UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

• Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century.
• Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and ended in 1870 with the Capture of Rome. 
• Italy at mid-century was split into several parts. In the north, Austria had Lombardy and Venetia.
• To the west was the rival Kingdom of Sardinia- Piedmont, consisting of the mainland territories of Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, plus the island of Sardinia.
• The Kingdom was ruled by King Victor Emmanuel II from the Savoy dynasty. He was the only ruler from a native Italian family. South of Lombardy was the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany. 
• In the middle of Italy, along both coasts, were the Papal States ruled by the Pope. South of Papal States was the Kingdom of the Two Sicily’s, consisting of Sicily and the mainland section forming the bottom half of the Italian boot.

Risorgimento

• The groundwork for Italian unification was laid by a literary and political movement known as Risorgimento, or resurgence, which sought the resurrection of the Italian nation.
• A key figure in this movement was Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), who began as a member of a secret revolutionary society, the Carbonari. Mazzini founded a new movement, Young Italy, which sought to create a unified Italian republic through a series of popular referendums. 
• He encouraged national revolutions among other groups, such as the Irish and the Poles, and was a leader in the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849. 
• Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) was a disciple of Mazzini and a very able military leader.
• After participating with Mazzini in an abortive republican uprising against the King of Sardinia in 1834, Garibaldi gained fame for military exploits in South America.
• He returned to Italy in 1848 and fought first against the Austrians and then against the French.
• He put up a gallant but hopeless struggle to maintain the Roman Republic of 1849.
• The most successful leader of the Risorgimento movement was Camillo di Cavour (1810-1861).
• He was from a prominent Piedmontese family and a successful entrepreneur. In 1847, Cavour founded a liberal newspaper, Il Risorgimento. While Cavour favored constitutionalism and opposition to Austria, unlike Mazzini and Garibaldi he was not a republican.
• He favored the achievement of Italian unity under the royal house of Savoy. In 1852, he became prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. 
• The failure of the revolutions of 1848 and 1849 tended to discredit the schemes of Mazzini and Garibaldi and gave Cavour the opportunity to take the lead in seeking Italian unification. Strategy:
• Cavour began by strengthening the Sardinian economy. He patronized the construction of highways, canals, docks, and railroads. He concluded trade treaties to increase commerce, reformed the credit system, and sought to limit the influence of the church.
• These efforts were calculated to make Sardinia a model state that its Italian neighbors would want to join. 
• Cavour realized that he would need the help of a major power to fight Austria, whose Italian possessions constituted the biggest obstacle to Italian unification.
• He had Sardinia join the side of Britain, France, and Turkey against Russia in the Crimean War (1853-56).
• The war did not involve any issues of national interest for Sardinia, but attendance at the peace conference following the war gave Cavour an opportunity to call big power attention to the issue of Italian unity. 

French Connection

• Cavour determined that Sardinia would form an alliance with France against Austria.
• He saw the use of French troops as the best hope of pushing Austria out of the Italian peninsula. 
• He succeeded in negotiating with Emperor Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon) the Pact of Plombièrs in July 1858. France agreed to join Sardinia in a war against Austria, providing the blame for starting the war could be put on Austria. 
• If the war were won, Sardinia would get the Austrian possessions of Lombardy and Venetia.
• In turn, France would get Nice and Savoy from Sardinia. Italy would be reorganized as a confederation, with the Pope as President. 
• Louis Napoleon consented to such an agreement, not only to get Nice and Savoy which were on the French side of the Alps and long coveted by France, but for other reasons as well. 
• The Bonaparte family was of Italian (Corsican) origin, and Louis Napoleon had been linked as a young man to the Italian unification movement.
• In attacking reactionary Austria, he could endear himself to French liberals at home.
• He may also have been persuaded by the Italian nationalist, Felice Orsini 18191858), who threw a bomb at Napoleon in January of 1858 for his failure to do more for the cause of Italian unity. 
• By encouraging revolutionaries and deserters in Austria’s Italian territories and rejecting a related Austrian ultimatum, Cavour provoked Austria into an attack on Sardinia on April 29, 1859.
• This was the excuse France needed to join Sardinia in a war against Austria. Major battles were fought at Magenta (June 4, 1859) and Solferino (June 24, 1859).
• While both battles brought Austrian retreats, they were bloodier and less decisive than Napoleon III would have liked.
• Moreover, revolts in the central Italian states by people wanting to join Sardinia meant that Sardinia might actually grow to be a rival of France.
• Most menacing for France, Prussia and other German states were threatening to come to the aid of Austria. 
• These factors led Napoleon III, without consulting his Sardinian allies, to sign an agreement with the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph (1848-1916), at Villa Franca in July.
• The agreement gave most of Lombardy to France, who could then cede it to Sardinia. Austria kept Venetia, and the states of central Italy were restored to their former rulers.
• The failure to obtain Venetia as agreed at Plombièrs so angered Cavour that he resigned as premier (he returned to office in January 1860). Sardinia did get Lombardy from France.
• The French did not dare to claim Nice and Savoy. The central Italian states of Romagna (which had been part of the Papal States), Parma, Modena, and Tuscany resisted restoration of their rulers and voted to join Sardinia.
• Napoleon and the returned Cavour negotiated an agreement whereby France acquiesced in the annexation of these states by Sardinia in return for finally receiving Nice and Savoy.