Paper Example on Career and Strategies of Klemens von Metternich

Klemens von Metternich, who was a diplomat and statesman, was born on 15 May 1773 at Coblenz (Seward, 1991). His career journey of diplomacy started. He was one of the Europes most conservative statesmen who can be remembered with his contribution during the Napoleonic liberalism movement in Europe. He is considered the most important diplomat during his era. Some of the important events that he can be recognized with include the negotiations that led to the Congress and Treaty of Vienna. His contributions to the foreign policy management and development of diplomacy cannot go unrecognized. This paper seeks to examine the career and strategies of the great German diplomat, Klemens von Metternich.

Career of Klemens von Metternich

Metternich's diplomacy was influenced by his education. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg and later joined a law school where he studied law and diplomacy at Mainz (Seward, 1991). Further, his father, who was also a diplomat, had some significant influence on the person and diplomat he became to be. His father was a diplomat as well in Brussels. It is out of his experience that he introduced his son into the diplomatic circle. His public career started in 1801 when he was appointed as Austrian ambassador to the court of Dresden (Seward, 1991). His career grew rapidly as two years after his appointment as the ambassador to Dresden; he was appointed an ambassador to Berlin. He later engaged in several diplomatic relations including when he was ambassador to France.

Metternich was an intelligent man who turned his conservative ideologies into an international policy. His diplomacy skills were evident in various engagements including the negotiations during the Vienna Congress where he brought together the Europes major powers including Britain, Austria, France, and Russia (Nadeau, 2016). Through his negotiations skills, he managed to convince the major powers to come to terms under the three basic principles. The principles include the compensation by the Napoleon, restoration of the ruling families that had been dethroned by the Napoleon army, and implementation of the balance of power that kept any country from dominating the continent. It is these three principles that protected Europe for over a century and kept the peace between the major powers. While working in France, Metternich spent the most time with the officials at the French Imperial court where he met different top officials and powerful people that advanced his diplomat career (Seward, 1991). After the breakout of the Napoleon war, Metternich was arrested and was later released after several weeks.

His diplomatic intervention and attempts to stabilize the peace in Europe made his ideas recognizable (Kraehe, 2014). After he succeeded in bringing together the major powers in Europe where they both agreed on terms to end the war and promote peaceful coexistence in the region, Metternich was appointed the prince to the Austrian Empire by the Emperor Francis I. It is not just the fact that he brought major powers including Russia, Britain, Germany, and Austria on the same table that made him recognizable and earned him the prince title, but it was his successful diplomatic relations and talks with the major powers that made them overthrow the Napoleon in 1814 (Seward, 1991). Therefore, Francis, I gave him the prince title as a reward for his success.

Metternich also served as a foreign minister in Austria. His main objective for taking the ministry in 1809 was to keep the peace until the Napoleon regime could be thwarted (Kraehe, 2014). Metternich disliked the Napoleon and he wanted them out of Austria. Therefore, he attempted to erode Napoleons power by arranging a marital union between Napoleon and the daughter of Austrian Emperor Francis I. Metternich's popularity also emerged from his leadership competence and loyalty to the Austrian government. Even though he was true head of the Empires government, his conservatism ideas advanced in many other areas across Austrian Empire.

Strategies of Metternich

Metternich was known for many things, among the diplomatic and political ideologies that helped him shape the political field in Europe. After the defeat of Austria in 1809, Metternich was appointed the foreign minister where he replaced the former minister Johann Phillip von Stadion (Seward, 1991). However, he took the job out of rage and hatred for Napoleon who had given the people of Austria their freedom back after so many years of living under the feudal system. He was also jealous of the growing influence of the Napoleon in the region. Therefore, he did everything he could during his early days of being a foreign minister to sabotage and erode the governance of Napoleon. One of his effective strategies towards getting Austria back from the Napoleon includes the policy neutrality system that he adopted after the Bonapartes defeat in Russia in 1812 (DUrso, 2015). He offered to mediate between Bonaparte and the Russian and Prussian governments to establish peace between them. However, as was seen later during the Congress in Vienna, the main aim of such mediation and diplomacy meetings were to gain the trust and support of the major powers. As a foreign minister, Metternich established connections with powerful and great people in different governments. For instance, in June 1813, he met with Bonaparte at Dresden where he established the first steps towards ending Napoleons regime.

Metternich's political philosophy that was shared among many nations in Europe was also another strategy that set his legacy. Metternich's beliefs were mainly influenced by the conservatism ideology that the commoners were to be ruled and the ruling class to continue ruling. Therefore, when the Napoleon took the government in 1809, he was unhappy with the new system that aimed at making the ruled part of the ruling class (DUrso, 2015). However, he was also interested in keeping peace in the region between different states. He believed that the conservatism system was the best governance that would deliver stability and peaceful coexistence between the different nations in Europe. Metternich realized that Napoleon system of governance would infect the people and they would start revolting against the government. Therefore, he saw the need to remove them from governing. He started forming a relationship with Napoleon. Through the marriage arrangement between the daughter of Emperor and Napoleon, Metternich gained the support of the Napoleon. He lured Napoleon into forming an army of 30,000 Austrian soldiers with the aim that they would help Napoleon expand its army (Greene, 2010, p. 170). Napoleon no harm in this plan and agreed not knowing that Metternich was helping rebuild the Austrian army. He used the warm relationship between Napoleon and the Emperors family through the marriage to manipulate things to Habsburgs advantage.

He did not support strong democratic institutions because he did not support the common or majority opinion. He believed that majority or popular opinion changed easily; therefore, it could not be trusted. His idea that popular participation of people in the governance would result in anarchy because the gap between the economic and class differences would have been bridged with the Napoleon government helped bring the balance of power in Austria. As a result, he organized the Congress of Vienna where he obtained the support and managed to convince the major powers to support Austria dethrone the Napoleon regime. The Congress of Vienna led to the emergence of the Congress System that is mainly associated with Metternich (Kissinger, 1994). Metternichs ideas influenced many people including Kissinger who wrote much about diplomacy in the 19th century. He is considered to be the pioneer of the Congress System in Europe (Kissinger, 1994). Metternich was a man of many talents and they were evidently witnessed during the organization of Congress where his strategies successfully manifested. Metternich managed to bring on board the major powers that had previously disagreed on power during post-war settlement. His influence during the Congress proceedings earned him a reputation as a great diplomat that Europe had ever seen in the years.

The Congress of Vienna was established in 1814 where the heads of the five major dynasties and representatives from 206 royal families gathered in Vienna. Ministers from the major powers in Europe including Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia also attended the congress. He successfully frustrated the Russias plans for the annexation to absorb Saxony (DUrso, 2015). He also succeeded in creating a German Confederation under the Austrian feudal system that made Austria government even more powerful in the region. Organizing the Congress of Vienna was his strategy to end revolution and any future possibility of war in the region. Therefore, he ensured that the major powers agreed on a common ground to prevent any future emergence of radicalization in Europe. He encouraged the Congress System where the representatives were expected to meet periodically to discuss the political developments and design mechanisms that would prevent any other evolution in Europe (DUrso, 2015). However, his ideology was widely accepted among many major powers who also wanted to maintain their influence in their respective regions. He believed that the ruling class had the responsibility of maintaining equilibrium in the society where the commoners remained under the rule of the royal class. His resentment on liberalism, nationalism, and revolution made it easy for the other major powers to back his ideas during the Congress. He believed that the monarchy system was only capable of sharing the power with the privileged classes in the society. Therefore, he successfully made the major powers, Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, the instrument of preventing any emergence of revolution in Europe. He also encouraged close supervision and monitor of the universities to prevent any radicalism of any sort. It is this strategy that made his policies acceptable across Europe. As a result, Metternich was considered an architect of reaction and suppressor of liberty during his era. His ideologies and strategies to keep Europe safe and peaceful were accepted among many nations in the continent. For many yearss, Europe experienced the peace that lasted until 1914 when a major war that embroiled the whole Europe emerged (Seward, 1991).

Metternich was also known as the master of the manipulator. In his historical analysis of Metternich's statecraft, D Urso (2015) explains that Metternich was the most influential and yet the most controversial figure in European international relations. According to DUrso (2015), Metternich formed an alliance with some sections of major powers secretly that by the time they were signing the agreement of the Congress of Vienna he already secured remarkable favor and gains. Even though he succeeded in creating stability in the region, but he also manipulated Russia and Prussia, who disagreed with his opinions at the Congress, to support the dethrone of the Napoleon. As DUrso (2015) explains, Metternich's strategies successfully played a critical role in furthering the interests of Habsburg by ensuring that stability and balance of power existed. Metternich saw that if Russia and Prussia could have obtained Poland and Saxony respectively they would have become more powerful than Austrian government. Therefore, he saw an opportunity to be exploited between the two countries by disrupting their plans to acquire the two states. His statecraft skills enabled him to minimize the threats of invasion to Austria and keep stability in Europe.

According to Gady (2014), Austri...