Uprising of Piedmont- Chronological order

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Andrew Tait        The development of Piedmont        08/05/2007 Uprising of Piedmont- Chronological order of events 1720 Dukes of Savoy ruled over the backward state of Piedmont in northwest of Italy. He became King of the island of Sardinia. Piedmont and Sardinia came together to be normally known as just PiedmontEnd of the 18th century population was small and most were peasants. Life was short. The capital Turin had little industry and countryside was poverty stricken.But Piedmont had 2 advantages over other states because it had a strong army & was well governed by an absolute monarch. There was no parliament so the people had no say in how the country was ran.At the end of the 18th century Piedmont made an alliance with Austria. Because the Piedmontese family had connections with the French royal family and so were in turn enemies of Napoleon. Piedmont and Austria declared war on France when the French army attacked Nice and Savoy west of Piedmont.From 1802 to 1814 Piedmont was united with France. They governed every part of the state society including the language spoken to schooling being under the French system. There was no great opposition to French rule and it came to an advantage for the middle classes for career opportunities. Only towards the end of French occupation was there unrest such as young men setting up anti-French societies.1815 King Emmanuel I returned after exile to return as a restored monarch. Piedmont was still bound to out-of-date laws made before 1800 that could not be changed. French legal system and
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equal justice was abolished.The Vienna Settlement of 1815 gave the Republic of Genoa to Piedmont, which was of commercial benefit because it was an important port.1819, as central & local government were being modernised in Piedmont, the alarms of revolution brought this to a halt. Secret society memberships were growing and moderate Piedmontese hoped this would make the king introduce political and other reforms. There was little chance that, Victor Emmanuel I or his brother Charles Felix would take action. They turned to 2nd in line to the thrown, Charles Albert.Charles Albert was strange quiet young man brought up in ...

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