Unifications of Nations

The separate unifications of the Italian and German states provide us with many interesting similarities. The nationalist movements in both eventual countries were driven primarily by one of the many states that would later comprise each country. These specific states, Piedmont-Sardinia in Italy and Prussia in Germany, were the top political, military, and economic powers in their respective regions, and they initiated both the military and diplomatic maneuvers that enabled their countries to eventually unify. Furthermore, the unification in each country was, for the most part, a form of top-down nationalism. The governments in Piedmont-Sardinia and Prussia, and their monarchs in particular, had rejected the previous attempts at unification during the 1848 revolutions, specifically Mazzini’s Republican movement and, as I mentioned in a previous post, a constitutional monarchy that Frederick William IV considered “too liberal” (Coffin 749). These monarchs were willing to support Nationalism, but they wanted to do it on their own terms and to establish a state of their liking. What do these similarities all mean, though? I think these comparisons complement my last post on Conservatism. It was still around after 1848, but it did have to adapt a bit by co-opting nationalist movements.