The Holy Alliance

After the defeat of the Napoleonic guards, the world community was waiting for a new Holy Alliance. It was created on the initiative of the winner of Napoleon and the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The creation of the sacred union was estimated by contemporaries in different ways. But mostly Russia was accused of trying to control the situation in Europe. A sacred union, or rather a coalition of countries, which, according to the plans of the emperor, was to transform the post-war world, was born on September 14, 1815. The Treaty was signed by the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III, Emperor of Austria Franz I, King of France Louis XVIII and most of the continental monarchs. Only Britain officially did not want to join the union, but took an active part in its work. The union was also with opponents: it was ignored by the Pope and the Turkish sultan.

In history, the Holy Alliance of 1815 entered as a community of states, the original goal, which was the suppression of maturing wars. Actually, the struggle was against any revolutionary spirit, as well as free-thinking political and religious. The spirit of this coalition corresponded to the reactionary mood of the then existing governments. In fact, the Holy Alliance took as its basis a monarchical ideology, but with a utopian dream of idealistic mutual assistance between the ruling Christian rulers. "An empty and sonorous document" - that's what his politician Metternich called him.

Alexander I, as the initiator of this coalition, called upon the allies, heads of states and emperors, to unite efforts against military conflicts and proposed to rule between nations in the spirit of truth and brotherhood. One of the clauses of the treaty was the requirement to strictly observe the commandments of the Gospel. The Russian emperor called on the allies to simultaneously reduce the armed forces and ensure mutual guarantees of the inviolability of the existing territories, and the 800,000-strong Russian army acted as a reliable guarantor in these progressive proposals.

The holy union of 1815 was a document consisting of a mixture of mysticism and not real politics, as historians later said about it, but the first seven years this international organization was very successful and fruitful.

Chancellor of Austria Metternich in 1820 convened the Congress of the Holy Alliance in the city of Troppau. As a result of numerous debates, a decision was passed that crossed out all the progressive that was planned earlier, namely, the countries that are members of the Union were allowed to introduce friendly troops to the lands of other states for the armed annihilation of revolutionary riots. This statement was explained simply, because each state had its own aggressive interests and political goals in the post-war section.

The creation of a sacred union, as well as quite advanced ideas of Alexander I, could not stop the ever growing contradictions between the parties to the treaty.

One of the first conflicts was Neapolitan. Emperor Alexander insisted on the independence of the Neapolitan kingdom, in which the revolution raged. He believed that the king himself of this state would voluntarily give the progressive constitution to the people, but the ally under the treaty in the person of Austria had a different opinion. The Austrian military brutally suppressed revolutionary actions.

At the last Veronese Congress, the Holy Alliance of 1815, under the influence of Metternich, became the instrument of the monarchs against the discontent of the masses and any revolutionary manifestations.

The difficult year 1822 showed disagreements between the countries Austria and Russia in connection with the liberation uprising in Greece. Russian society supported the Greeks, since the state had a single faith with it and, in addition, friendship with this state greatly strengthened Russia's influence in the Balkans.

The following events in Spain undermined the foundations of the union and put an end to relations between the countries within the framework of this treaty. In 1823, French troops entered the territory of Spain with the aim of forcibly restoring an absolute monarchy here. The union actually ceased to exist, but in 1833 countries such as Russia, Prussia and Austria are trying to restore the agreement again, but the revolutionary events of 1848-1849 forced the coalition to be forgotten forever.