It did not last long.Metternich’s troops moved into the Papal States and defeated the rebels. Farmer reveals that similar uprisings took place which were supressed in the same way by the same ruler; Metternich. These were the failures of the 1930’s revolutionaries.
Secondly, the National Society was made in 1857, which was developed by Pallavicino who was the founder of Naitonal Society. Farmer claims that Pallavicino had invested his hopes for Italian Unification in the Piedmontese monarchy. Pallavicino’s National Society attracted liberals, Garibaldi and Daniele Manin, who was the president of the Venetian Republic during 1847-8. Farmer claims that it was a small union but with huge influence around the states and mostly in Piedmont. Later on in 1859, the provisional governments set up in Tuscany, Parma, Modena and the Romagna, were influenced by the National Society, arranged for the election of assemblies. These assemblies all voted for union with Piedmont. Morris claims that in 1857, the National Society had about 8,000 members, and its main members also included La Farina. The Society saw the Crimean War that Piedmont represented as ‘Italy’s best hope.’ As Daniele Manin was so convinced, in 1855 he’d written, ‘ that above all Italy must be made, that this is the first and most important question, saw to the house of Savoy: ‘Make Italy and we are with you. If not, we are not.’
Moving on to the most influential political leaders who have had an enormous imparct on the unification of Italy. Farmer puts forward that it all started with Mazzini and his ideas, since at first place Garibaldi was also a follower of Mazzinian ideas, he had improved his ideas and had made it become possible. Farmer describes Mazzini as ‘Europe’s most dangerous man’ and people have been describing him as, ‘greatest, bravest, most heroic man in Europe.’
Another histoirian Denis Mack Smith claims in his biography wrote in 1994, that Mazzini had wanted the ‘brotherhood of people’ and compared to the Marxism theory who believed that people were divided by money and class, he believed that people were divided by nations, and therefore this lead to him thinking that Italy should be unified, as one naiton. He also wanted to end poverty and believed that people should pay tax according to their wealth. Farmer claims that many people in those days thought that his ideas were unrealistic and it was a ‘pure fantasy.’ Farmer characterises him not only as the ‘thinker’ but also the ‘doer.’ Mazzini was the first political leader to create the a political party called the ‘Young Italy’ in 1931 the people who joines had to swear to make Italy ‘one free independent republican nation’. Simpson and Jones say that he also invented the ‘Friends of Italy ‘ in 1851. He created the National Italian Committee based in London in 1850, which later on became the National Party in democratic Europe. Simpson and Jones say that this was the weapon rather than the sword, and he thinks that if Mazzini’s weapon was the pen Gabribaldi’s was the sword. They attempted to make uprisings in Naples 1832, Savoy but in Piedmont Mazzini was condemned to death and none of these uprisings were near to success. Farmer says that he was the leader who campaigned for the longest in the Italian History and also people like Garibaldi had developed their ideas from him. For example the revolt in Genoa led by Mazzini, Garibaldi had also joined in in 1931.
Then Count Camillo Di Cavour, the second character who helped the unification of Italy is described as ambitious and sometimes ruthless opportunist by Farmer. Simpson and Jones describe him as the ‘architet of a united Italy.’ Even though Cavour and Mazzini had similar aims they hated eachother, and Cavour disliked Garibaldi within. Morris claims that in January 1855 Cavour held all the three main positions as the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Finance Minister, who supressed the Mazzinian press and the parliament was cancelled when it didn’t do what the Prime Minister had demanded. According to Morris Cavour had surpressed 152 monastries, 1,700 benefices and restricted the influence of Church, all of this have also added 145, 640 pounds to the state’s income. Farmer tells us that Cavour was more interested in expanding Piedmont rather than creating Unification of Italy. His aim was to get of Austrian control in Piedmont and unite the north and central Italy. Cavour put great efforts into Piedmont’s economic development. He made trade treaties with France and Belgium and supported the use of the latest techniques in farming and industry. All these projects had raised the debts of Piedmont from 120 to 725 million lire to Austria, claims Morris. By 1860 Piedmont had an 800km of rail track, whereas according to Morris this track was 819 km long, and Italy’s first locomotives were built in the same year. Morris says that by the end of 1850’s Piedmont had trebled it’s value of trade and was first place in Italy. When Mazzini thought that Italy should be unified without the help on its own Cavour believed that this could not be done without foreign help. Simpson and Jones agree to Cavour and think that the failures of 1830’s and 1848 made it clear that a united Italy wouldn’t happen unaided. This is where the foreign powers come in but I will talk about this in the last part, as the third factor contributin to the unification of Italy. Cavour was a really significant character as he made good relationships between the great powers and especially Napoleon III and as he gained Lombardy and Tuscany was given to Piedmont.
For Farmer the last most important character who helped the unification of Italy was Giuseppe Garibaldi. Farmer describes him as ‘educated, impetuous, charismatic, and first and foremost a soldier, he was very different from the wily Cavour.’ Simpson and Jones say that he was ‘attracted by Mazzini’s ideas when he met him at Marseilles in 1832,’ where he was involved in a plot against Charles Abert in 1834. Simpson and Jones claims that Garibaldi’s and Mazzini’s ideals were quite similar but Garibaldi differed from him in two different ways: he had no time for the Church and he was readier to accept foreign intervention more than Mazzini. Simpson and Jones believe that it was Garibaldi’s magnetism which made him so strong and loved by everyone. Farmer believed that he was a power on his own and most of his achievements was made by himself by no help from external factors, such as foreign countries nor from Cavour. Even though he’d asked Cavour for help, Cavour didn’t want Sicily and Naples to join because he’d thought that the south was too poor, and the north and south could never be united due to the economic factors and that they were very different from eachother. Though Cavour was still clever, Farmer says that he’d planned : if Garibaldi failed, Cavour would execture him but if he succeeded Piedmont might also have taken advantage from it. Opposit of Cavour, Victor Emanuel was in cotact with Garibaldi according to Morris and even with Mazzini in order to purchase Venetia and expand it’s territory. Simpson and Jones agree to this and they claim that the two political leaders met at Bologna on the first of May to allow Garibaldi to recruit his own volunteers, but he would not be supported byu soldiers. According to Morris on the 11th May 1860 Garibaldi with his famous ‘Thousand’ middle-class and peasants sailed from Genoa and landed into Marsala, and there he faced King Francis II whohad 25,000 troops in Sicily, 16,000 in Calabria and 40,000 defending Naples. At Calatamifi, he defeated a much stronger Neapolitan army. Simpson and Jones say that the first engagement at Calatafini on the 15th of May, Garibaldi lost 30 soldiers.
Denis Mack Smith says that the government didn’t release 12,000 of Garibaldi’s own guns stored in a police arsenal in Milan. Farmer says that Garibaldi claimed, ‘Here we either make Italy or die’ and he won, he called himself the new ‘dictator in Sicily. From Sicily he wanted to move onto Naples, orders were also given to the Piedmontese navy to stop Garibaldi from crossing the Straits of Messina. Though this not yield Garibaldi at night he dogded the ships and with his 3,360 soldiers he managed to enter Naples on the 7th of September and ruled Naples yet again as the ‘dictator’ for two months. Later on he wanted to invade Rome as well but Cavour and Victor Emanuel were worried, so Victor Emanual marched south with his army and met with Garibaldi at Castelfidardo. Simpson and Jones call this the ‘Battle of Volturno’ on the 1st of October. Garibaldi had two choices attack Victor Emanuel or welcome him. Garibaldi greeted Victor Emmanuel as ‘the first king of Italy’. And handed over Sicily and Naples to him. Garibaldi was offered to become the new Prince, and a large pension. He refused them all and returned to Caprera. Morris says that Victor Emanuel loses all his prestige in contrast with Garibaldi, after his invasions. The first constituiton of Italy was the same one as it was for Piedmont, claims Simpson and Morris which was called the Statuto and only 3% of the population could vote.
Finally the last but not least factor, was the foreign powers who helped the unification of Italy. It all started when Cavour became the new Prime Minister in 1852, and he decided that Piedmont couldn’t expand without the help of foreign help. Farmer depicts Cavour had to gain the trust and favour of the great powers, and the Crimean War was a great opportunity for him. In 1855 France and Britain were in a war against Russia, Piedmont in favour sent his soldier to fight in this war. Farmer says Cavour wanted to gain an ‘international reputation’ for Piedmont. Morris describes this as a ‘masterstroke’ for Piedmont, a little state to enter such a huge European dispute. The fact that Austria hadn’t joined to war showed that Piedmont was more friendly, and helpful than Austria and the the great was excessively dissappointed. M.Salvadori and Derek Beales argue that if Austria knew Piedmont was going to be involved in such a powerful dispute which would raise it’s value for the great powers, she would’ve sent troops to the Crimean War. On the other hand Denis Mack Smith annoyed by Victor Emanuel thinks that he saw the war as an opportunity to reassert his royal authority and power. Morris says that 18,000 Piedmontese soldiers went to Crimea and Farmer says that about 2,000 Piedmontese soldiers had died in this war, but Piedmont earned a seat at the Paris Peace Conference in 1856.
Morris talks about Victor Emanuel’s famous speech in 1857, which he made to test Austria’s nerves after the confidence Piedmont got from the Crimean war, and the support they had from the great powers, which in favour of Piedmont and angry at Austria. Victor Emanuel said he could not stop his ears to the cry of grief’ ( grido di dolore) coming from ‘neighbouring provinces,’ referring to Austria.To oblige to Piedmont Napoleon the III signed the Pact of Plombieres in 1859 with Cavour, which involved the fact that if Piedmont was in a war against Austria France would intervene and help Piedmont. In this case Piedmont did everything to provoke Austria, but Russia and Britain intervened and condemned Piedmont since they didn’t want Balance of Power to be destroyed. Napoleon III joined the other powers in asking Piedmont to demobilise. But right at this point Francis Joseph, humiliated Piedmont and demanded an ultimatum, which was rejected. On 29 April Austria declared war on Piedmont. Piedmont had only 60,000 soldiers and Napoleon III sent about 100,000 soldiers. The first war was : Magenta 4 June and Solferino, 24 June. Piedmont barely fought, Morris says that Victor Emanuel had promised to send 200, 000 soldiers but only ended up sending 10%. France had won. France lost 17,000 soldiers at Solferino whereas Austria lost 22,000. According to Morris, the Austrian organisation to enter this was was faulty, and the Emperor had left it to the ‘courtier soldiers’ Grunne and Gyulai rather than Benedek and Hess who were more capable of handling this war. They were also slower than France in entering this war, they’d allowed French troops to ender into Piedmont 10 before Austria did.
Tuscany, Parma and the Papal States were now in fusion with Piedmont. Since France and Austria had suffered tremendously they signed an armistice at Villafranca on the 11th of June 1859, in this case Lombardy was handed to France to be handed to Piedmont. Farmer says that Cavour had felt betrayed because he couldn’t fully achieve his aims and felt betrayed by Napoleon the III, he asked Victor Emanuel to fight alone but he’d refused so Cavour resigned calling Napolon III, a ‘traitor’. The Treaty of Zurich between France, Piedmont and Austria was signed in November 1859. Simpson and Jones say that Cavour returned back to power in 1860, and convinced Napoleon III to accepted what had happened in return for Nice and Savoy. Finally it was decided that Tuscany which would go to Piedmont, and Nice and Savoy would have the right to ‘vote.’ The treaty was signed on 12th of Mrch 1860. The results seemed fairly biased, in Tuscany 366,571 voted for union and14,925 voted against. In Nice the results showed, 24, 484 voted in favour and only 160 against. These were the foreign factors described by Farmer, which show us that without the intervention of Napoleon the III, and France Piedmont would not have been able to expand it’s territory. In March 1861 Italy was unified, but Venetia and Rome were still under the Austrian rule, which became unified later on.
Lastly to conclude, the cost of this unity was 50 million lire in 186 which rose to a further 250 million lire in 1859. Even though some historians ( Simpson and Jones ) think that Victor Emanuel was the 4th character which had a huge role in the unification of Italy, George Meredith an English poet wrote a poem to the creation of Italy mentioning, ‘ the three : Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi.’ I believe that the most important factors why Italy became unified in March 1861, was due to all of the three factors, without the secret societies and uprisings in the 1830’s Mazzini wouldn’t have thought of a unified Italy, without Mazzini, Garibaldi would’ve never joined the revolts and uprisings in Italy and therefore he wouldn’nt be ‘attracted’ by Mazzini’s thoughts. Without Mazzini’s thought maybe Cavour wouldn’t be so powerful and thought of an expansion Piedmont, even though he hated Mazzini, I believe that he got courage from his ideas, and from the conclusion point : Unification of Italy, he tried to achieve that ambition with different strategies. Also like Garibaldi, he believed in the same abition as Mazzini, and as he was the ‘pen’ where he released his ideas to everyone, Garibaldi was the ‘sword’ who got his ideas into action. Mazzini was more of a ‘thinker’ rather than a ‘doer’ even though he was very well known for some of his revolts, his strategies weren’t as powerful as Cavour’s and Garibaldi’s. On the other hand without Cavour, Piedmont would never have had the help of foreign powers, people would still try to make uprisings in the states of Italy, which would be surpressed by Austria over again. Just like in the 1830’s how it happened repeatedly, over and over again. So all of the three factors complete eachother, 3 factors all make one, and one Italy. One unification.
