"By 1849 the supporters of the Risorgimento had achieved nothing towards creating a free, united and independent Italy" - How far do you agree?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Mateusz Odziemczyk G11

For Mr.Morris

“By 1849 the supporters of the Risorgimento had achieved nothing towards creating a free, united and independent Italy.” How far do you agree?

The fall of Napoleon led to the Vienna Settlement of 1815, by which the Austrians effectively restored the old ruling class. Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, did all he could to foster any local loyalties that might weaken the appeal of unity, yet the years between 1820 and 1849 became years of revolution. Uprisings began in Sicily, Naples and Piedmont, when King Ferdinand introduced measures that restricted personal freedom and destroyed many farmers' livelihoods. A makeshift army quickly gained popular support in Sicily, and forced some concessions, before Ferdinand invited the Austrians in to help him crush the revolution. In the north, the oppressive laws enacted by Victor Emanuel I in the Kingdom of Piedmont sparked off student protests and army mutinies in Turin. Victor Emanuel abdicated in favor of his brother, Carlo Felice, and his son, Carlo Alberto; the latter initially gave some support to the radicals, but Carlo Felice then called in the Austrians, and thousands of revolutionaries were forced into exile. Carlo Alberto became King of Piedmont in 1831. A secretive, excessively devout and devious character, he did a major volte-face when he assumed the throne by forming an alliance with the Austrians.

In 1831 further uprisings occurred in Parma, Modena, the Papal States, Sicily and Naples. Their lack of co-ordination, and the readiness with which Austrian and papal troops intervened, ensured that revolution was short-lived. But even if these actions were unsustained, their influence grew.

One person profoundly influenced by these insurgencies was Giuseppe Mazzini. Arrested as Secretary of the Genoese branch of the Carbonari (a secret radical society) in 1827 and jailed for three months in 1830, he formulated his political ideology and set up "Young Italy" on his release. Among the many to whom the ideals of "Young Italy" appealed ...

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In 1831 further uprisings occurred in Parma, Modena, the Papal States, Sicily and Naples. Their lack of co-ordination, and the readiness with which Austrian and papal troops intervened, ensured that revolution was short-lived. But even if these actions were unsustained, their influence grew.

One person profoundly influenced by these insurgencies was Giuseppe Mazzini. Arrested as Secretary of the Genoese branch of the Carbonari (a secret radical society) in 1827 and jailed for three months in 1830, he formulated his political ideology and set up "Young Italy" on his release. Among the many to whom the ideals of "Young Italy" appealed was Giuseppe Garibaldi, soon to play a central role in the Risorgimento, as the movement to reform and unite the country was known.

Crop failures in 1846 and 1847 produced widespread famine and cholera outbreaks. In Sicily an army of peasants marched on the capital, burning debt collection records, destroying property and freeing prisoners. Middle- and upper-class moderates were worried, and formed a government to control the uprising, but Sicilian separatist aims were realized in 1848. Fighting spread to Naples, where Ferdinand II made some temporary concessions, but nonetheless he retook Sicily the following year. At the same time as the southern revolution, serious disturbances took place in Tuscany, Piedmont and the Papal States. Rulers fled their duchies, and Carlo Alberto altered course again, prompted by Metternich's fall from power in Vienna: he granted his subjects a constitution and declared war on Austria. In Rome, the pope fled from rioting and Mazzini became a member of the city's republican triumvirate in 1849, with Garibaldi organizing the defenses.

None of the uprisings lasted long. Twenty thousand revolutionaries were expelled from Rome, Carlo Alberto abdicated in favor of his son Victor Emanuel II after military defeats at the hands of the Austrians, and the dukes returned to Tuscany, Modena and Parma. One thing, which did survive, was Piedmont’s constitution, which throughout the 1850s attracted political refugees to this cosmopolitan state.

“By 1849 the supporters of the Risorgimento had achieved nothing towards creating a free, united and independent Italy.” – I totally agree with this statement, because the Italian “opposition” has done a lot in order to create “a free, united and independent Italy” but by 1849 had achieved nothing towards it as you can see in information above. In my opinion the couse of this failtures was the disagreement and incoorporation between the Italian states. The second couse of failtures was luck of organization and small number of poorly prepared “troops”. If at list the states and secret societies worked together in order to fight the Austrians then there might have been a little achievement in uniting the Italy, and together they could also make the Italy a free and independent country.