pYears before he was Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Henry Kissinger wrote iA World Restoredi to understand and explain one of history's most important and dramatic periods-a time when Europe went from political chaos to a balanced peace that lasted for almost a hundred years.p pAfter the fall of Napoleon, European diplomats gathered in a festive Vienna with the task of restoring stability following the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The central figures at the Congress of Vienna were the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Viscount Castlereagh and the Foreign Minister of Austria Klemens Wenzel von Mettern Metternich. Castlereagh was primarily concerned with maintaining balanced powers, while Metternich based his diplomacy on the idea of legitimacy-that is, establishing and working with governments that citizens accept without force. The peace they brokered lasted until the outbreak of World War I.p pThr