Unification of Italy
1815 -1870
Leaders to Know
• Giuseppe Mazzini
• Count Camilio Cavour
• Giuseppe Garibaldi
Mazzini
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1815 Congress of Vienna
Metternich ignored nationalist demands
1830’s Giuseppe Mazzini founds “Young Italy”
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Secret Org. with goal to unite Italy into a unified
nation
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Immediately fails but sews the seeds of freedom
1849 Mazzini starts the revolutionary republic in Rome
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France defeats his efforts
Italian Nationalist movement, Risorgimento, moves out
to Sardinia and is ruled by Victor Emmanuel II
Cavour
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1852;Victor appoints Camillo
Cavour as Prime Minister
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Cavour is Italy’s Bismarck
who believes in
‘Realpolitik’, allegiance
to one’s country and
devotion to one’s leader
above all else
Cavour
• Cavour’s Goals:
• Improve agriculture
• Improve railroads and transportation
• Supports free trade within Italy
• Expel Austrian power from Italy by freeing Lombardy and
Venetia
• 1858 — Cavour signs secret deal with France vs. Austria
• Cavour provokes war with Austria and gains French help
• Results: Sardinia annexed Lombardy and it convinces other
northern Italian states to join Sardinia
Garibaldi
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Cavour recruits Giuseppe Garibaldi for
help in Southern Italy
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Garibaldi and his “red shirts” capture Sicily
and march to Naples uniting southern Italy
•
Garibaldi, in a patriotic move, gives all of
southern Italy to Victor Emmanuel of
Sardinia
•
Italy is almost unified except for the
French occupied center
Unification
• 1870 Franco-Prussian War aids Italian Unification
• The peace treaty forced France to give up its Italian
holdings
• In 1870 all of Italy is finally united as France
withdraws
•
1st time Italy has enjoyed unity since the fall of the
Roman Empire
• Rome once again becomes the symbol of Italian
unity by being its capital
Italian Instabilities
• Regional Disputes:
• Rich northern cities vs poor southern agriculture
• Populated south is illiterate for the most part
• Urbanization helps to relieve the population explosion
• Religious Disputes turn hostile:
• Church run Papal states want allegiance of Catholics against the newly formed
government
• Emmanuel institutes a constitutional monarchy
• 2 house legislature: King appoints upper house with veto power; limited suffrage
votes lower house.
• Anarchists:
• (people who want to abolish government) try to upset the new government but
fail when the houses pass laws to improve social conditions