Over the nineteenth century the patchwork of dynastic states and city-republics in Italy and the German lands was consolidated into unified nation-states, Italy proclaimed in 1861 and the German Empire in 1871. The new states centralised administration, law, currency and military service and adopted official languages and national capitals. They invested in railways, public buildings, capital-city extensions and monuments intended to express national identity, from Rome's post-1870 ministries to imperial Berlin. The nation-state became the dominant frame within which planning, infrastructure and citizenship were organised.
Unification made the centralised nation-state the standard container of urban policy, tying capital cities, infrastructure and monumental building to the project of national identity.