Oh how finally one understand the ideas of Conservatism! An Austrian foreign minister named Metternich became the leader of the Congress of Vienna. He was guided by the principle of legitimacy, where he believed that in order to achieve peace in Europe he must restore legitimate monarchs who would preserve traditional systems. This is one of the chief ideas of Conservatism. With this goal he restored the Bourbons in France and Spain, and other rulers in the Italian states. He along with the Congress of Vienna pursued a policy of a balance of power. This meant that no one country would dominate Europe. He believed that France might become too powerful so he enlarged the area of Prussia and established a larger kingdom of Netherlands to the north of the border. Metternich saw revolts occurring throughout the Italian states; this led him to create the principle of intervention. The principle of intervention allowed the great powers of Europe to intervene in foreign affairs. The reason he did this was to ensure that legitimate monarchs would remain in power and not be threatened by revolts. I was very delighted to hear this because Metternich applied the ideas of Conservatism to places elsewhere of Europe. In Naples, European forces crushed revels and restored Ferdinand I back to the throne. In Spain troops restored the Bourbon monarch by crushing the revolt against Ferdinand VII. Metternich successfully used the ideas of Conservatism and restored legitimate monarchs. This goes to show that Conservatism is the only ideology that works.
No comments:
Post a Comment