Assess the importance of nationalism in the unification of Germany until 1866.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Assess the importance of nationalism in the unification of Germany until 1866.

Nationalism was important to the unification of Germany until 1866 to some extent. Around the beginning of the 19th century, Germany was a collection of 23 million people divided into 314 states varying in size (Farmer, page 141, line 3). Nationalism was an important factor in bringing about unification in these states. However, there are other factors, such as liberalism and economic development, which will be discussed later. All these factors- nationalism, liberalism, and economic development contributed to the unification of Germany in 1871. Thi

Nationalism was the reason Germany became united. Without nationalism among the common German people, both Prussia and Austria would have no force to unite them under. Nationalism made Germans realize their identity as a nation, thus wish for unification. This was done, for example, with The Wartburg Festival of 1817, where fewer than 500 students attended. Later, there was the Hambach Festival in 1832 where 25,000 people attended. As you can see from the above, the explanation is this: nationalism did not exist at the start- it grew because of the other factors which will be discussed in later