The post-revolution state emerged strengthened, and the Crimean War indicated that war as a means to state aggrandisement was very much back in the repertoire of governmental action. Louis Napoleon's Imperial France led the way. Britain was an impressive imperial, commercial, and liberal power; but constraints on its executive were beginning to tell on its international room for manoeuvre. The race-question and civil war made the USA less than an altogether enticing model. Austrian neo-absolutism suffered from its lack of constitutionalism, and after being humbled in international relations turned to a parliamentary settlement of sorts (the 1867 Ausgleich). Piedmont, led by Count Cavour, combined constitutionalism, commercialism, war-making, and international politicking to good effect in its drive to unite Italy under its aegis.