The New York Times summarized its views of German nationalism shortly after the outbreak of the Austro Prussian war in 1866:
There is, in political geography, no Germany proper to speak of. There are Kingdoms and Grand Duchies, and Duchies and Principalities, inhabited by Germans, and each separately ruled by an independent sovereign with all the machinery of State. Yet there is a natural undercurrent tending to a national feeling and toward a union of the Germans into one great nation, ruled by one common head as a national unit.
Although the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen fought with the Kingdom of Prussia, the Principlaity of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt remained neutral in this war, as did the grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
Talks between these German states had failed in 1848 to establish a unified German nation.
In 1871, Bismarck used the prestige gained from the victory of the Franco Prussian war to declare the German Empire, in which the Kingdom Prussia became the dominant power. The Austrian Empire included many places inhabited for centuries by Germans.