The Legacy of 1848 643tence of many other separate states, and the indifference of most people to
Italian nationalism remained daunting obstacles to Italian unification. Even
in failure, however, the revolutions in the Italian states had only made Ital
ian nationalists more determined to work for national unification. Likewise,
the defeat of the Hungarian and Bohemian revolutions, as well as the failure
of the radical revolution in Vienna, by no means ended challenges to the
Habsburg monarchy.
The Revolutions of 1848 accentuated support for German nationalism.
A Prussian minister recognized that “the old times are gone and cannot
return. To return to the decaying conditions of the past is like scooping
water with a sieve.” The revolution did produce a Prussian constitution and
an elected assembly, however, which the king only slightly modified in
1849—1850, when he again took control. The failure of the Revolutions of
1848 in Central Europe suggested to many Germans that unification could
only be achieved under the auspices of either Prussia or Austria. German
unification under any auspices would potentially entail a drastic change in
the European state system, altering the balance of power, especially in Cen
tral Europe.