Unification of Italy

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Unification of Italy
2
Italy before Unification

• Like Germany, Italy was a collection of
  provinces, small kingdoms and city-states since
  the Middle Ages.
• Italian peninsula was site of frequent wars among
  countries like France, Austria, and Spain.
• Each wanted to prevent the others from
  controlling the areas wealth.
• Italian politics was further complicated by the
  papal states (states run by the Pope) located in
  the center of the peninsula.

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Italy before Unification

• Under Napoleon I, several Italian states became a
  part of his Kingdom of Italy
• Short-lived, of course, but gave people a sense
  of unity.
• Congress of Vienna ignored the desires of
  Italians to form their own country.
• CoV restored the papal states and gave Austria
  control over MUCH of the area.

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Italy before Unification

• So from early to mid-1800s, Austria ruled much of
  Italy and the pope controlled the central area
  around Rome.

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3 major figures in Italian Unification

• Mazzini the soul of Italian unification
• Garibaldi the sword of Italian unification
• Cavour the mind of Italian unification

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Mazzini

• 1830s Giueseppe Mazzini founded a group called
  Young Italy
• Young Italy was a secret society dedicated to
  founding a united and democratic Italy.
• Mazzini stirred up several revoltsmostly
  unsuccessful.
• M. inspired people with his pamphelets that
  promoted unification.
• M. ended up fleeing abroad, where he continued to
  promote unification.

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Mazzini

• Mazzinis main idea was that a persons duty to
  the nation fits between the duty to ones family
  and duty to God.

Duty to God
Duty to Nation
Duty to Family
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Garibaldi

• Giuseppe Garibaldi worked with Mazzini in the
  1830s.
• Like M., he fled abroad but came back during the
  1848 Revolution in Northern Italy.
• Led a revolt against Austria (unsuccessful)
• Garibaldi also tried to replace the rule of the
  pope in Rome with a liberal government.
• He failed here, too, and had to go into exile.
• But thats not the end of Garibaldi!

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Cavour

• 1852 Camillo di Cavour came to the fore in
  Italian unification, now called Risorgimento
  (reawakening)the name of the newspaper he
  founded.
• Cavour stirred up public opinion in the northern
  Italian states against Austrian rule.

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Cavour

• 1852 King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia and
  Piedmont made Cavour his prime minister.
• Cavour believed in constitutional monarchy
• His plan build up Piedmonts commerce and
  industry. This will eventually allow it to win
  Italian territory from Austria.

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Obstacles

• Austria was determined to keep tight control over
  northern Italy.
• The Pope was against a strong national Italian
  government, because that might threaten Church
  ownership of the Papal States.

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Cavours Secret Alliance

• Cavour, meanwhile, made a secret pact with
  France.
• Then he provoked a war with Austria.
• When Austrian troops invaded Piedmont, French
  troops helped the Italians.
• The result Piedmont took Lombardy (an old
  Austrian possession)

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Other States Followed!

• After Lombardy left Austria, Tuscany, Parma, and
  Modena wanted to unite with Piedmont, too.
• Austria gave in, because the French-Italian
  alliance meant that Austria would have to face
  France in battle.

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By 1860

• Piedmont controlled all of Italy EXCEPT
• the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
• The Papal States
• Venice.
• Thats when Garibaldi came back

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Garibaldis Return

• May 1860 Garibaldi landed in Sicily with an army
  of 1000 soldiers dubbed the Red Shirts
• The Red Shirts easily won the Kingdom of the Two
  Sicilies with the help of Piedmont.
• Next, they captured the Papal States except for
  Rome.
• By March 1861 Victor Emmanuel II became king of
  Italy

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Italy and Prussia

• During the Seven Weeks War (Austro-Prussia War),
  Italy helped Prussia against Austria.
• The Prussians got Schleswig and Holstein.
• The Italians took Venice (1866)

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Italy and Prussia, again

• During the Franco-Prussia War, Italian troops
  occupied Rome.
• Rome was declared the capital of a united Kingdom
  of Italy in 1871, just as the North German
  Confederation was declared the German Reich.

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The Transition
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After Italian Unification

• Unlike Germany, Italy had few natural resources.
• Industry and the economy developed much more
  slowly.
• Many Italians were poor and illiterate.

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After Italian Unification

• The Italian constitution
• limited the kings power
• Set up a parliament of elected lawmakers.
• At first only a few wealthy males could vote.
• By 1912 all Italian men could.
• Many poor Italians sold their votes.
• As a result, corruption in government became
  widespread.

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Italy and the Papacy

• Until 1904, the Papacy had still not gotten over
  the seizure of the Papal States.
• In retaliation, the Papacy forbade Catholics to
  vote or to hold office.