Under the guidance of the influential foreign minister of austria, prince klemens von metternich (1773-1859), the congress dismantled napoleon's empire, returned sovereignty to europe's royal families, restored them to the thrones they had lost during the napoleonic era, and created a diplomatic order based on athat prevented any one state from dominating the others.

Metternich was educated privately by a series of tutors until the age of fifteen, when his studies were continued at the universities of Strasbourg (Philosophy 1788-90) and Mainz (Law and Diplomacy 1790-2). His education at Strasbourg was interrupted by the French revolution, he personally witnessed revolutionary turmoils in that city, at Mainz he received first hand accounts from many French émigrés as to what they had endured because of the French revolution. From 1792 Metternich was brought into diplomatic circles through involvement with his father's being an Austrian Diplomat in Brussels. Metternich subsequently spent some time in England. In 1794 the Metternich family fled the revolutionary French armies to Vienna the capital city of the Austrian Habsburgs. In September 1795 Metternich married a twenty year old heiress, the Countess Eleanor Kaunitz, who was a grand-daughter of the Austrian Chancellor. She suited Metternich in that she was rich and accepted at the very heart of Viennese society, and was as prepared as Metternich himself was for their future together in an "open" marriage.