The peace settlement’s domestic side was much less moderate. In 1815, under Metternich’s leadership, Austria, Prussia, and Russia formed the Holy Alliance, dedicated to crushing the ideas and politics of the revolutionary era within their borders and across Europe. Metternich’s policies dominated the entire German Confederation of thirty-eight independent German states, which the Vienna peace settlement had created (Map 24.1). It was through the German Confederation that Metternich had the repressive Karlsbad Decrees issued in 1819. These decrees required the member states to root out radical ideas in their universities and newspapers, and a permanent committee was established to investigate and punish any liberal or radical organizations.

Adhering to a conservative political philosophy, Metternich believed that human nature was prone to error, excess, and self-serving behavior and that strong governments were needed to protect society from its worst instincts. Born into the landed nobility, Metternich zealously defended his caste and its privileges. The nobility was one of Europe’s most ancient institutions, and conservatives regarded tradition as the basic source of human institutions. Like many European conservatives of his time, Metternich believed that liberalism, as embodied in revolutionary America and France, had been responsible for a generation of war with untold bloodshed and suffering. He blamed liberal revolutionaries for stirring up the lower classes, which he believed desired nothing more than peace and quiet.

Another belief that Metternich opposed, which was often allied with liberalism, was nationalism, the idea that each national group had a right to establish its own independent government. The Habsburgs’ Austrian Empire was a dynastic state dominated by Germans but containing many other national groups, including Magyars (Hungarians), Czechs, Italians, Poles, Ukrainians, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and Romanians. This multinational state was both strong and weak. It was strong because of its large population and vast territories, but weak because of its many and potentially dissatisfied nationalities. In these circumstances, Metternich opposed both liberalism and nationalism, for Austria could not accommodate those ideologies and remain a powerful empire. Metternich’s antinationalist efforts were supported by the two great multinational empires on Austria’s borders, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.