Italy and Germany were not unified by the liberals and romantics who imagined them. They were unified by two conservative statesmen who treated morality, legality and public opinion as resources to be spent. Take a seat at Cavour’s desk or Bismarck’s, decide each real crisis, and watch what your choice buys in power and costs in principle.
1855
Your ledger
State power gained0
Constitutional and moral principle0
Every decision below actually landed on one of these two desks. Choose, and this column will tell you what the statesman really did, why, and what your alternative would have produced.