Why was Mazzini not successful in unifying Italy up to 1849?
Giuseppe Mazzini may have played an integral part during the preliminary stages of the Risorigmento, but there were a lot of significant factors that consequently led to his downfall. Mazzini did have a huge amount of potential to make Italy a unified country but after taking into account the time period he was working in and other key factors, the negative influences on Mazzini’s work had proved too much for him to make any real steps forward into uniting Italy. The aspects that ultimately limited Mazzini’s efforts were all quite substantial, as the negative impacts gradually built up against Mazzini.
The sheer strength of Austria was a huge obstacle that stopped Mazzini’s aims and objectives from working. The power Austria had, subsequently stopped Mazzini’s movement becoming a widespread one and without a mass movement being conducted then there is obviously not going to be enough people power to overthrow the Austrian government and to make Italy a solitary country.