Italian unification (Risorgimento)
Italian unification, known as the Risorgimento, was a pivotal movement in the 19th century that led to the consolidation of various states and territories on the Italian Peninsula into a single nation. The process began in earnest following the 1815 Congress of Vienna, which restored pre-Napoleonic boundaries and divided Italy into several kingdoms and states. The Risorgimento was characterized by a series of nationalistic revolts, political maneuvers, and key figures, such as Giuseppe Mazzini and Camillo di Cavour, who played crucial roles in advocating for unification.
Initial uprisings in the 1820s and 1830s faced repression but helped to galvanize support for the movement. A significant turning point occurred during the revolts of 1848, which, despite their failures, empowered revolutionary groups. Cavour’s strategic alliances, particularly with France, and military actions against Austria were instrumental in achieving territorial gains. In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed, although the unification process continued until 1870, when Rome was annexed and became the capital, marking the culmination of the Risorgimento. This movement not only shaped Italy’s national identity but also mirrored similar nationalist movements across Europe, ultimately influencing broader geopolitical dynamics in the region.
Italian unification (Risorgimento)
The unification of Italy was one of the most significant events in nineteenth-century European history. Resulting from a movement known in Italian as Risorgimento, which translates into "resurgence," the unification process was gradual. It included nationalistic revolts, armed uprisings, and complex political maneuvering. Historians usually cite the 1815 Congress of Vienna as the beginning of Risorgimento and the 1871 declaration of Rome as the Kingdom of Italy's capital as its end.
Italian unification is a prominent example of the nationalistic fervor that swept across many parts of Europe during the nineteenth century. A similar unification process took place in Germany and concluded in 1871. These nationalistic movements went on to have profound effects in the twentieth century, and they were underlying factors in the eventual outbreak of the World Wars.
Background
Following the final collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, the Italian Peninsula evolved into a group of sovereign city-states and small kingdoms. While some of these polities managed to retain their independence, others came to be controlled by a succession of foreign powers, including Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg royal dynasty, and the Bourbon kings of France, whose powers later extended to Spain and other territories. In the aftermath of the French Revolution (1789–1799), France entered into a period of imperial expansion in Europe under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte. Under Napoleon's command, the armies of France conquered vast amounts of territory in Europe, including what is now Italy.
Throughout his campaign, Napoleon was opposed by numerous European powers in a series of conflicts known as the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815). In October of 1813, Napoleon was defeated by a coalition army in the Battle of Nations. After extended negotiations, Napoleon reluctantly abdicated his throne at the head of the French Empire and went into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba.
In September of 1814, Europe's so-called Great Powers convened at the Congress of Vienna to discuss the political future of Europe. The Great Powers—composed of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia—had led the armed resistance against Napoleon and sought to restore order in Europe. At the Congress of Vienna, the Great Powers agreed to restore the territories of the Italian Peninsula to the statuses they held before the Napoleonic Wars. This decision split the Italian Peninsula into four main divisions: the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as Piedmont), the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Lombardy.
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies recovered the city of Naples and the southern reaches of the Italian Peninsula and reverted to the control of the Spanish Bourbons. The Kingdom of Sardinia gained the city of Genoa, recovered the region of Savoy and the island of Sardinia, and returned to domestic rule under the House of Savoy. Pope Pius VII regained control of the Papal States, including the city of Rome. An expanded Kingdom of Lombardy—which included territories in the northern and central parts of the Italian Peninsula, Tuscany, Venice, and the region surrounding Venice—was returned to the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty.
Overview
After the Congress of Vienna, unrest spread through the Italian Peninsula and successive waves of nationalistic revolt broke out during the 1820s and early 1830s. Although these insurgencies were quashed with military assistance from Austria, Risorgimento emerged as a political force by 1833, with the Young Italy movement (La Giovine Italia) of nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini championing the cause of Italian unification at this early phase. Over the next decade, Mazzini and his followers staged numerous failed attempts at inciting a united armed uprising, prompting many nationalist activists to flee into exile; others were arrested or executed.
In 1844, nationalists Attilio Bandiera and Emilio Bandiera identified the creation of a unified, democratic Italy with Rome as its capital as the ultimate goal of the revolutionary movement before they were put to death for their political activities. The execution of the Bandiera brothers marked a turning point for the Risorgimento movement, helping it win greater levels of popular support.
During the late 1840s and 1850s, numerous factors helped bring the Italian unification process to its eventual completion. A continent-wide economic crisis hit the Italian Peninsula in 1847, sending food prices soaring. The following year, a wave of violent revolts swept across Europe, inspiring Risorgimento supporters to stage another series of democratic uprisings. While these uprisings did not meet with immediate success, they did give newfound political power to revolutionary groups, inspiring Camillo di Cavour, a Piedmont-born politician, to launch a series of complex political maneuvers that unified most of the Italian Peninsula under the Kingdom of Sardinia.
While serving as Sardinia's prime minister, Cavour leveraged his kingdom's involvement in the Crimean War (1853–1856) to raise the international profile of the Risorgimento movement. Bringing Sardinia into an alliance with France, Cavour had France's assurance that it would intervene on Sardinia's behalf in the event of a military confrontation with Austria, which had impeded the Italian unification movement repeatedly so it could retain control of its territories in the Italian Peninsula. Cavour then provoked Austria, enticing it to declare war on Sardinia, which prompted France to intercede. France quickly overpowered Austria, leading to peace negotiations in 1859. During these negotiations, Sardinia received the Austrian province of Lombardy while ceding the city of Nice and the region of Savoy to France.
Sensing opportunity, nationalists in the central regions of the Italian Peninsula appealed to their power bases, prompting the region's revolutionary assemblies to vote in favor of joining the Kingdom of Sardinia. Giuseppe Garibaldi, a pro-unification military leader who had been leading an independence movement in Uruguay, returned to Italy and liberated the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from Spanish Bourbon control. The Italian Peninsula then devolved into an internal struggle, with Cavour and Garibaldi squaring off for control. Garibaldi eventually conceded to Cavour, and the unified Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861.
However, several noteworthy parts of present-day Italy were not part of the 1861 kingdom, including Venetia, the Papal States, and Rome, which was occupied by French troops at the time. In 1870, France lost control of Rome during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), leading to the annexation of the Papal States by the Kingdom of Italy. This, coupled with the 1866 recapture of Venetia from Austria, finally unified the entire Italian Peninsula as a single nation. In 1871, Rome replaced Florence as the Italian capital, bringing Risorgimento to a successful conclusion.
Bibliography
Brown, G. "Italian Unification." University of Nevada-Las Vegas, faculty.unlv.edu/gbrown/westernciv/wc201/wciv2c21/wciv2c21lsec2.html. Accessed 22 June 2017.
Campbell, Kenneth L. Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach: Volume II: Since 1600. Routledge, 2015, pp. 179–205.
Collier, Martin. Italian Unification, 1820–71. Heinemann, 2003.
"Congress of Vienna and the Hundred Days." SparkNotes, 2017, www.sparknotes.com/history/european/napoleonic/section10.rhtml. Accessed 22 June 2017.
Ghervas, Stella. "What Was the Congress of Vienna?" History Today, 2014, www.historytoday.com/stella-ghervas/what-was-congress-vienna. Accessed 22 June 2017.
"The Italian Risorgimento: A Timeline." The Florentine, 10 Mar. 2011, www.theflorentine.net/lifestyle/2011/03/the-italian-risorgimento-a-timeline/. Accessed 22 June 2017.
"Italian Unification (1848–1870)." SparkNotes, 2017, www.sparknotes.com/history/european/1871/section3.rhtml. Accessed 22 June 2017.
Mason, David S. A Concise History of Modern Europe: Liberty, Equality, Solidarity. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, pp. 83–92.