the first decade of the century. Carr writes that the forces at work in Prussia were at work throughout Europe. Nationalism and liberalism were the most powerful of these forces, but modernization, urbanization, population growth, advanced communications and education, weakening of the Church's hold over the people--all these disruptions, good and bad, created a Germany ready for the inevitable turbulent change to come.
The impact of the French Revolution also deeply affected the Germans and in fact all Europeans. Political and military revolution was in the air. All that was missing in Germany was the leader capable of inspiring the nation, its people and its army. That leader would be Bismarck.
The three wars were preceded by revolutions in 1830 and 1848-49, upheavals which were not comparable to the revolution in France but which were indicative of the general turbulence and dissatisfaction in the country. For example, the 1848-49 revolution merely resulted in a temporary takeover by the liberals from the princes.
The revolutions did, however, politicize the populace and make obvious that some powerful leader would be necessary to bring together the many deep divisions in the nation. National unification had been a major political issue, but it was not until the French attack on Austria and Italy in 1859 that nationalistic sentiment solidified into the belief that unity was necessary for security:
Many Germans feared that if France won in Northern Italy she would then seize the Rhineland. The failure of Austria and Prussia to combine against this threat exposed very clearly the military weakness of the Confederation [of German states] and strengthened the growing feeling that a strong Reich was a categorical imperative to enable Germany to resist the hereditary foe [i.e., France].
By the 1860s, then, the states that would be formed through wars into united Germany were being pummeled by forces from within an...