ABSTRACT
The CCNR was the world’s first intergovernmental organization, established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to bring together seven Rhine states: France, Baden, Bavaria, Hessen-Darmstadt, Nassau, Prussia, and the Netherlands. The congress was also the first European peace settlement at which media reporting and public opinion played substantial roles. These joint developments allow us to trace the interplay between the CCNR, the reporting media, and interested portions of civil society during the creation and early activities of the commission from 1815 to 1848. This chapter explores three subjects. First, I offer some explanation for the puzzling lack of initial awareness about the commission’s significance as a fundamentally new type of intergovernmental organization. Second, I describe how various streams of print media communicated the increasing activity of the CCNR to a broad audience. Third, I present two bodies of evidence to suggest the CCNR was clearly successful in communicating with intended audiences. One is the vast growth of the Rhine trade from 1815 to 1848. The second is the development of transnational private interest groups that adapted to the international structure of the CCNR by organizing themselves across several states and communicating directly with the commission to advocate their views.
