ABSTRACT
The Revolutions of 1848 and 1849 had been a great disappointment to all liberals in Germany and Europe. Nothing of what liberalism desired had been won. Austria still ruled over her variegated populations with despotic sway. In Germany no approximation had been made to national unity nor to a central elective parliament. United Germany, like united Italy, was to be made by war and diplomacy and not by the spontaneous initiative of the liberal nationalist movement. Political interest was reconcentrated in the official and ruling classes and the rest of Germany retired from politics.
