Why did the 1848 revolutions in italy fail?

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Charlotte Adams

Why did the 1848 revolutions fail?

The 1848 revolutions failed throughout Italy due to a combination of several contributing factors, most importantly these included; foreign intervention, the refusal of the Pope to support the revolutions, lack of involvement from the masses and lack of national leadership and aims. The failure was caused by all of these factors; however, some were more significant than others.

One of the largest problems Italian revolutionaries faced was Austria’s strong military power. Austrian intervention led not only to revolts continuously being crushed but also to the absolutist rule being restored by reinstating previous rulers. Initially, Austria was weakened by revolutions in areas such as Vienna, as well as Metternich’s resignation on 13
th March 1848. This gave hope to many Italian revolutionaries and encouraged Charles Albert, king of Piedmont, to declare war on Austria. This had never been done before and gave hope of defeat against Austria. Although things initially looked good for Piedmont the Austrians soon recovered and crushed the revolt, defeating Charles Albert in the battle of Custoza on 24th July 1848 led by Radetzky. Piedmont was Italy’s strongest state and the fact that they couldn’t defeat Austria showed a great failure for the revolutionaries. In the Austrian battles with both Piedmont and Venetia (where the Austrians surrendered for a short period of time in March 1848) success didn’t last long for the revolutionaries as Austria ultimately returned and crushed the revolutions using their strong military, showing they are clearly a very important reason as to why the 1848 revolutions failed.

Austria’s military power was also shown as they used troops on several occasions to restore previous monarchies that had fled to their thrones. Austria ensured none of the rulers forced to flee were away for long. For example, in Parma & Modena the rulers were restored as well as in Tuscany where Austria restored the Grand Duke who had fled in January 1849. This shows Austria’s great military power affecting all areas of Italy.

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Austria was not the only foreign military power Italian revolutionaries faced. France used 20,000 troops to restore the papal control in the Papal States after the Pope was forced to flee. Although France would have been Austria’s traditional enemy they helped crush the revolutionary Roman Republic, led by Mazzini, as France was a predominantly catholic country but also to expand French power by having influence & control in other European countries. However, this wouldn’t have been possible for the French if it wasn’t for the Pope’s support. The French finally destroyed Roman Republic and reinstated the Pope in June 1848; ...

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