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; this was a humiliating failure for Mazzini who was a possible leader for a unified Italy. French troops continued to occupy Rome after the Pope had returned, protecting the Papal States against further revolts as well as a demonstration of their power.
The Pope was forced to flee the Papal States after his chief minister Rossi was murdered in November 1848. This was due to the fact that the nationalist movements had become significantly anticlerical since the Pope’s allocution. Pope Pius IX initially appeared liberal due to the reforms he introduced such as 2000 political prisoners, ending press censorship by the church and giving more powers to laymen. This led to nationalists such as Gioberti wishing to use the Pope as a leader for their movement; he also appeared to be anti-Austrian and could stand up to the strong foreign powers Italy faced. However, in his allocution issued 29th April 1848 the Pope announced that the war against Austria did not have his blessing and the papacy did not support the idea of a united Italy. Therefore the allocution became significant as it removed any chance of the Pope offering leadership or even support to a unified Italy. This is what caused the Pope to appeal to France to crush the revolts in the Papal States, which further shows the Popes anti-nationalist views, becoming crucial to the failure of the revolutions as nationalists now had no leader and no allies against Austria.
With no real leadership to follow it was almost impossible for the nationalists to give a united front and defeat the Austrians, leading to failure of the revolutions. Of the three possible leaders for the revolutions; Pope Pius IX, Mazzini and Charles Albert, none was universally acceptable. Charles Albert was defeated twice by Austrian troops and therefore became a very weak potential leader. By issuing his allocution the Pope subsequently separated himself entirely from the nationalist movement, eliminating himself from being a possible ruler. Mazzini acted as leader of the Roman Republic for 100 days after the Pope fled and urged states to work together to end Austrian rule until he was crushed by the French troops which the Pope demanded. Therefore if the Pope was more liberal, either Mazzini or the Pope could have been successful leaders of the revolutions.
The nationalists were also divided in their aims; the removal of Austria being the only thing they could agree on. Issues were usually localised and there was lack of co-operation between revolutionary groups, for example in Piedmont where Charles Albert would only accept volunteers from other states or groups if they declared their loyalty to him first. This lack of organisation and unity made it easy for leaders such as King Ferdinand to suppress the risings in areas such as Naples and Sicily. In the case of Sicily their aims were so different that they weren’t even concerned with national unity. Sicily aimed to break away from Naples making themselves independent instead of unified. Whilst the states were not willing to co-operate and had such varying aims failure in the revolutions was inevitable.
Another reason the revolutions failed was that they did not have the support of the masses. On the whole, revolutions were only organised by the social elite or radicals. The liberals did not want to encourage popular support or peasant involvement as they saw politics as something only for the middle classes. The Revolutionaries were not interested with social reform or improving life for ordinary people, therefore the majority of peasants did not get involved. This lack of support from the masses meant revolutionaries could not maintain power once gained it. However, the exception to this is Sicily where the majority of civilians were involved in marching in the islands capital, Palermo as the government repression coincided with an outbreak of cholera which therefore affected all classes of people. Even with the support of the masses Sicily was easily defeated by intense bombing by King Ferdinand (nicknamed ‘King Bomba’) Therefore there must have been other more significant factors which led to their failure.
In conclusion, there were five main factors which caused the failure of the revolutions in 1848; Austrian and French intervention, the pope’s refusal to support the revolutions, lack of national leadership and aims and lack on involvement from the masses. However, in my opinion the most significant factor was Austria’s intervention in the revolutions – without their interference it is a great deal more likely that Italy would have succeeded in the revolutions and become a unified country. Although other factors such as lack of leadership were important, in comparison with Italy facing Austria it is less significant because even if the nationalists had been able to present a united front, such as in Sicily, it is likely that Austria’s military power would have been able to crush it. Austria’s military supremacy was a very important factor in the failure of the revolutions as they were superior in numbers, better equipped and a better led army than Italy who lacked in resources, particularly military ones. In order to successfully fight Austria the revolutionaries needed allies but without the pope and therefore catholic powers such as France, who would initially have been Austria’s traditional enemy, they stood little chance of this. Therefore I believe the Pope was also a very significant reason why the revolutions failed as he could have provided the leader to stand up against Austria’s foreign interference, as well as organising and give aims to the revolutionaries.