Even powerful states such as Prussia, Hanover, and Bavaria had been affected to some extent by the surging tide of public opinion.
In fact, even an empire like Austria had once been held hostage by it. Prussia's troubles, however, had mainly been stirred up by Franz.
Franz had consistently supported the Archbishop of Cologne. His original aim had simply been to let Prussia get a taste of what it meant to have a dual system of government.
Note: at this time, the Rhineland did not border the Kingdom of Prussia proper, and most of it had been acquired as spoils of the Napoleonic Wars.
The people of the region were mostly Catholic, while the King of Prussia was Protestant. The Archbishop of Cologne had been arguing with the House of Hohenzollern over this for decades.
The latter, however, had no good solution. Apart from a few Prussian nobles like Krupp, no one else there really cared, which was why Bavaria had always eyed the Rhineland covetously.
Franz had funded the Archbishop of Cologne to make trouble for Prussia, but the archbishop had deftly combined religion with nationalism.
Now there was a problem. Nationalists were usually suppressed by their own governments, but Prussia lacked the overwhelming advantage in the Rhineland needed to crush the Archbishop of Cologne, and could only seek a compromise. Austria, meanwhile, could never interfere in this way on Prussian soil.
Quite apart from whether Prussia would allow it, Austria could not withstand the international fallout. At best, it would be branded the reactionary ringleader; at worst, a coalition would form against it.
And so no one in the Rhineland could keep the Archbishop of Cologne in check. He had become the very image of a leader of the German Nation, and his background as a missionary gave