The options of the question are, a) Germany would have split into multiple nation-states. b) Germany would have been defeated by France in the war. c) Germany would not have achieved unification as quickly. d) Germany would have adopted a new liberal Constitution.
The correct answer is c) Germany would not have achieved unification as quickly.
Germany most likely had been different between 1848 and 1881 by not having achieved unification as quickly, if Prussia had not belonged to the German Confederation.
The German Confederation was comprised of 39 states, resulted after the Convention of Vienna. If Prussia –an important region for the Germans- had not belonged to the German Confederation the unification wouldn’t be achieved so rapidly. Prussia defeated Austria in 1866, in the war of the Seven Weeks, and Prussia created the North German Confederation.