Italy

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   Restoration and the revolts of 1820 to 1831

   Event

   What happened

   At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the powers restore the old rulers of Italy, and Austria gains Lombardy and Venetia and influence over the other states. In 1820 and 1821 revolts in Naples and Piedmont demand constitutions, and Austrian troops help crush them. In 1830 and 1831 further risings break out in central Italy and are again put down.

   ↓ The rest is history

   These failures showed that local conspiracies, such as those of the secret Carbonari society, could not beat Austrian power. They pushed patriots toward wider national organisation and toward looking for foreign or Piedmontese help. They also made Austria appear to be the chief obstacle to Italian unity. This view shaped the movement for the next forty years.

   Sources

   1. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
   2. BookHearder, Harry. Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento 1790-1870. London: Longman, 1983.
2. 02

   Mazzini founds Young Italy

   Event

   What happened

   In 1831 Giuseppe Mazzini, an exile from Genoa, founds Young Italy in Marseille. It calls for a united republican Italy won by popular action, not by foreign help or princes. Its members, mostly young and middle class, spread its ideas through newspapers and secret networks. Uprisings it inspires, including an attempt in Savoy in 1834, fail.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Young Italy did not win Italy, but it made unity a mainstream political goal rather than a conspiracy of a few. Mazzini's writings shaped a generation, including Garibaldi, who joined the movement. Mazzini later led the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849. He remained a republican and refused to accept the monarchy that finally united Italy.

   Sources

   1. BookMack Smith, Denis. Mazzini. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
   2. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
3. 03

   The First War of Independence, 1848 to 1849

   Event

   What happened

   In March 1848 revolts in Milan and Venice drive out Austrian forces, and King Charles Albert of Piedmont declares war on Austria. His army is defeated at Custoza in July 1848 and again at Novara in March 1849, and he abdicates in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II. Elsewhere, a Roman Republic is declared in 1849 and is overthrown by French troops.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The war failed, but Piedmont kept its constitution, the Statuto Albertino of 1848, when other states abandoned theirs. This made it the one Italian state with a liberal government, and nationalists increasingly looked to its king. The defeats also convinced many that Italy needed strong armies and foreign allies. The Statuto later became the constitution of the united kingdom.

   Sources

   1. BookGinsborg, Paul. Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848-49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
   2. BookHearder, Harry. Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento 1790-1870. London: Longman, 1983.
4. 04

   Cavour and the alliance with France

   Event

   What happened

   Count Camillo di Cavour becomes prime minister of Piedmont in 1852 and builds up its economy, railways and army. He sends troops to the Crimean War in 1855, which wins Piedmont a place at the Paris peace congress of 1856. In July 1858 he meets Napoleon III at Plombières, where they agree to cooperate against Austria. The alliance is formalised in early 1859.

   ↓ The rest is history

   War with Austria began in April 1859. French and Piedmontese forces won at Magenta and Solferino, and Lombardy was ceded to Piedmont. Napoleon III then made a separate armistice at Villafranca in July, leaving Venetia under Austria, which angered Cavour. Even so, the war opened the way for central Italian states to join Piedmont in 1860.

   Sources

   1. BookMack Smith, Denis. Cavour. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985.
   2. BookBeales, Derek, and Eugenio Biagini. The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 2002.
5. 05

   Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand

   Event

   What happened

   In May 1860 Garibaldi sails from near Genoa with about a thousand volunteers and lands at Marsala in Sicily. He defeats Bourbon forces at Calatafimi and takes Palermo, then crosses to the mainland and enters Naples in September. Piedmontese troops move south through the Papal States and defeat papal forces at Castelfidardo. In October Garibaldi meets Victor Emmanuel II at Teano and hands over his conquests.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Plebiscites in the south and the centre approved annexation to Piedmont. The first Italian parliament met in Turin, and on 17 March 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of Italy. Cavour died in June 1861, only months after seeing his work completed. The south was joined with the north quickly, and its integration proved difficult.

   Sources

   1. BookRiall, Lucy. Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
   2. BookMack Smith, Denis. Garibaldi. London: Hutchinson, 1957.
6. 06

   The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, 1861

   Event

   What happened

   After the plebiscites of 1860, the new parliament meets in Turin in February 1861. On 17 March 1861 it passes a law naming Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy by the grace of God and the will of the nation. The new kingdom extends the Piedmontese constitution and laws across the peninsula. Venetia and Rome remain outside it, and Turin serves as the first capital.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The new state was highly centralised, and local autonomy was rejected in favour of the Piedmontese administrative model. The south saw a harsh military campaign against brigandage in the 1860s. Venetia joined in 1866 after the Austro-Prussian War, in which Italy fought as Prussia's ally. The capital moved to Florence in 1865 and to Rome in 1871.

   Sources

   1. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
   2. BookBeales, Derek, and Eugenio Biagini. The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 2002.
7. 07

   Venetia joins Italy, 1866

   Event

   What happened

   In April 1866 Italy allies with Prussia against Austria. Italian forces are beaten on land at Custoza and at sea at Lissa in June and July, even though Prussia wins decisively at Königgrätz. By the Treaty of Vienna in October 1866, Austria cedes Venetia to France, which passes it to Italy. A plebiscite in Venetia approves union.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Italy gained Venetia despite its military failures, which left a lasting sense of humiliation. Trentino and Trieste stayed Austrian, giving rise to the later irredentist movement. These claims were a major reason for Italy entering the First World War in 1915. Only Rome and its surroundings remained to be added to the kingdom.

   Sources

   1. BookHearder, Harry. Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento 1790-1870. London: Longman, 1983.
   2. BookBeales, Derek, and Eugenio Biagini. The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 2002.
8. 08

   The capture of Rome, 1870

   Event

   What happened

   French troops had protected the pope in Rome since 1849. When France withdraws its garrison in August 1870 at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, Italian forces move in. On 20 September 1870 they breach the walls at Porta Pia after a brief fight. A plebiscite approves annexation, and Rome becomes the capital in 1871.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Pope Pius IX refused to recognise the loss and declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican. Italy's Law of Guarantees of 1871 offered him privileges, but he rejected it. Catholics were discouraged from taking part in national politics for decades. The dispute, known as the Roman Question, ended only with the Lateran Treaties of 1929.

   Sources

   1. BookKertzer, David I. Prisoner of the Vatican. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
   2. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
9. 09

   Garibaldi's 'I obey' at Teano

   Popular belief

   The legend

   At Teano in October 1860, Garibaldi greets Victor Emmanuel II as King of Italy and hands over the south. The scene is shown in paintings and school textbooks as a moment of perfect harmony between the red-shirted hero and the king.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The meeting did take place on 26 October 1860, near Teano. Accounts of the exact words differ, and the famous greeting was shaped by later retelling, so no precise record of it is reliable. Relations were in fact tense. The king and Cavour distrusted Garibaldi's republican volunteers, who were soon sidelined, and Garibaldi withdrew to Caprera. The image of seamless harmony served the new state's wish for a unifying national story.

   Sources

   1. BookRiall, Lucy. Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
   2. BookMack Smith, Denis. Garibaldi. London: Hutchinson, 1957.
10. 10

    'We have made Italy, now we must make Italians'

    Popular belief

    The legend

    After unification, the statesman Massimo d'Azeglio is said to have declared, 'We have made Italy; now we must make Italians.' The line is often quoted as a summary of the new kingdom's central problem.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The sentiment is real, but the exact wording is probably a later paraphrase. In his memoirs, published after his death in 1866, D'Azeglio wrote that the first need of Italy was to form Italians of strong character. Whatever its wording, the remark points to a real problem. In 1861 only a small minority of people spoke standard Italian in daily life, and most used local dialects. Literacy was low, especially in the south, and national feeling had to be built through schooling, conscription and public symbols.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryD'Azeglio, Massimo. I miei ricordi. Italian memoirs, published posthumously, Florence, 1867.
    2. BookHobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
11. 11

    Garibaldi's Thousand were all heroic volunteers

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Italian national memory presents the Thousand as an army of idealists who freed the south on their own, with the people rising to welcome them. Their red shirts became a symbol of national sacrifice.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The volunteers were indeed brave and drawn mostly from northern towns, but they did not win alone. Local risings in Sicily helped them, and Bourbon forces were poorly led. British naval presence and secret Piedmontese support also mattered, and thousands more volunteers joined after landing. Many Sicilian peasants hoped for land reform, which the new government did not deliver, and disappointment fed later unrest. Historians now treat the expedition as a mix of heroic enterprise, local politics and diplomacy.

    Sources

    1. BookRiall, Lucy. Sicily and the Unification of Italy: Liberal Policy and Local Power, 1859-1866. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
    2. BookRiall, Lucy. Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.