The Unification of Italy & Germany

In 1850, neither Italy nor Germany existed. Look at a map of Europe from that year and where you expect to see two nations you find a mess. The Italian peninsula was carved into at least eight separate states: the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in the northwest, the Papal States slung across the center, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies covering the entire south, and a patchwork of duchies in between, several of them puppets of the Austrian Empire. The Austrian Habsburgs directly ruled Lombardy and Venetia, the two wealthiest regions in northern Italy. They intended to keep them.

Germany was worse. The German Confederation, created at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, contained thirty-nine sovereign states ranging from the formidable Kingdom of Prussia to tiny principalities whose entire territory you could ride across before lunch. Austria presided over this arrangement and liked it. A fragmented Germany meant Austria remained the dominant German-speaking power. Prussia, the other heavyweight, chafed under this arrangement but lacked the leverage to change it.

Twenty years later, both Italy and Germany were unified nation-states. The speed of this transformation is hard to overstate. Two of Europe's great powers materialized within a single generation. The Congress of Vienna's careful balance of power, maintained for decades through diplomacy and occasional repression, was shattered beyond repair.