Here are a few random facts that everybody would know (or could look up) about Europe in 1814 that are not covered in other information. Don't fret � these facts simply are intended to provide you with a "feel" for what Europe was like at the time. You are not expected to memorize any of them, although you can use any of them you like during the game.

Bright Lights, Big Cities

Europe in 1814 was still overwhelmingly rural; the Industrial Revolution was just getting underway in England, and had not yet reached most of the continent. Most ordinary people lived in small villages and worked on farms. Most of the wealthy maintained one or more country estates as well as an urban townhouse. Still, cities were the political and economic centers of all nations, and so most important leaders spent at least part of their time there. In 1814, the largest cities in Europe were:

• London, capital of Britain, population 1,117,000
• Paris, capital of France, population 547,000
• Moscow, capital of Russia, population 250,000
• Vienna, capital of Austria, population 247,000
• St. Petersburg, royal residence city for Russia, population 220,000
• Amsterdam, Netherlands, major northern commercial center, population 201,000
• Berlin, capital of Prussia, population 172,000

Other major cities with populations over 100,000:

• Milan, Italy, major Italian commercial center, population 170,000
• Dublin, Ireland (Britain), British administrative center for Ireland, spiritual center of Irish nationalism, population 165,000
• Rome, Italy, headquarters of the Catholic Church, spiritual center of Italian nationalism, population 153,000
• Marseilles, France, major French Mediterranean port, population 111,000
• Lyon, France, French industrial city, population 110,000
• Warsaw, Poland, capital of Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw, spiritual center of Polish nationalism, population 100,000
• Genoa, Italy, major Italian port, population 100,000

Sizable cities:

• Bordeaux, France, major French industrial city, population 91,000
• Edinburgh, Britain, British administrative center for Scotland, population 83,000
• Liverpool, Britain, major English, industrial city, population 82,000
• Turin, Italy, major Italian commercial center, population 78,000
• Glasgow, Britain, major Scottish industrial city, population 77,000
• Birmingham, Britain, major English industrial city, population 71,000
• Manchester, Britain, major English industrial city, population 75,000
• Prague, Bohemia, Austrian administrative center for Bohemia, population 75,000
• Budapest, Hungary, Austrian administrative center for Hungary, population 54,000

Major Intellectual Events (artistic, literary, scientific) since 1800

In the first years of the 19th century, classicism was still the dominant style in art and literature, reflecting rationality, adhering to established forms, and emphasizing restraint and balance. However, romanticism, which rejected rationality and instead emphasized the free expression of emotion, sometimes very strong emotion, was gaining ground.
(Note, all titles have been translated into English)

1800

• Madame de Sta�l published On Literature
• Goya painted The Naked Maja.

1801

• Schiller published The Maid of Orleans, on Joan of Arc, one of the first works of German Romanticism.
• Wordsworth and Coleridge published the second edition of Lyrical Ballads with the Preface, the first edition having appeared in1798.
• Richard Trevithick's road steam engine made its first passenger-carrying run.
• The Elgin Marbles were brought to London by Lord Elgin (they would be purchased by the British Museum in 1816)

1802

• Sta�l published Delphine
• Chateaubriand published The Genius of Christianity.
• Joseph Gay-Lussac discovered his law on the expansion of gasses (he would publish the key text on the idea in 1809).

1803

• The Italian sculptor Canova began work on the tomb of Vittorio Alfieri in Florence, considered the first artistic expression of Italian nationalism, with statues portraying personifications of Italy, etc. (he would finish it in 1810).
• J.B. Say published his Treatise on Political Economy (carrying on work begun by Adam Smith)
• Malthus's enlarged and amended Essay on the Principles of Population came out.
• American inventor Robert Fulton's steamboat the Clermont sailed on the Seine.

1804

• Chateaubriand published Ren�
• Schiller published William Tell
• Beethoven debuted his Third (Eroica) Symphony. He had originally intended to dedicate it to Napoleon, but Beethoven had become disillusioned with him after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, and in the 1806 edition, he declared that the symphony "celebrates the memory of a great man"
• Gros painted The Plague Victims of Jaffa

1805

• Beethoven wrote his opera Fidelio. It was first staged in Vienna, but cut for performances in 1806, the final version appearing in 1814, the year of the game
• Wordsworth completed a major revision of The Prelude (the final version would appear in 1819)

1806

• Benjamin Constant painted Adolphe
• Gros painted The Battle of Aboukir
• Humphrey Davy published his Memoir on Electrochemistry.
• The Vend�me Column, the Arc du Carrousel, an the Arc de Triomphe were all begun in Paris

1807

• J.M. W. Turner painted Sun Rising through Vapour
• The Church of the Madeleine in Paris was redesigned as Napoleon's Temple to Glory (it was handed back to the Church after Napoleon's defeat, and reconstruction was concluded in 1842)
• The first gas street lamps appeared in London

1808

• Beethoven composed the Fourth (Pastoral) Symphony
• Fichte published his Words to the German Nation, a literary and philosophical call to arms for German Nationalism
• Goethe wrote Faust
• Walter Scott wrote Marmion
• Goya painted Second of May (commemorating the uprising of the Spanish against Napoleon)
• Gros painted the Battle of Eylau. (commemorating a bloody battle between Napoleon and the Russians, fought in a snowstorm)

1809

• Lamarck wrote Zoological Philosophy
• The Quarterly Review, a literary magazine, was founded in Britain

1810

• Goya drew Disasters of War (drawings of atrocities committed by both sides during Napoleon's occupation of Spain)
• The first edition of the French Annals of Mathematics appeared.

1811

• Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility (which she had written in 1798)
• Constable painted Dedham Vale
• Turner painted Garden of the Hesperides

1812

• Byron wrote the first and second cantos of Childe Harold (the third and fourth would appear in 1816 and 1818 respectively)
• G�ricault painted Cavalry Officer on Horseback
• Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm began publishing their collection of fairy tales
• The Society of Friends of Music was founded in Vienna

1813

• Austen published Pride and Prejudice (which she wrote in 1796-7)
• G�ricault painted Wounded Cuirassier Retreating from the Fire
• Robert Owen wrote his New View of Society, a utopian work in reaction to the works of Smith, et. al, and the suffering of workers brought on by the Industrial Revolution
• Rossini composed the opera Tancred
• Shelley wrote Queen Mab
• The Royal Philharmonic Society was founded in London
• The first edition of the German Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics appeared

1814, the year of the game

• Austen published Mansfield Park
• Byron published The Corsair
• Scott wrote Waverly
• Wordsworth wrote The Excursion
• George Stephenson's steam locomotive 'Bl�cher' (named for the famous Prussian general) made a successful trial run

Money Makes the World Go 'Round

Different nations in Europe used different currencies in 1814. Also, the relative value of money at the time was considerably different than it is today. The following facts should give you a better idea about denominations and sums you might hear bandied about in the game.

The Austrians used the silver florin. The British used the pound sterling.

For the purposes of our game, an English pound sterling is worth about 10 Austrian florins.

For the sake of simplicity in the game, we will stick with these two currencies, dispensing with the French franc, the Russian ruble, the gold ducat, the American dollar, and other currencies. The pound was the currency of the major financial nation at the game (and also London-based international financier Nathan Rothschild), while the florin was the local currency in Vienna.

So what does it all mean? How much is "a lot" of money?

The historian Christopher Hibbert tells us that, when dealing with prices expressed in pounds sterling during this period, one can multiply figures in pounds sterling by thirty to get a rough estimate of in modern pounds. And at the time Hibbert wrote, a British pound was worth about two modern American dollars.

So�

The expenses incurred by the Austrian government for the Congress totaled 8.5 million florins (about 850,000 pounds sterling), which comes to about $51 million in modern dollars.

The British delegation rented a 22-room house in the Minoritenplatz (in the center of town) for the Congress at the rate of 500 pounds sterling a month, which comes to about $30,000 a month in modern dollars.

Metternich is rumored to have received a million florins from Louis XVIII as a "present" after the Congress. Gentz received 24,000 florins. That equates to six million dollars for Metternich (a tidy bonus even by modern CEO standards�) and a respectable $144,000 for Gentz. Weigh your bribes accordingly!