Chapter 15 : Reaction and Nationalism During the 1800s, the concept of nationalism encouraged some people to try to unify small, individual states into one nation. Others fought to break free from large empires. In 1861 the individual territories of Italy joined to form a single country under a constitutional monarchy. Prussia, under the prime minister Otto von Bismarck, used diplomacy and military force to create a German Empire by 1871. Russia under Czar Alexander II was resistant to both nationalism and democracy. Although the czar did institute some changes—such as freeing the serfs—the peasants' lot was not much improved, and Alexander was assassinated. Political repression returned under his successors. The Austrian Empire also tried to resist political change, but its defeat in a war with Prussia led the emperor to give Hungary equal standing.