Through a focus on any two …

Q. Through a focus on any two countries, explain how nations developed over the nineteenth century.
Answer:Italy became a nation because of efforts of Cavour. He made strategic alliances with France to defeat the Austrian forces. After several wars, the unification of Italy could become a possibility and it emerged as a nation state. 
Greece proclaimed independence from Ottoman Empire by citing its ancient culture which was entirely different from the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Many Greek who were in exile also supported this movement.
These examples show that various factors were at work towards development of nation states over the nineteenth century. In most of the cases, a history of shared culture, repression of the poor at the hands of the powerful and the origin of liberalism were the catalyst which worked towards developing the sense of nationalism among people.