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Italian Unification | Sutori

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CL
Caitlin Lochridge

Italian Unification

I. Background to Unification

  • A.  Austria controlled Italian states Piedmont-Sardinia, Lombardy, Venetia

   i. Piedmont-Sardinia was considered a “buffer”    between Austria and France (established at the    Congress of Vienna 1815)

  • B. Piedmont-Sardinia had a moderately successful Revolution of 1848 and had gained some rights from Austria, governing themselves through a monarchy

   i. Piedmont-Sardinia saw itself as leader for    unification of the Italian states

  • C. The king of Piedmont, Victor Emanuel [House of Savoy] (ruled 1849-1878) named liberal nobleman Camilo di Cavour Prime Minister

           i. Cavour was a practical nationalist who wanted    Italy united under a MONARCHY

   ii. Cavour thought it would strengthen Italy's    economy and society to be a single unified         country under a king (Victor Emmanuel)

   iii. Cavour was mostly concerned with a strong    Piedmont army to lead unification 

          iv. Cavour also knew that Italy would need  

       France’s help in fighting off Austria

Italian states before unification

II. Cavour's Leadership

  • A. Cavour used the success of economic reforms to strengthen Piedmont-Sardinia's army
  • B. Cavour knew that Piedmont's army wasn't strong enough on its own, so he sought an Alliance with France against Austria

   i. If France & Italy won against Austria, France    would get control of Austrian territory Nice &    Savoy & put their own prince (who would marry    the Italian king's daughter) in central Italy

   ii. If they won, Italy would work to unify as a single    state



Italian Prime Minister Camilo di Cavour

III. Franco-Austrian War

  • A. France + Italy VS. Austria
  • B. France began to defeat Austria
  • C. Napoleon III got cold feet and made peace with Austria without telling Italy [the war turned out to be harder than he thought, and Prussia was about the join Austria. France did not want to fight two enemies]
  • D. Piedmont-Sardinia, under the rule of King Emmanuel and leadership of Prime Minister Cavour, got control of Italian state Lombardy, Austria kept Venetia
  • E. Northern Italians started a Nationalist movement & joined Piedmont-Sardinia in their fight for unification

IV. The Romantic Republicans

  • A. Romantic Republicans wanted to unify Italy as a republic with open elections
  • B. Giuseppe Mazzini became the most important republican nationalist leader in Europe by founding Young Italy in 1831 to drive Austria from Italy

   i. He spread nationalist movements from Italy to    other nations  

   ii. During the 1830's and 40's, Mazzini and fellow    nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi led nationalist    uprisings and were both exiled

Giuseppe Garibaldi, leader of the 'Red Shirts' nationalist army

V. March toward Unification

  • A. Garibaldi's army of 'Red Shirts' (the republican nationalist army) won against the Bourbon king of Sicily in the south
  • B. Garibaldi marched north through Naples to conquer the other Italian states for unification
  • C. As Garibaldi got closer to Rome, Cavour became worried that France would fight Italy if the Pope's power was threatened
  • D. So, Cavour ordered the Piedmont-Sardinia army to invade the Papal states and gain control there before Garibaldi could get there
  • E. Garibaldi & the Red Shirts surrendered to Cavour's army because he didn't want to start an Italian civil war
  • F. The Papal states and Sicily both voted to join Piedmont-Sardinia's monarchy under Victor Emmanuel

Garibaldi's conquest of southern Italy (he had started in Genoa)

VI. Unification finalizes

  • A. March 17, 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was declared with King Victor Emmanuel as the ruler and Camilo di Cavour as the Prime Minister

   i. Venetia was still under Austria's control, and   Rome was still under the Pope's control (&       protected by France)

  • B. Italy allied with Prussia in Bismarck's Austro-Prussian war of 1866

   i. Prussia + Italy VS. Austria

   ii. When Prussia + Italy won, Prussia gave Venetia    to Italy

  • C. French troops left Rome (the Pope's protectors) during Bismarck's Franco-Prussian war of 1870, leaving Rome vulnerable

   i. Italy annexed Rome and made it its new capital    city

  • D. Italy was a unified country with Rome as its capital by july 1871

Process of Italian Unification