HP102 Tutorial Participation

AS and A Level History

Italy; what inspired the formation of the nation-state of Italy in the nineteenth century?

Italian unification (called in Italy, the Risorgimento, or Resurgence) was the political and social process that unified disparate countries of the Italian peninsula into the single nation of Italy during the 19th century.

After the defeat of the Napoleonic France in the early nineteenth century, the congresses of Vienna (1815) redrew the European continent. This restored Austrian domination over the Italian peninsula and the rest of Italy to become completely fragmented.

The emergence of Italian liberals afterwards was very prominent to the Italian unification. This includes Giussepe Mazzini, the apostle of Italian unity, and Giussepe Garibaldi. Among the more conservative constitutional monarchic figures, Count Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II, later the first King of a unified Italy, were also important.

Victor Emmanuel replaced his father, King Charles Albert as King of Piedmont where he began to make significant changes that were contributed to the Italian unification. For instance, in 1850, he promulgated the Siccardi laws written by Cavour, limiting the powers of the church by abolishing church courts, permitting civil marriage, and restricting the number of church holidays. These led nationalists such as Garibaldi and Manin to recognize the leadership of Piedmont.

When Cavour became premier in 1852, he began to boost these changes further like improving the economic development of Piedmont and making alliances with foreign countries ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Victor Emmanuel replaced his father, King Charles Albert as King of Piedmont where he began to make significant changes that were contributed to the Italian unification. For instance, in 1850, he promulgated the Siccardi laws written by Cavour, limiting the powers of the church by abolishing church courts, permitting civil marriage, and restricting the number of church holidays. These led nationalists such as Garibaldi and Manin to recognize the leadership of Piedmont.

When Cavour became premier in 1852, he began to boost these changes further like improving the economic development of Piedmont and making alliances with foreign countries like France and Britain.

These all led to war in 1859 when the Austrians invaded Piedmont because of Cavour’s mobilization of the Piedmontese army. Napoleon III or France soon came in and helped the Piedmontese drove the Austrians out of the Italian soil. The result of this war allowed Austria in controlling the state of Venetia and Piedmont expanded more by gaining Lombardy. The plebiscite in the central states (Parmam, Modena, Romagna and Tuscany) made it clear that they would join Lombardy in merging with Piedmont.

Garibaldi was then emerged. From the connivance of Cavour, he raised a volunteer army of 1067 men, dressed them in red woolen shirts and invaded the southern states. From his effort, he gained Sicily, and Naples. In Rome, an uprising to support Garibaldi aroused in September 1860.

Cavour now has an opportunity to unite northern and Southern Italy. After plebiscite in Sicily, Southern Italy, and central Italy favored union with north, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in March 1861. Venetia joined Italy in 1866, when Austria lost the 7 weeks war with Prussia, and Rome became the capital city of Italy after French troops withdrew in 1870. The new government, headed by King Victor Emmanuel provided the basis for an Italian constitution, including a parliamentary government elected by limited suffrage (2% of the population)

Therefore, two reasons that could be thought as the main inspirations for this unification includes – The nationalistic feeling that aroused throughout the Italian people, and the territorial expansion that began from the territorial expansion of Piedmont.

Source:

Hause S. C and Maitby. W, Western Civilization: A History of European Society, 2nd edition, Belmont, CA, Thomson Wadsworth, 2005, pp 625-653, [Ch. 25: Europe in age of Nationalism, 1848-1870] *USP HP102 Course Reader 2006

Edgar H, The Making of Italy 1815-1870, Atheneum, New York (1971).