Metternich was an Austrian Statesman who dominated the politics of Europe from 1815 to 1848 so much that this period is called the “Age of Metternich” and his policies are called the “Metternich System”.
Metternich stood for ultraconservative and absolutist politics. He set up an oppressive police state within the Empire in order to maintain the old absolutistic monarchy. It was the age of censorship, bureaucratic interference, spies and occasional arrests for expressing revolutionary thoughts. This early dictatorship came to be known later as the Metternich system.
On the one hand, Metternich’s politics saved the Habsburg Empire from crumbling in the early 19th century. On the other hand, the Austrian chancellor became the most hated man of Austria-Hungary.
