League of the Three Emperors
Gorchakov was appointed Foreign Minister in April 1856 soon after the end of the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856; he represented the Russian Empire at the Paris Congress of 1856. His main objective was to restore Russia's international prestige after the bitter defeat. At first he steered the country towards an alliance with Napoleon III of France, but rebuffed by the latter's support of the January Uprising in Poland, joined his archrival Otto von Bismarck in setting up the League of the Three Emperors in 1873. Following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, Gorchakov succeeded in his long-term goal or revising the key clauses of the Paris Treaty, especially those containing Russia's interests in the Black Sea.