During the 1800’s, writers and thinkers revitalized the nationalist spirit in Italy, which produced a movement called the Risorgimento. Since the nationalist movement could not be supported freely, different clandestine groups appeared, being one of he first the Carbonari. One of its main affiliates was Giuseppe Mazzini. This member, very much had a vital function in Italian history. Giuseppe dedicated his life to unite Italy, and created another movement, which involved all the Italian patriots: Young Italy. Thanks to numerous rebellions in the several states, Mazzini set up a republic ruled by him and two other rulers after seizing Rome in 1849. However, soon afterwards the revolutionary movements failed all over Italy except for Sardinia, which remained independent. Previous rulers came back to power, nevertheless the patriots did not give up.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the chief minister of Sardinia, set up a nationalist newspaper. Cavour admired the British government system, and wanted to unite Italy as well as industrialize the nation under his leadership. Cavour enhanced the army, as well as setting up banks, factories, railroads, recovering trade and strengthening the shipbuilding industry. He also granted religious freedom to the state of Sardinia. Cavour organized an alliance with France to make Austria release the Italian states it had under its power. Napoleon III and Cavour agreed to make Austria declare war on Sardinia in order to make the French drive the Austrians out of Lombardy and Venetia. In return, Sardinia would give Nice and Savoy back to France. Since Napoleon III feared that the other Italian states would want to annex with Sardinia and increase its power, he signed a treaty with Austria, which stated that Sardinia would receive Lombardy but Austria kept Venetia. Even though France hadn’t completed its part of the agreement, Napoleon III still got Nice and Savoy back in return because the King of Sardinia feared losing the partial victory. Most of the other Italian states revolted against their rulers, while favoured being united to Sardinia.
The southern half of Italy and the island of Sicily completed the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Although the revolts against the tough Bourbon king had previously failed, the Italian nationalists targeted the Two Sicilies as their next aim. Giuseppe Garibaldi, seeker of liberty, led the nationalists with an army of 1100 soldiers recruited by him. Garibaldi was welcomed in Sicily by the citizens, later he seized Naples in the Italian mainland. Fearing that Garibaldi would desire to set up a republic on his own, he was stopped by Cavour, who attained most of the Papal States annexing them to Sardinia. In the end, Cavour influenced Garibaldi to set up the Kingdom of Italy ruled by Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia.
After having the citizens vote for unification, Victor Emmanuel II was confirmed to become the first King of Italy. This new nation contained all of Italy except for Venetia and the western part of the Papal States. The first area was still being ruled by Austria, while the second one belonged to the Pope. Italy was almost totally united after Venetia was seized in the Seven Weeks’ War (1866). While the Franco-Prussian war was being fought (1870), Napoleon III recalled his troops avoiding Rome from uniting Italy, which let the Italians free way to enter the city and proclaiming it the capital of the kingdom that same year.
Bibliography
Mazour, Anatole G. and John M. Peoples. World History People and Nations. United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1993.
Risorgimento. 20 February 2003. <bin/frameit2.cgi?p=%2Fperl%2Fsearch.pl&word=unification+of+italy&x=19&y=8>
