Already in the 1840s rival nationalisms were beginning to rub up against one another. This was above all the case in east-central Europe, where the revolutions in Berlin and Vienna gave a powerful stimulus to movements for national unity and autonomy. These movements in turn were to have a major effect on the further development of the revolutions in Germany and Austria, opening up massive contradictions between liberalism and nationalism and giving conservatives and reactionaries the opportunity to recover the initiative.
