1. The Unification of Italy

2. Italian unification (Italian: Risorgimento meaning the Resurgence) was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century.

3. Nationalism What is nationalism?
The belief that the greatest loyalty should be to a nation of people who share a common culture & history
Two Types of Nationalism
Nationalism that unifies culturally similar lands and people
Nationalism that separates culturally different lands and people

4. History of Italy
The Italian Peninsula is fragmented politically until the 1860s. Remained essentially as it was during the Renaissance; a series of expanded city-states.
Why:  
-Individual rulers of city-states did not want to lose their autonomy
-Napoleonic Wars had divided the loyalties of the Italians and the Congress of Vienna had not addressed the Peninsula
-Austrian government held influence in Northern Italy (Economic and Political)
-Papacy’s desire not to see a united Italy as a secular state

5. The Congress of Vienna had left the Italian peninsula divided into many countries.
Austria ruled in the north, Hapsburg Monarchs ruled in the center, and Bourbon Kings ruled in Naples and Sicily.
The Pope even had his own country in the area around Rome.

6. Barriers to Italian Unification: Italy, “a mere geographic expression
Regional differences
Cultural
Economic
Political
Great power politics
Papacy
Political ideologies

7. Forces Pushing for Unification
Common cultural elements
Catholicism
Written Italian
Nationalism
Resentment of great power interference
Ascendance of Piedmont-Sardinia
Modern state
Constitutional monarchy
Efficient bureaucracy
King Victor-Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, and later of Italy

8. Plans for Italian Unification
Plan 1 - unite behind Pope (1848/9) - Austria and France defeat the Roman Republic
Plan 2 - unite behind only independent state, Piedmont (Sardinia) - made independent by Congress of Europe as a buffer between France and Austria
Piedmont Prime Minister Cavour aids France in Crimean War with 10,000 troops - thrusts Piedmont onto world stage

9. Push towards Unification
-Originated in a radical student group known as Young Italy in the 1831.
-Organization was led by Giuseppe Mazzini
-Mazzini pictured a liberal republican government, like France’s 1st Republic
-The power base of Young Italy came from southern Italy (Sicily)
-The Sicilians viewed unification as a step towards economic prosperity
Push towards Unification

10. One of Mazzini’s most devoted followers is Giuseppe Garibaldi
-Garibaldi is trained as a military officer and devoted to the cause of unification

11. 1848-Following the continental wide revolts, a unification movement begins in the northwest section of Italy known as the Piedmont or the Kingdom of Sardinia

12. 1852: Count Camillio Cavour becomes the Prime Minister of Sardinia.
Believed in a unification movement led by Sardinia
Favored unification of the north to enhance the region economically
Rationale was that unification could only be achieved by war with Austria

13. 1855: Sardinia supplies troops to a British/French war against Russia (Crimean War)
Sardinia gains an ally in France under the government of Napoleon III
1859 Prime Minister Cavour & Napoleon III scheme to provoke war to drive Austria out of Italy
France gets provinces of Nice & Savoy for help and Sardinia gains Lombardy
Piedmont/France drives Austria - Napoleon III fears Piedmont - signs own treaty with Austria

15.  The movement in the north toward unification causes massive demonstrations in the south calling for a truly united peninsula
In the South

16. Issues in the South
-Southern Italy was more politically unstable than the north
-The south lacked the accomplished political leadership of the north
-The south lacked the economic advantages of the north

17. Impact of Garibaldi
-Garibaldi returns after serving as a mercenary in the Latin American wars for independence
-Garibaldi is regarded as a ‘mythic’ figure
-Speculation that he is being financed by northern politicians
-Garibaldi’s army (1000 Red shirts) march through Sicily, uncontested
-The army stops at the Papal States
-By 1861, Garibaldi effectively controls Sicily (Italian Peninsula, south of Rome)

18. Garibaldi now realized he would need the support of the Sardinian monarchy, teaming up with king Victor Emmannuel II and Prime Minister Camilo Cavour to fight the Austrians who controlled northern Italy.
Cavour gave Garibaldi’s home city, Nice, to France in return for an alliance. Garibaldi was enraged, but continued to support Sardinia.

19. March Turin: The Kingdom of Italy is organized with a constitutional monarchy as the government. The Sardinians assume the key leadership roles in the new nation-state. The Constitution is supported by plebiscite.
*1866: Venetia is added
*1870: The Roman Papal states are added except the Vatican City

20. Italian Unification Timeline
1860 – Garibaldi and the “Red Shirt”
Land in Sicily
1859 – War With Austria,
Italy gets Lombardy with help of
Napoleon III
1866: 7 Weeks’ War, Italy sides
with Prussia & receives Venice
1861- Victor Emmanuel II
Proclaimed “King of Italy”
Cavour dies
Franco-Prussian War,
Italy takes Rome
ITALY UNIFIED
1871: Rome proclaimed capital
of unified Italy
Revolution of 1848
1852 – Cavour becomes
Prime Minister of Sardinia