Italian Unification

Italian Unification

Italy to 1850

Disunified, competing city-states

1815 Congress of Vienna: Metternich’s Austria took Lombardy and Venetia

Giuseppe Mazzini(socialist) fight Metternich on the principles of

  • Radical Italian patriotism
  • Centralized democratic republic
  • Universal male suffrage

Many middle class nationalist Italians saw him as ^^too radical^^. They were still seeking a monarch

Mazzini lost the support of Pope Pius IX after the scary 1848 revolution

Papal states were ruled by the Pope

Northern Italy was ^^several small states^^ led by Austrian Habsburg

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was ruled by a Bourbon monarchy

Gioberti wished for unity under the Pope

  • He was Catholic priest

Many sought unification under the leadership of the ^^Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia^^

  • Liberal monarch

King Victor Emmanuel ruled under a liberal constitution

  • Strong monarchy with a parliament and some civil liberties

Count Camillo de Cavour: Brilliant leader of Sardinian Government

  • Publicly attacked clerical privileges(made enemies with the Pope)

Franco-Sardinian War

Secret Alliance with ^^Napoleon III^^

  • “Help me kick out the Austrians from northern Italy, and I’ll give France Savoy and Nice”

Cavour tricks Austria into attacking him first and the war begins

After fearing political backlash from French conservatives for supporting liberal Cavour, Napoleon ^^betrays his secret alliance^^ with Cavour, signs a secret treaty with the Austrians to end the war

  • Piedmont: Sardinia only received Lombardy, Venetia remained in Austria hands
  • Cavour, furious with Napoleon III, retires in disgust

Italian Nationalism

Pro-Sardinians in central Italy toppled their rulers and pledge allegiance to Piedmont-Sardinia

Cavour emerges from retirement, re-energized to continue the fight, much to the dismay of Napoleon III

For Napoleon III’s cooperation to stay out of it, he is given Savoy and Nice

Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia has central Italy

Garibaldi and the Red Shirts

Giuseppe Garibaldi fought alongside the radical Mazzini in 1848

He hated the Austrians just like Cavour, but didn’t fully support Piedmont-Sardinia uniting all of Italy

  • Too conservative; wanted a republic, not a monarchy

Garibaldi successfully attacked and ^^removed the Bourbons^^ from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

  • His men were called the “==Red shirts==”

To the fear of Cavour, he then crossed into Naples to take Rome

  • Cavour(moderate Italian nationalist) knew that if Garibaldi(radical Italian nationalist) attacked the Papal States, Napoleon III(conservative French nationalist) would intervene on behalf of the Pope

Cavour Stops Garibaldi

October 26, 1860

Cavour halts Garibaldi, pleads him to hold a vote amongst Italians rather than invade Rome

  • People choose Piedmont-Sardinia’s leadership: Liberal monarchy
  • Garibaldi accepts the people’s vote and steps down for King Emmanuel

Italy(minus Venetia) was now a United parliamentary monarchy

  • Propertied classes ruled(liberalism)

Internal Weakness for the New Italian Nation

A poverty-stricken south was led- and treated with contempt- by an industrializing north, leading to sectional differences, tweaking a sense of Italian community

The Catholic Church, which had lost control of the Papal States, refused to accept the existence of the new state

Many lacked a feeling of empowerment as only 10% of the population could vote by ^^1882^^

The government experienced extensive corruption among its officials