The states, sure, but the people? Some of them still felt a little betrayed after 1848. While the discussion about why Scandinavian unification never happened

The states, sure, but the people? Some of them still felt a little betrayed after 1848. While the discussion about why Scandinavian unification never happened, while Italian and German did, is indeed an interesting one, the broader point is that I do not believe it is reasonable to say either the Italian and German ones were inevitable. It was by no means certain in 1820 that Prussia would be able to beat Austria over German hegemony, hence whether it was probably not inevitable. The article kind of asks whether German unification the way it happened was inevitable. It is not unreasonable to think of a timeline where Austria learns some real lessons of 1848, and becomes a political powerhouse, while Prussia withers.