Conservative leaders, such as Austrian foreign minister Metternich, contained their cue from Edmund Burke, who, as early as 1790, tried to discredit France's vast experiment in his publication; reflections on the Revolution in France. Conservative-minded people tended to regard the notions of freedom, brotherhood, and a society without class distinctions as a mere illusion that inevitably leads to anarchy. They blamed liberalism for the quarter-century of war and the chaos that arose, and consequently, were resolutely against any doctrine that carried the liberal taint. Preferably, they argued for an "organic society which stressed wisdom, continuity, and the superiority of such time-tested institutions as the church and the aristocracy."
During the 1814-1848 period, Metternich and his conservative counterparts (was supported by hereditary monarchs, government bureaucracies, landowning aristocracies, and all revived churches) rallied Europeans of all classes around the principle of legitimacy, which, among other views. Which favored obedience to political authority, believed that organized religion was critical to social order, despised rebel upheavals, and was unwilling to accept either the liberal demands for civil liberties and representative governments or the nationalist aspirations generated by the French revolutionary era.
The Age of Enlightenment observes a rise in moral, one of them being classical liberalism. Its roots discovered back to John Locke, a political philosopher of the 18th century. His conception of legitimacy, as opposed to that of conservatives', entails the radical notion that leading division gets consent from the ruled, which must always be present for a governing class to stay legitimate. During the 1814-1848 period, liberalism as a philosophical idea internationally acknowledged as a vigorous opponent to conservatism. Liberals generally advocated for modern and efficient self-government, although they were not customarily for universal male suffrage. They advocated for freedom of the press and the assembly, were proponents of constitutions, and Laissez-Faire economic policies, such as independent trade and low tariffs.
The Austrian Empire was a multinational empire made up of various ethnic groups. In this case, Legitimacy seemed to be the only principle able to keep the kingdom in place. Still, the tensions between the conservatives and the liberals steered the course towards revolutionary agitation. Metternich worked to suppress all dissident elements within the empire, strengthen the monarchy, and assert its leadership in European affairs. As a result, his reputation as an oppressor gained massive credibility as the conservative policies had restricted freedom of the press, limited many university activities, and banned fraternities. Not long after, various protests against the conservative policies arose. The liberal movements, which strongly criticized Metternich's government during the 1814-1848 period, merely advocated for relaxed censorship, freedom of religion, economic freedoms, and, above all, a more competent administration.
However, Metternich's appeals went to ignore as time went on, as his domestic affairs influence weakened remarkably. Creating a "state conference" to rule the monarchy further reduced his influence, allowing economic liberalism to gain ground as restrictions on creative enterprises, especially those engaged in commerce, lifted. Consequently, the empire began experiencing its first sustained industrial development. Agricultural producers started focusing on production for profit, and the economic developments witnessed were aided by the emergence of infrastructures of railroads and water transport.