In particular, the two countries whose problems drove much of the need for twentieth-century European integration – Germany and Italy – were culturally and politically highly diverse. In both countries, early-nineteenth-century romantic nationalism gave way to a sober obsession with economic forces after the failed revolutions of 1848.
所有这些让人们想起了19世纪关于民族一体化和统一的强有力的观点。特别是，德国和意大利的问题是20世纪欧洲一体化需要的重要原因，这两个国家在文化上和政治上都十分多元化。1848年革命失败后，这两个国家19世纪初的浪漫民族主义让位给了对经济实力的清醒的沉迷。