The French revolution and the Napoleonic wars had shaken Europe, and Europe felt international cooperation was needed. Napoleon was born from the revolution and seized lands west of France. Napoleon also opened the door of liberalism and nationalism to France and the other countries he had seized. Later Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Prussia, Austria, Russia and Great Britain got together to discuss the future of europe. These countries did not want anything like the French revolution to happen again, they also did not want a country becoming too overpowered. They wanted to create a balance of power, and to restore Europe back to the Pre Napoleonic era. The Congress of Vienna was one of the first times that an intentional group has come together in a single place to discuss Europe’s future. The host of the Congress of Vienna was Austria’s foreign minister Klemens Von Metternich. His influence on European affairs was called the age of Metternich. Metternich was a conservative who regarded liberalism and nationalism as threats for Austria and the rest of europe. He advocated aggressive intervention in any country that threatened conservative order. Metternich also believed that nationalism had to be repressed to maintain the status quo. One way his influence went into the Congress of Vienna, was that he managed to convince his international colleagues to accept many conservative principles, rather than liberalistic principles. Metternich’s goal was to restore lawful monarchs that had ruled before Napoleon’s reign. He wanted to keep peace and stability in Europe by doing this. This was called the principle of legitimacy. This was the main goal of the Congress of Vienna, for representatives of European nation’s to re-establish the old order after the defeat of Napoleon. Because of Metternich’s conservative views, a few rules were placed upon France. The key principles that were established at Vienna were, the balance of power/compensation, legitimacy and the encirclement of France. Legitimacy restored monarchs back on their thrones and it put the government back to the way it was, under reactionary and conservative rules. For compensation, France was reduced back to its original 1790 borders, and lastly, balance of power ordered that no single European power was able to dominate others. If anything, they wanted to prevent another Napoleon figure from ever conquering Europe again. Liberalism and nationalism were blocked as liberal and nationalist uprising is what opened the door to Napoleon in the first place. This was all due to Metternich’s influence from the principle of legitimacy which eventually led up to the creation of the Congress of Vienna.  Metternich has changed the way European politics rules with his ideas of balance of power, and returning the old ways back to politics and society. We can even see the effects of it today.