Peace of Pressburg

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After the defeat of Austerlitz , Franz I (left) and Johann von Liechtenstein (center) asked Napoleon for an armistice and peace

The Peace of Pressburg was concluded in 1805 between the Austrian Empire under Francis I and the French Empire under Napoléon Bonaparte and ended the 3rd War of the Coalition . On December 2, 1805, Napoleon destroyed the united Russian-Austrian army in the Battle of the Three Emperors at Austerlitz , and on December 6, an armistice was concluded. Because Russia was unable to attract new troops from inside the empire so soon, it left the war without a peace agreement. Austria made peace with France on December 26, 1805 in Pressburg (today: Bratislava , Slovakia ). The contract was signed by Joh. Jos. von Liechtenstein and Ignatz Graf von Gyulai for Austria and Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand for France, the next day Napoleon ratified him at Schönbrunn Palace .

Negotiating positions and demands

Regarding the treatment of defeated Austria, Napoleon and his foreign minister Talleyrand had already clashed in October 1805, that is, during the war.

Talleyrand's ultimatum before Austerlitz

French Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand , signatory of the peace treaty

Ultimately, Talleyrand called on his emperor to protect and preserve Austria. Tyrol and Veneto were to be separated from Austria, but not added to other states. Instead, they should act as neutral buffer states between Austria and the French sphere of interest. Tyrol was to be given to an Austrian prince, who was to be chosen by Emperor Franz, and to form an independent Habsburg secondary school (just as Salzburg formed a Habsburg secondary school up to 1805). Venice was to become a republic again, the president of which was to be determined by Napoleon. As a sign of confidence, Napoleon was to hand over the Italian royal crown to one of his brothers and undertake not to unite the crowns of France and Italy. The western Italian regions of Piedmont , Genoa and Parma , which are already attached to France, should not be affected . Apart from these deviations, France should withdraw behind its "natural borders" on the Rhine, Alps and Pyrenees and end the occupation of Switzerland ( Helvetic Republic ) and the Netherlands ( Batavian Republic ). As compensation for the loss of Tyrol and Veneto, Austria should be promised compensations at the expense of the Ottoman Empire - the Danube principalities of Moldova (including Bessarabia ) and Wallachia, and northern Bulgaria (the Dobruja ) - in order to block Russia's advance in the Balkans, and Austria to become enemies with Russia in the long term.

Napoleon's ideas before Austerlitz

The Habsburg Ferdinand von Salzburg was to cede his independent electorate to Austria

Although Napoleon ignored Talleyrand's ultimatum, he too was initially apparently willing to spare Austria. He even considered taking away only the strategically important cities of Verona and Legnago from Austria in Veneto or compensating Austria for the whole of Veneto with Salzburg. (In fact, however, Salzburg already belonged to the sphere of influence of the Austrian Habsburgs, where a Habsburg secondary school ruled: Elector Ferdinand , a brother of the Austrian emperor, had received Salzburg, Berchtesgaden and Passau only a few years earlier as compensation for his Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which was lost in 1801. ) After his Victory near Ulm , in an answer to an Austrian request for an armistice, Napoleon already demanded the cession of the Italian and Swabian ( Upper Austrian ) possessions, but not yet Tyrol and Dalmatia.

Italy was actually supposed to fall to one of Napoleon's brothers, but both Lucien and Joseph and Louis refused. Piedmont and Genoa were to remain with France, but the king of Sardinia was to be compensated for the loss of Piedmont with the Russian-ruled Corfu or the Ionian Islands and with the British-occupied Malta . (Corfu and Malta brought up French negotiators again in 1807, this time to compensate the King of Sicily for Naples.) Russia should seek compensation at the expense of the Ottoman Empire.

Austria and Russia's demands before Austerlitz

The Russian prince Dolgorukov had arrogantly presented Napoleon with unacceptable conditions

After the main Austrian army was forced to surrender near Ulm and Austrian troops had to evacuate Tyrol, Salzburg and Veneto, Austria's Emperor Franz I had asked for an armistice at the beginning of November 1805, but Napoleon's tied peace conditions were rejected. The French defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar re-established Austria and Russia in a more adamant position. Although French troops had occupied the Austrian capital Vienna on November 13th and expelled the Austrian Emperor Franz to Moravia to join the army of the Russian Emperor Alexander, on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz the Allies had Napoleon convey their original demands through Prince Peter Petrovich Dolgorukov , which were unacceptable to Napoleon and Talleyrand.

Behind the phrase of wanting to restore Europe's independence and the main demand to reinstate the King of Sardinia in Piedmont, concealed the concern agreed with England to restrict France not only to its "natural borders", but to its "original borders “Attributed to 1792. France was to give up all conquests made since 1793 and thus only be allowed to keep Savoy and Nice . As compensation for Savoy and Nice, Sardinia-Piedmont was to receive not only Genoa, but also Corsica ; the other Italian and German petty princes were to be reinstated in their old “rights”. The Helvetic Republic, like the Batavian Republic, was to be dissolved and the Netherlands again subordinated to the heir William V of Orange-Nassau - enlarged by the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), ceded to France in 1797 and 1801 .

Prussia's ultimatum

The Prussian Count von Haugwitz concluded the
Treaty of Schönbrunn with Napoleon during the negotiations in Pressburg

The Kingdom of Prussia, which had already signed the Treaty of Basel with France in 1795 , formed a coalition with Austria and Russia in 1805, but had not declared war on France. Instead, Prussia's Foreign Minister Karl August von Hardenberg offered himself as a mediator between France, Austria and Russia. However, when French troops violated the neutrality of Prussian territory in the pursuit of the Austrians ("Incident of Ansbach"), the Prussian mediation proposal was formulated as an ultimatum, which the pro-French-minded ex-Foreign Minister Christian von Haugwitz brought.

With regard to the French borders, the Prussian ultimatum was based more on the pre-war status or the peace treaties concluded in 1795, 1797, 1801 and 1802, although England had promised Prussia half of Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. In addition, France should recognize the independence of Naples, the Netherlands and Switzerland and compensate the king of Sardinia with Liguria (Genoa) and Parma (instead of Corsica) if he did not get Piedmont back. Austria's border in Italy should only be moved slightly forward from the Adige to the Mincio , but would then also have included the strategically important fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera del Garda .

By promising Haugwitz the Electorate of Hanover , Napoleon succeeded in persuading Prussia to maintain its neutrality and at the same time alienating it from England. It also fed Prussia's distrust of Russian reinforcements for Austria through Prussian Poland.

Austria's demands for Austerlitz

Prince Johann I von Liechtenstein negotiated an armistice and peace for Austria

After Austerlitz, Hanover also played an important role for the Austrian negotiators. In the meantime they were ready to come to terms with the loss of the Swabian and Italian possessions; however, in order to keep Tyrol and Dalmatia, they offered Napoleon 100 million francs in war contributions. When this attempt failed, they demanded Hanover as compensation for an Austrian prince (secondary school). Even though Talleyrand advocated it because he saw it as an opportunity to make Austria and England an enemy, this attempt was also unsuccessful, as Napoleon Hanover had just promised Prussia in the Treaty of Schönbrunn .

Talleyrand, who was still interested in Austria's protection, lowered the contribution sum demanded by Napoleon to 90 million francs (40 million guilders), but demanded a share of the difference from the Austrians, which he finally received after intensive negotiations. Austria's Emperor Franz I was grateful to Talleyrand for the relief by giving the French Foreign Minister a valuable snuffbox with his image and two diamond rings as a present.

Terms of contract

The peace treaty was signed in the Primatialpalais - today the mayor's seat

Austria had to cede the counties of Tyrol and Vorarlberg from Upper Austria to the newly created Kingdom of Bavaria and the Breisgau to the Electorate of Baden . The rest of Upper Austria was divided between Baden and Württemberg , which was also raised to a kingdom on January 1, 1806 . The territories of Veneto , Istria , Dalmatia and Cattaro , which only came to Austria in 1797 with the Peace of Campo Formio , fell to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy . The former Hochstift Augsburg (hinterland of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg ) and the northeastern part of the former Hochstift Passau fell to Bavaria. The former prince-archbishopric of Salzburg , which was only secularized in 1803 and become an electorate , and the prince-provost of Berchtesgaden came to Austria in compensation. The previous Elector of Salzburg was compensated by Bavaria with the newly created Grand Duchy of Würzburg .

The Austrian Emperor Franz I had to recognize Napoléon as emperor , the increase in rank of the previous electors of Bavaria and Württemberg to kings and the full sovereignty of the new kings and the elector of Baden. Furthermore, he had to give his consent in advance to a close alliance between Napoleon and German princes - the later Confederation of the Rhine .

The Teutonic Order and the Order of Malta were secularized or dissolved ( these two orders were left out of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803) in order to use their income to make allowances for those Habsburg princes who had previously been supplied from the ceded areas.

Effects

Commemorative plaque for the Peace of Pressburg in the courtyard of the Primate's Palace

Austria lost a sixth (4 out of 24 million) of its subjects and a seventh of its state revenue as a result of the peace treaty. The Peace of Pressburg sealed one of the bitterest defeats in Austria and in the following year led to the establishment of the Rhine Confederation and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire by Franz II.

The cession of Tyrol to Bavaria was the cause of the uprisings of the peasants under Andreas Hofer , who had been promised relatively extensive autonomy by the Austrian emperor, but especially freedom of defense (free choice of military service). They did not want to renounce this right, but the later King of Bavaria Maximilian I did not recognize it.

Most of the contractual clauses were canceled in the course of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 , particularly with regard to Tyrol and the Veneto-Adriatic regions. However, Salzburg remained with Austria to compensate for the loss of the former Habsburg territories in front of Austria to Württemberg and Baden.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Émile Dard: Napoleon and Talleyrand , pages 160-174. Emil Roth, Berlin 1938
  2. ^ A b c d e John Holland Rose: Napoleon I , Volume 2, pages 45-49. Greiner & Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 1906
  3. ^ Dard, page 118
  4. ^ A b c John Holland Rose: Napoleon I , Volume 2, Pages 9f and 35f. Greiner & Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 1906
  5. ^ Dard, page 148
  6. ^ A b John Holland Rose: Napoleon I , Volume 2, pages 19f and 30f. Greiner & Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 1906

See also

Web links

Wikisource: Peace of Pressburg  - Sources and full texts