AND DELIVER US FROM EVIL: PRINCE METTERNICH ON Matt Wehmeier Department of History, Carthage College Celebration of Scholars 2015: Exposition of Student & Faculty Research, Scholarship &Creativity

Abstract Conclusions To Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, the and its aftermath •Metternich’s perspective on the French Revolution was represented not only a dire threat to conservative rule in , but to the very fabric of directly influenced by his experience as a young man and society. Metternich saw revolution as an ultimate evil, a horror which could only destroy. the negative impact on his family in the 1790s

Current historiography focuses heavily on Metternich’s actions before, during, and following •Metternich viewed revolution both as a moral evil and as the Congress of , and on the realities of the “Metternich System,” the conservative a scourge to be combated pragmatically program he outlined to prevent future revolution. This historiography ignores almost entirely Metternich’s true motivation in campaigning so vehemently against revolution, however, is •To Metternich, and the almost completely ignored. My research focuses on Metternich’s thought process during the was both the embodiment and natural outcome of the Figure 1. Descriptive caption here. years 1789-1830, more specifically dealing with his perspective on the French Revolution French Revolution and its aftermath, and on revolution in general. •Metternich saw conspirators everywhere after 1815, both where they existed and where they did not Methodology Over the course of this project I reviewed numerous secondary sources as well as the •It was Metternich’s contention in the 1830s that a published Memoirs of Prince Metternich and its German-language counterpart Aus conspiracy of Frenchmen, later aided by the July Metternichs Nachgelassenen Papieren. From this research I concluded that Metternich saw Monarchy, was responsible for nearly all European revolution both as a threat to conservative order and as a moral evil, changing agitation in Europe after 1815. form constantly from the French Revolution through Napoleon to pre-1848 revolutionary agitation. •Metternich’s censorship focused on the universities and the press; he attempted to limit both to preserve safety Figure 1. Prince Klemens Wenzel von and order in Europe Metternich. Image courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation. “I considered the Revolution, as it burst forth in in 1789, as the starting-point of all the misfortunes of Europe, and I clearly perceived that a military despotism, which found its highest expression in Napoleon, was its inevitable result.” -Prince Metternich, from “Metternich’s Memoirs,” Volume I

Acknowledgements & References A special thank you to my thesis advisor Professor Stephanie Mitchell, and to Professors Stephen Udry, John Leazer and Eric Pullin for their help and support in this project.

Special acknowledgements to Dr. Eric Hobsbawm, Dr. Henry Kissinger, and Dr. Paul Figures 2. and 3. “La Liberté guidant le peuple” (Eugène Delacroix, 1830) and März 1848 (Artist unknown) Schroeder for their contributions to the field of Metternich studies and to my research. depicting the of 1830 and 1848, respectively. Images courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation.