CHAPTER III.
THE REVOLUTION.
1847-1852.
Bismarck was a subject of the King of Prussia, but Prussia was after all only one part of a larger unit; it was a part of Germany.

At this time, however, Germany was little more than a geographical expression.

The medieval emperors had never succeeded in establishing permanent authority over the whole nation; what unity there had been was completely broken down at the Reformation, and at the Revolution the Empire itself, the symbol of a union which no longer existed, had been swept away.

At the restoration in 1815 the reorganisation of Germany was one of the chief tasks before the Congress of Vienna.

It was a task in which the statesmen failed.