago, and St. Lucia, but she returned Martinique and the Isle of Bourbon, and forced Sweden and Portugal to restore Guadalupe and French Guiana. With regard to Holland, England retained Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope, but she restored Java, Curacao, and the other Dutch possessions. In the West Indies, also, she retained, as has been said, the former Spanish island of Trinidad.

One reason for Castlereagh’s moderation at Vienna is to be found in the pressure that was exerted upon him in England to secure the abolition of the slave trade. It is a curious fact that while the English plenipotentiary was taking such an important share in the resettlement of Europe, the English people were mainly interested in the question of the slave trade. The great changes which were leading to new combinations in Europe, the aggrandizement of Prussia, the reconstitution of Germany, the extension of Austria, all passed without notice, but meetings, in Lord Castlereagh’s own words, were held in nearly every village to insist upon his exerting his authority to abolish the trade in negro slaves. Castlereagh, therefore, lent his best efforts, in obedience to his constituents, to this end.

The other ambassadors could not understand why he troubled so much about what seemed to them a trivial matter. They suspected a deep design and thought that the reason of England’s humanity was that her West Indian colonies were well stocked with negroes, whereas the islands she was restoring were empty of them. The plenipotentiaries of other powers possessing colonies in the tropics therefore refused to comply with Castlereagh’s request, and it was eventually settled that the slave trade should be abolished by France after five and by Spain after eight years. Castlereagh had to be content with this concession, but to satisfy his English constituents he got a declaration condemning the slave trade assented to by all the powers at the Congress. Another point of great importance which was settled at the Congress of Vienna was with regard to the navigation of rivers which flow through more than one state. It had been the custom for all the petty sovereigns to impose such very heavy tolls on river traffic that such rivers as the Rhine were made practically useless for commerce. This question was discussed by a committee at the Congress, and a code for the international regulation of rivers was drawn up and generally agreed to.

These matters took long to discuss, and might have taken longer had not the news arrived at the beginning of March, 1815, that Napoleon had left Elba and become once more undisputed ruler of France. In the month of February the Duke of Wellington had succeeded Lord Castlereagh as English representative at Vienna, for the latter nobleman had to return to London to take his place in Parliament. At the news of the striking event of Napoleon’s being once more at the head of a French army all jealousies at Vienna ceased for a time. The Duke of Wellington was taken into consultation by the allied monarchs, and it was resolved to carry into effect the provisions of the Treaty of Chaumont. The great armies which had been prepared for a struggle among themselves were now turned by the allies against France. A treaty of alliance was signed at Vienna between Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England on March 25, 1815, by which those powers promised to furnish one hundred eighty thousand men each for the prosecution of war and stipulated that none of them should lay down arms until the power of Napoleon was completely destroyed. It was arranged that three armies should invade France: the first of two hundred fifty thousand Austrians, Russians, and Bavarians under Schwarzenburg across the Upper Rhine; the second of one hundred fifty thousand Prussians under Blucher across the Lower Rhine; and the third of one hundred fifty thousand English, Hanoverians, and Dutch from the Netherlands. Subsidies to the extent of eleven million pounds were promised by England to the allies. These arrangements made, the allied monarchs and their ministers left Vienna. But the final general act of the Congress was not drawn up and signed until June 8, 1815, ten days before the Battle of Waterloo.

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