ABSTRACT
Klemens von Metternich constructed a new, more conservative European order after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. In Vienna, Metternich joined the diplomatic service, rising quickly to the post of foreign minister in 1809. He understood that for the Austrian Empire to retain a measure of independence from France, he had to collaborate with Napoleon I. When Napoleon was definitively defeated at Waterloo in 1815, Metternich saw the opportunity to bring the victorious powers to the table and negotiate a new European order. Metternich engineered the creation of the German Confederation to maintain Austrian leadership and influence over German states. The “Metternich System” maintained a balance among the great powers of Europe that prevented the outbreak of a continent-wide war until World War I in 1914. Metternich's contemporaries and recent scholars have accused him of being a reactionary, bent on repressing civil liberty and suppressing revolution, whether national or liberal.
