Why Was Italy Not A Unified Country In 1815?

The Vienna peacemakers also encouraged Austria’s rule in the Italian states to maintain the balance of power throughout Europe. This means that Italy could not be unified.

Internal politics was also a large contributing factor in the reasons why the Italian Peninsula was not unified but perhaps not as important as the foreign powers. At the end of Napoleons rule, Italy was broken up and returned to the possession of minor sovereigns and Italy was politically fragmented. Each state was ruled by a different King or duke, most of who owned or were set to inherit land outside of Italy. It is obvious that no one would want to give up their power so that someone else could control them so therefore the peninsula remained not unified.

During Napoleons rule in Italy, he had not set about improving the economy. He wanted to use the raw materials in the production in France so Italy remained fairly undeveloped and mostly farm land. This was not a cause of Italy still not being a unified country but there had been no improvements made to the poor geography that hindered trade or to the custom barriers. Economy was poor, so people did not have that reason to unify. Had the economy been better or improving then it may have encouraged unification.

The differences in the language, geography and art and culture also contributed to why Italy was not unified. The majority of people spoke French or a local dialect, only the educated people in the Italian Peninsula were conscious of the Italian language. Churches and universities taught Latin. It is not possible that an area with so many different languages could unite under one parliament. The arts prospered across Italy but with huge differences between the states. Opera In Naples, architecture in Piedmont and painting in Venice. This proves that the communication was poor across the peninsula and that parochialism was common. The Apennine range made communication very difficult; the rivers were of very little use for communication and the coastlines are extremely long. This prevented people from exploring other parts of the country easily so remained parochial. They ended up not even interested in anywhere or anything outside of their town or village and thus did not want their influence in their lives.

There were many reasons why the Italian peninsula was not unified. It is fair to say that it is the politics inside as well as out of the country made it impossible for the unification. Also the lack of will from the citizens of Italy and parochialism was an important factor of hindering the unification.