Klemens von metternich biography of barack

The Italian confederation never came into being. In June , the German confederation was founded, although it was not powerful. In European affairs, however, Metternich was more successful: he achieved equality of status for France; he obtained a reduction of the Prussian demands on Saxony; and, in particular, he blocked the farther reaching demands of Russia.

Metternich, on the other hand, won equal status for France. Even Russia was stopped from annexing any more territories. At the Frankfurt am Main Bundestag federal assembly , which began in , Metternich had difficulties due to Austrian domestic matters. He had meant to utilize this gathering to combat revolutionary ideas across Germany. As a result, Austria rose to prominence in the German confederation.

Prussia, on the other hand, had equal power because the emperor refused to accept the German throne. Metternich spent the time between their arrival and their departure traveling around Italy, visiting Venice, Padua, Ferrara, Pisa, Florence, and Lucca. However, later, Great Britain refused to intervene in the revolts of other countries. Reorienting his German policy, he began to rely on the common interest of the princes, whom he persuaded to share his point of view through personal contact rather than the assembly.

Despite upheavals in and disrupting his system, he remained a significant player in European politics until March 13, , when he was forced to retire owing to a revolution in Vienna. Metternich and his family were forced into exile as a result of this. They traveled to England, where he was assisted by the Duke of Wellington. They then relocated to Brussels.

Klemens von metternich biography of barack

Nowadays, we are thankful for the course history took and happy to live in a democracy. However, contemporaries could not foresee the outcome. One of the people who was immensely shocked by the revolution was young Metternich. The terror and war that followed the first revolutionary acts also scared him. He would stand for peace and against social unrest for the rest of his life.

And he would stand for it at any cost. Throughout his career, he would be a conservative in every meaning of the word. He protected the divine right of monarchs and he suppressed all ideas of liberalism and nationalism. He saw these ideas as a threat to peace and stability. In foreign politics, his ideal was a balance of power. Metternich started his diplomatic career in when he held ministerial positions in Dresden Saxony and Berlin Prussia.

But his political star rose the highest when he accepted the post of ambassador in Paris. There ruled the self-appointed emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte. It should be clear that Napoleon will not find an ally in the young diplomat. On the contrary, Napoleon embodied everything Metternich stood against. He was an exponent of the new regime.

He named himself not the French emperor but the Emperor of the French. Thus emphasizing that he represented the people, the public, who tasted power during the French Revolution for the very first time. He was a pretender, a nobody, and that undermined the divine right of monarchs and aristocrats to rule their subjects. He trampled on the ideal of the balance of power in Europe under the feet of his many troops.

And with the series of wars that Napoleon started, he spread liberal ideas abroad, created satellite states, gave them constitutions, or created republics. He spread French nationalism, and in the wars against the French, other nations realized that they were nations. Historians nowadays disagree whether Napoleon was or was not a military genius. But one thing they cannot deny.

In battles and under arms, he seemed invincible. But diplomacy remained. Metternich was a diplomat who would wait patiently for his Austria to have its say. After a disastrous defeat in at the Battle of Wagram, Austria did not pay a fair price. He proposed a masterstroke: Austria would become a French ally. In he prolonged the peace with France despite public opinion and pleas from the other European monarchs.

Austria needed calm; Napoleon was too strong. But the time would come. And it did. The anti-French coalition was renewed, and this time it was successful. Metternich's legacy is marred by his authoritarian approach to domestic policy. He established a secret police known as the "thought police" to suppress political dissent. Metternich was known for his charm and ability to use his personal relationships for political gain.

He suspected Paganini of supporting Italian revolutionaries and thwarted his concert performances. After the revolution, Metternich fled to England and later to Belgium. Add a New Bio. Powered by CITE. Notify me of new comments via email. Cancel Report. Create a new account. Log In.