The Revolt of 1848 was primarily the cause of country nationalists desiring a country without the influence of the Habsburgs. One such country was the Italian province of Lombardy-Venetia. Lombardy-Venetia was the only directly Austrian ruled state, thus causing dissatisfaction among the Italian residents within the state. With a mindset of being the only non-directly ruled Italian state, Lombardy-Venetia rebelled against its Austrian government. However, the greatest Italian resistance came from the Roman and Venetian Republics. Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, the two leaders of the resistance, momentarily succeeded, but eventually fell, after a blockade of Venice (Above Italy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848_in_the_Italian_states, http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/1848/italy_revolution.html). Thus, despite attempts to gain independence from the Habsburg Empire, the Italian Empires failed, ultimately bringing about much more oppressive government.
Deciding to follow its nationalistic patriots (Lajos Kossuth and Istvan Szechenyi), the Hungarians launched a full-fledged attack in order to become an independent nation. The Hungarians however, were largely unlike the Italians. The first of these differences, was the fact that Hungary was directly ruled by Austria. The second difference, was that unlike Italy, Hungary had its own army, not divided by individual states. Thus, Hungary provided a much more serious threat to the Habsburg Empire. However, as fate and a strong Habsburg Government would have it, the Hungarians failed in their attempt as well (Above Hungary: http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect07.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1848)
The Hungarians were strictly nationalists, as they firmly believed in controling their own government. The Magyars (Hungarians) believed they knew best how to govern their own people, as they shared not only language, but also background and culture. This concept of nationalism (groups of similar background and ethnicity should be compose their own nation) had its problems however, as was seen with the Slovakians.
Slovaks at this time were a peoples group that lived within the borders of Hungary. Slovaks introduced a “Demands of the Slovak Nation”, in which the Slovaks demanded the freedom of employing their own administration and education system. However, in a somewhat hypocritical move, the Hungarians momentarily turned their backs on the nationalistic Slovaks, and crushed the revolt that ensued after the rejection of “Demands of the Slovak Nation”. Slovakia essentially was the odd-country out, as it was a nation-group within another nation-group, in which both groups sought their own independence (Above Slovakia: http://countrystudies.us/czech-republic/14.htm)
Germany was by far the most predictable revolt location; as it was still the disorganized mess that was for centuries the country caught between two armies. German nationalists had been pushing for a unified German country decades before, but it was now, after an even larger suppression of liberties, that pushed Germany to the brink of independence. Unfortunately, after shortly driving out the Austrians, Germany was once again put under Habsburg rule, mostly due to the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament that had been put in place as a provisionary government. As with the rest their revolutionary counterparts, the Germans received harsher treatment than they had before (Above Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848_in_the_German_states, http://www.wpunj.edu/~history/study/ws2/set7b.htm).
Thus, the nationalist movement of revolts within 1848 backfired at the nationalists themselves. Instead of gaining a more liberal and independent government, the nationalists on succeeded in bringing about harsher treatment from the Habsburgs. As can be seen with the Slovakians, Nationalism itself was also a failure, as Hungarian Nationalists pushed for their own nation, yet rejected the Slovakian plea for its own nation. Germany’s revolt proved momentarily successful, yet when Austria returned to take what was theirs, Germany crumbled and became once again the disorganized unit it had been for centuries before. The Metternich system that Austria followed influenced Russia as well, creating two nations that brutally suppressed uprisings and revolts up until World War I.
