Napoleon and prince metternich biography

Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859), Austrian politician and diplomat, suppressed nationalistic and democratic trends in Central Europe but was also the architect of a diplomatic system which kept Europe at peace for a century.

Today, more than 100 years after his death, Prince Klemens von Metternich remains a controversial figure.

Many late 19th-century Europeans detested him as a foe of freedom and an obstructionist who tried to prevent the unification of the powerful nations of Germany and Italy. Yet Europeans in the late 20th century, recovering from the disasters of World War I and II, tend to see him as a perceptive visionary whose diplomatic ideas kept Europe at peace between 1815 and 1914.

In this time period, Europe became the dominant economic and military power in the world. By the mid-20th century, even the future American secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, was praising Metternich's diplomacy.

The French Revolution of 1789 and its c