Conservatism In The 19th Century

The 19th century was a great period when a wide variety of philosophies were developed that is still in existence to date. This was the era when the need to define and categorize ideas that would shape and structure the society came into mind. The world changed in a major way with the Enlightenment, French and American Revolution and the great Industrial Revolution being the greatest contributors. The greatest thinkers ever in time were being disturbed by the situation of the working class, and nobody knew what to expect for the future. Was the society going to be a better place or was it changing for the worse? New ideologies were seen at this point in time such as liberalism, nationalism, and socialism among others. The oldest among them all conservatism was still in operation throughout this period, we are going to have a look at Prince Clement Von Metternich exemplary character at the same time.
Conservatism is the political philosophy that is often seen to rely on the tradition in many senses, such as culture, religion, customs and beliefs of a particular people in the face of any external influence and is often critical of any proposal that would bring social change (Jost, 339).
Clement Von Metternich was such an individual who as a diplomat and a foreign minister, made sure the interests of his state were maintained. This was seen in action during the French upheaval when the French under Napoleon Bonaparte tried to enforce their power in Austria. As an Austrian ambassador to France in 1806, he was very keen and close to the French emperor. This came after the French had come in control of the Austrian Empire in a war that the Austrians
lost.
His role as an ambassador gave him a unique position where he acted as a close associate to the emperor. He was however on a mission to look for circumstances in which he and his country could use to regain power from the French. He saw the Emperor Napoleon very frequently and the more he observed the people, the closer he came to making his final conclusion. He was trusted and seen to be harmless to the French. This undercover arrangement made him realize how indiscipline the French were and Napoleon was just the right person to discipline them. Napoleon married an Austrian (as organized by Clement) in the process and with time he thought that the Austrians were their allies making them vulnerable. In the battle against the Russians, Austria joined forces with Russia, Britain, and Prussia to defeat the French (Metternich).
After the war, Clement continued with his operations as a diplomat maintaining the interests of his country Austria. As an example, he was instrumental in the preservation of the internal peace of Austria and its external power in the conference in Vienna. (Kraehe) His day to day kind of operation and enabled him to convince the allies to make an endorsement of Austria’s power in Italy and Central Europe. He was able to make Austria the house of the Lords of Europe on a condition that there will be no influence on their traditions and they will keep the commons down. In his effort as a foreign minister and as an ambassador to France, Clement managed to enforce the traditions of his country from external influence. He is a perfect example of the kind of individuals who upheld conservatism in the 19th century. He proved that in the face of external influence, it is still possible to fight it without altering the tradition (Sked).