During the years following 1815, the fear of repression drove many liberal-nationalists underground. Secret societies sprang up in many European states to train revolutionaries and spread their ideas.
The Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states. Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.