Forces Preventing Change on the Italian Peninsula ( ): ‘Italy is merely a geographical expression’ (1847) Prinz Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Foreign Minister

Austrian dominance of the Italian Peninsula ensured: *Every effort was made to put in place, in each state, REACTIONARY rulers with close ties to Austria: -LOMBARDY and VENETIA were absorbed directly into the Habsburg (Austrian) Empire. -In PIEDMONT-SARDINIA the Savoyard line was restored with the ultra- reactionary King Victor Emmanuel I, who abolished the Code Napoleon and restored the Church to its pre-Napoleonic status. -In the PAPAL STATES Pope Pius VII was restored as ‘spiritual and temporal ruler’ and saw that the Code Napoleon was abolished in most states. Austrian forces were also permanently stationed there on the ‘Quadrilateral’ (fortresses of Legnano, Mantua, Verona and Peschiera). -TUSCANY was ruled by Grand Duke Ferdinand III, the brother of the Austrian Emperor Francis I; PARMA was ruled by Marie Louise, daughter of Francis I and wife of Napoleon (since 1810); MODENA was ruled by the repressive Duke Francis (Francesco) IV who reinstated the Jesuit order there. -SICILY was placed under the rule of NAPLES (technically as ‘The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) which was ruled by the Bourbon Monarch King Ferdinand I, married to Maria Carolina, the daughter of the Austrian Empress Marie Theresa. He restored the influence of the Church and abandoned the French projects on Naples and the British Constitution on Sicily.

God (/St. Peter’s) representative on Earth…and spiritual and temporal ruler of much of Central Italy (Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria etc.) The Habsburg Empire (including Lombardy and Venetia)

Austrian ability to put down revolutions by force: * Bound by Troppau Protocol (of 1820) to do so and helped in doing so by the Quadrilateral. *Having invited Ferdinand I, after he had been forced to accept a new Constitution by the Neapolitan revolutionaries, to attend the Congress of Laibach (Jan. 1821), the Austrians crushed the Neapolitan (and Sicilian) rising with an invasion of government troops in March *Having been appointed Regent (inplace of the reactionary Victor Emmanuel) of a new Piedmontese Constitution by revolutionaries in March 1821, Charles Albert was decisively defeated at Novara in April by an alliance of Austrian and Piedmontese Monarchist troops. *Austrian military intervention in Bologna in March 1831 stopped Ciro Menotti’s attempted revolution in the Papal States. -Very telling that the revolutions which began in January 1848 across the Italian Peninsula were only successful as long as the Habsburg Emperor’s position was insecure following the Vienna Revolutions of March After April 1849, with the Emperor re-establishing control, the revolutions began to collapse.

Habsburg Imperial Army

Failure of 1820s, 30s and 40s activists to agree on their aims: *Revolutions generally about just establishing a more constitutional government within their own state, so liberal rather than nationalist AND generally limited to mainly middle class support. Egs.: -Sicilian revolt of 1821 aimed at gaining INDEPENDENCE from Naples, whose revolt, in turn, had originally consisted of only 30 Carbonari and 100 local soldiers. -Piedmontese rebellion of 1821 was mainly about forcing the Monarch into accepting a Piedmontese constitution. -The rebellion in Modena in 1831 saw leader Enrico Misley advocating putting Duke Francesco IV on the Piedmontese throne instead of Charles Albert. -Even the great Risorgimento thinkers of the 1840s couldn’t agree on what should constitute a United Italy: Giuseppe Mazzini (A revolutionary democratic republic centred on Rome); Cesare Balbo (A Piedmontese led Kingdom of Northern Italy); Vincenzo Gioberti (a Papal Federation). -Massimo d’Azeglio (Prime Minister of Piedmont, ): Uniting the North of Italy with Naples ‘would be like going to bed with someone with smallpox’ – highlighting great cultural and economic divide between the North and South of the Italian Peninsula.

Massimo D’Azeglio, [North!] Italian Nationalist

Things most definitely lacking for a process of political Risorgimento by the 1840s: L….. eadership U…. nited outlook among separate states C…. ommon aim among revolutionaries I…… nternational assistance A….. ustria removed as a significant obstacle

Reading list for this presentation: Collier, Chapter 1 (pages 11-13) + Chapter 2. Pearce and Stearn [3 rd edition]: pages 8- 12; 21-5; and