The Carbonari was a secret society with about 60,000 members. Its members were mostly middle class and well educated and the majority was patriotic and daring. They wanted change. They hated Austrian control and they wanted a constitution. The fact that they had 60,000 members across Italy was obviously a force acting for unification but the truth is they were not organised enough to liberate and unite her. Rather than co-operate and revolt simultaneously there was a lack of communication between leaders and their small revolts were easily crushed by the Austrians with the support of Prussia and Russia who feared unification. Another factor against unification was the fact that Italian peasants were uneducated and hadn’t even heard of the word ‘Italy’. They weren’t concerned with the future of Italy and were only concerned with the present. This is why some of them fought for the Austrian army.
After the Carbonari was discredited individuals started to become popular with the middle classes. Mazzini was certainly looked upon as a force for unification at first. He founded ‘Young Italy’. Metternich considered him one of the most dangerous men. He believed that Italy didn’t need outside help and that it could liberate itself by educating the young through secret newspapers and propaganda. Unfortunately he was too idealistic and after a failed revolt in Savoy he too was discredited and people began to mistrust his romantic idealism.
Another popular individual was Gioberti, a priest. He wanted the Pope to ruler Italy and believed it would have to be Piedmont who fought the Austrians. Balbo agreed that Piedmont must be the force against Austrian rule and he also believed in a federation. He said the revolution “must no involve the masses” and favoured guerrilla warfare instead. Cattaneo also wanted a federation. Together, these individuals were certainly a force acting for unification because these men inspired and encouraged Italian people.
Pope Pius IX was actually a force behind unification, though probably not intentionally. Metternich believed the Pope was politically naïve and was not aware that his actions such as freeing political prisoners and building train lines would be seen as liberal. This certainly encouraged the Italian people and people such as Gioberti believed that the Pope could lead a unified Italy.
A force that was certainly against unification was Austria and Metternich. Metternich had been easily able to quell the uprisings that had occurred in the last 30 years and with Prussia and Russia behind him there was no reason he could do it again. He even made it an offence to praise the Pope in Lombardy and Venetia and it was punishable by death. Metternich knew that the further ideas of revolution spread, the harder it would be to contain uprisings. Metternich knew that if Austrian rule was to be maintained, then the Italian states must be kept separate, this way Italy would stay weak and easy to control. The Austrians obviously wanted to retain control so anything threatening that would be dealt with.
In conclusion I think that even with what seems like more forces acting for it, unification was unlikely before 1848 basically because of the lack of co-operation between separate states. The fact that communication was very poor also hindered simultaneous revolts. The fact is that many people, such as Mazzini, had good ideas and were willing to do something but they lacked organisation skills and were not prepared. The final pressure against them was two of the biggest powers in Europe, Russia and Prussia. With their support behind Austria, unification was practically impossible.
