Lesson One: The Unification of Italy

(1848-1871)
CAUSES OF ITALIAN UNIFICATION

- For most of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, the territory that makes up modern

Italy was a fragmented region often under the control of monarchs elsewhere in Europe.

- While the POPE carved out states around ROME as his own personal kingdom,

Northern and Southern Italy often alternated between local rule and periods under control

by foreign powers like:

- Austria,

- Spain,

- France, and

- The Holy Roman Empire

- This political reality had created large regional differences between different parts of

the peninsula but most of the regions still came from a similar ethnic background and

shared similar customs and the Italian language.

a detonator, and was completed in 1871 when ROME became the capital.

NOTE:

The last Italian territories under foreign rule did not join the Kingdom of Italy under

1918, after Italy finally defeated Austria-Hungary in WWI.

- During the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and proceeded to

conquer the Italian states. Italy became part of the French Empire and thus imbibed the

ideals of the French Revolution which promoted LIBERTY, EQUALITY,

FRATERNITY and PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS.

- In the first decades of the 19th century, Italian nationalism grew in the peninsula, and

calls for a united Italian state grew in aristocratic and intellectual sides.

- Early groups which wanted more rights and liberalism from their foreign rulers

eventually organized themselves in the 1830's into the group.

Example:

- The charismatic leader Giuseppe Mazzini established the "Young Italy". Mazzini not

only wanted a unified Italy, but also a republic.

- Mazzini resolved the only way to achieve this was through revolution. In 1848, he

called for a PAN-ITALIAN revolution. But his effort finally failed.

- Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian politician, journalist, activist for the unification of

Italy and spearhead of the Italian Revolutionary movement.

- to achieve his goal, Mazzini organized a new political society called "YOUNG ITALY"

(Giovani Italia).

- YOUNG ITALY was a secret society formed to promote Italian Unification.

- Mazzini believed that a popular uprising would create a UNIFIED ITALY.

NOTE:

The YOUNG ITALY's moto were:

1. "God and the People"

2. "One, Free, Independent, Republican Nation"

("One, Independent, Free Republic")

- The establishment of the YOUNG ITALY, led to the birth of other young based

movements in Europe and Asia.

EXAMPLE: - "Young Poland"

- "Young Switzerland"

- "Young Europe"

- "Young Germany"
 - "Young Turks"

- Mazzini organized riots in different provinces of Italy like Sicily, Abruzzi, Tuscany,

Lombardy, Venetia, and Bologna.

- Mazzini edited the propagandist journal GIOVINE ITALIA, which was smuggled into

Italy with other revolutionary pamphlets.

B. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)

- Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi was an Italian general, patriot and republican. He contributed

to the Italian unification and the creation of the KINGDOM OF ITALY.

- Garibaldi was also known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military

enterprises in SOUTH AMERICA and EUROPE.

- Garibaldi was a follower of the Italian nationalist Mazzini. After participating and

leading in an uprising in Piedmont, he was SENTENCED TO DEATH, but he escaped to

South America and spent 14 years in exile, taking part in several wars and learning the art

of GUERRILLA WARFARE.

- In 1848, Garibaldi returned to Italy and commanded and fought in military campaigns

that eventually led to Italian unification.

- He was one of the founders and leaders of the ACTION PARTY.

- Garibaldi organized and led about a thousand volunteers called the "THOUSANDS" or

the "RED SHIRTS" to several rebels in Italy.

- Cavour was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian

unification.

- He was a Prime Minister of the kingdom of PIEDMONT-SARDINIA and after the

declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, he took office as the first Prime Minister of

Italy (even though he died after only three months in office).

- After Cavour became Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1852, he successfully

negotiated Piedmont's way through the:

- the Crimean War,

- the Second Italian War of Independence, and

- Garibaldi's expedition.

- Because of his brilliant leadership quality, Piedmont became a new great power in

Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had

been before he came to power.

- He founded the political newspaper called RISORGIMENTO.

- Cavour believed that ECONOMIC PROGRESS had to precede (advance) political

change.

STEPS TO THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY

side of the CRIMEAN WAR, using the peace conference to give international publicity

to the Italian unification.

NOTE:

The CRIMIAN WAR was a military conflict fought from OCTOBER 1853 to

FEBRUARY 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance made up of France, the Ottoman

Empire, the United Kingdom and Sardinia.

- In 1858, Cavour formed an alliance with France, on that included a pledge of military

support if necessary against Austria, Italy's major obstacle to the unification.

- After a planned provocation of Vienna, Austria declared war against Sardinia in 1859

and was easily defeated by the French army.

- The peace agreement signed in November 1859 in ZURICH, SWITZERLAND. On the

agreement:

- LOMBARDY, a former Austrian province, joined with SARDINIA.

- In turn, France received SAVOY and NICE from Italy - a small price to pay for

arranging the way to unification.

- Inspired by Cavour's success against Austria, revolutionary assemblies in the central

Italian provinces like Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and Romagna voted in favor of

unification with Sardinia in the summer of 1859.

SHIRTS) to un unified provinces of SOUTHERN ITALY. By the end of the year,

Garibaldi had liberated SICILY and NAPLES which together made the KINGDOM OF

THE TWO SICILIES.

- At the same time, Cavour ordered Sardinian troops into the PAPAL STATES.

- After securing important victories over the PAPAL STATES and the KINGDOM OF

NAPLES, Cavour organized plebiscites or popular votes to annex NAPLES to

SARDINIA.

- In 1861, Italy was declared a united nations state under the Sardinian king VICTOR

EMMANUEL II. After this, the real political system continued to work for the new

Italian nation.

- In this regard when Prussia (the late Germany) defeated Austria in a war in 1866, Italy

stuck a deal with Berlin forcing Vienna to turn over VENETIA.

- In addition, when France lost a war to PRUSSIA in 1870, Victor Emmanuel II took over

ROME. When French troops left the entire boot of Italy, the area was united once under

one crown of Sardinia.