Italian Wars of Unification

At issue: The liberation of the Italian peninsula from foreign rule and its organization into a national state

Date: March 18, 1848-September 20, 1870

Location: Italian peninsula

Combatants: French vs. Italians; Austrians vs. Italians

Principal commanders:Austrian, Count Josef Radetzky (1766–1858), Count Franz Gyulai (1798–1868), Kaiser Franz Josef I (1830–1916); French, Emperor Napoleon III (1808–1873); Italian, King Charles Albert (1798–1849), Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), King Victor Emmanuel II (1820–1878), Alfonso La Marmora (1804–1878)

Principal battles: First Custozza, Novara, Magenta, Solferino, Second Custozza

Result: Political unification of the Italian peninsula in the kingdom of Italy

Background

When Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Italy in 1796, his army brought with it at point of bayonet the ideals of the French Revolution, thus simultaneously awakening political liberalism in the peninsula and imbuing a hatred of foreign domination. The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), charting the shape of post-Napoleonic Europe, reconstituted the Italian peninsula much the way it had been at the end of the previous century, so that it was divided into nine states (Piedmont, Modena, Parma, Lucca, Tuscany, the Papal States, Naples, San Marino, and Monaco) and two Austrian provinces (Lombardy and Venetia). Most of these states were politically reactionary, and the politics of the peninsula were controlled by Austria from its northern provinces. It was not long before a number of Italians began to develop powerful political rationales for overthrowing or liberalizing the governments of Italy and a strong “Italy-for-the-Italians” sentiment arose to promote the idea of a unified national state. In the decades of the 1820’s and 1830’s, uprisings against the governments of various of the Italian states were easily put down by the authorities. Gradually, some nationalists came to believe that the unification of Italy could only be achieved if the most powerful and modern Italian state, the kingdom of Piedmont, led the way, providing both a political magnet for Italian nationalism and a counterweight to Austrian power. Charles Albert, king of Piedmont since 1831, was not averse to aggrandizing his kingdom’s role but was far from modern in his political thinking. Only in the face of peninsula-wide liberal agitation following the Sicilian revolution against the Neapolitan Bourbons (January 12, 1848) did he consent to a constitution for Piedmont.

Action

The Italian War of Independence of 1848–1849, also called the Austro-Sardinian War of 1848–1849, began when Italian nationalists rioted in Milan. Josef Radetzky, the Austrian commander in chief in Italy, pulled his troops out of Milan (March 22, 1848) after five days of street fighting in which he sustained 5,000 casualties. Radetzky retreated to a strong defensive position, the Quadrilateral, four fortresses at Mantua, Verona, Peschiera, and Legnago, that secured the Austrian province of Lombardy. With all his scattered garrisons collected there, he would have about 70,000 men. As soon as King Charles Albert seized on the crisis and declared war on Austria (March 23), the other Italian states immediately joined in, sending nearly 48,000 troops to fight alongside the Piedmontese army of 45,000. Having fought against Napoleon’s French army in northern Italy in the previous century and commanded in Italy for twenty years, Radetzky was completely familiar with the terrain and moved his troops constantly to keep the Papal, Neapolitan, Venetian, and other Italian forces from effectively supporting the Piedmontese. The best the Italians could do was capture Peschiera at the end of May, just about the time Radetzky’s army finally was reinforced (May 25). Going on the offensive, Radetzky defeated Charles Albert decisively at the First Battle of Custozza (July 24-25), breaking through the Piedmontese center on the first day and routing the entire army on the second. The Piedmontese king arranged an armistice (August 9) and withdrew from Lombardy, and the Austrians reoccupied Milan and besieged Venice.

Unwisely, Charles Albert resumed the war the following year (March 12, 1849) after reorganizing and strengthening his army. Almost immediately, Radetzky invaded Piedmont and won a brilliant victory at Novara (March 23) by pinning the Piedmontese army with successive frontal assaults and then attacking its flank. Charles Albert immediately abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, who sought an armistice the following day. The French decided to intervene to restore the pope to the head of the rebellious Papal States and landed an army at Civitavecchia (April 25). The Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, at the head of a volunteer army known as the Redshirts, led the defense of the city for two months before it fell to the French and papal forces (June 29). Meanwhile, the Austrians were consolidating their control of northern Italy and tightening their Siege of Venice. In the summer, a peace treaty was signed between Austria and Piedmont (August 9). Venice surrendered fifteen days later (August 24). Though the Piedmontese had to pay an indemnity of 65,000,000 francs to Austria, Italian unity was no longer an idea but a cause, and the Piedmontese had placed themselves at its head.

After a decade of reform and modernization that saw their army fight well in the Crimean War, the Piedmontese felt ready to renew the military struggle. The prime minister, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, made a treaty with the French that provided for French military assistance if war could be started in such a way as to make the Austrians appear to be the aggressors. Cavour envisioned the ultimate unification of the Italian peninsula in a federation of four states under the presidency of the pope: an expanded Piedmont in the north; a central kingdom of Tuscany and Umbria; Rome and its hinterland; and Naples in the south. Wary of the disparity in size and resources between Austria and Piedmont, Cavour sought French military and diplomatic help in the first stage, creating a northern Italian kingdom by uniting Lombardy and Venetia to Piedmont. When the Austrians got wind of the alliance, they protested vigorously, and Piedmont mobilized its army (March 9, 1859). The Austrians then mobilized (April 7), presented an ultimatum to Piedmont (April 23), and declared war (April 29) in what became known as the War of Austria with France and Piedmont.

By the time of the declaration of war, only three quarters of the Austrian army was effectively mobilized. The Austrians at first aimed at breaking through the Piedmontese army defending Turin, but their lengthy mobilization had given the French time to send troops to Genoa to strengthen the Piedmontese right. This forced the Austrian commander, Count Franz Gyulai, to shift troops to his left wing. At Montebello (May 20) and Palestro (May 30-31) he met defeat at the hands of the French and began withdrawing into Austrian territory as the French and Piedmontese marched toward Milan. In a remarkably disorganized battle at Magenta (June 4), the Austrians took 5,700 casualties and lost 4,500 men to desertion, as against 4,000 casualties and 600 missing for the French. The Austrian emperor, Franz Josef I, dismissed Gyulai and personally led his army against the Piedmontese and French at Solferino (June 24). At the end of a long, bloody, and confused day, the French had lost 11,600 casualties, the Piedmontese 5,521, and the Austrians 22,000. Franz Josef had to retreat to the Quadrilateral. Appalled by the butchery he had witnessed and worried that the kingdom of Piedmont might become too powerful, the French commander, Emperor Napoleon III, concluded an armistice. The Piedmontese had to be content with the province of Lombardy, except for the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera.

The French emperor’s fear of Piedmont’s growing power arose because of popular uprisings during the war that had driven out the rulers of Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and Romagna. Fearing that Piedmont would annex these areas, he stipulated in a draft treaty that they be returned to their former rulers. His nervousness was overcome by greed when Cavour offered him Nice and Savoy. He permitted plebiscites in the rebellious states, all of which favored union with Piedmont, and they were incorporated into the northern kingdom by the Treaty of Turin (March 24, 1860), which concluded the war. No sooner was the treaty signed than the Sicilians rose against their Neapolitan Bourbon rulers. Cavour persuaded Garibaldi, who was on the point of marching into his birthplace, Nice, in order to prevent the French from occupying it, to take his Redshirts instead to Sicily. After defeating the Neapolitan forces at Catalfimi (May 15) and Milazzo (July 20), Garibaldi crossed over to Italy and captured Naples (September 7). As he prepared to chase the fleeing Neapolitan army north, Cavour, who feared that Garibaldi would provoke the French by attacking the pope or cause another war with the Austrians by marching on Venice, used unrest in the Papal States as an excuse for intervening. The Piedmontese army vanquished the papal forces at Castelfidardo (September 18) and linked up with Garibaldi’s army in Neapolitan territory even as French troops entered Rome to protect the pope. While the Neapolitan forces were being defeated at Volturno (October 26) and besieged in Gaeta (November, 1860-February, 1861), Naples, Sicily, the Marches, and Umbria all voted for union with Piedmont. The kingdom of Italy was established (March 17) with Turin as its capital and adopted the Piedmontese constitution of 1848. Now only the city of Rome, the province of Venetia, and the Trentino region remained to be liberated.

When Garibaldi led his Redshirts to attack Rome the following year, the Italian army crushed them at Aspromonte (August 29, 1862). It preferred to negotiate a French withdrawal from Rome because it still needed French diplomatic and military support to bring Venetia into Italy. The opportunity came in 1866. With the assistance of Emperor Napoleon III, the Italian government concluded an alliance with Prussia (May 12) and declared war on Austria (June 20) as Austria and Prussia were entering into the Austro-Prussian War (also known as the Seven Weeks’ War). Even though Austria was eager to cede Venetia to avoid being attacked on two fronts, Italy wanted to obtain the province as the result of a glorious victory that would bring them the Trentino as well. Its army, led by General Alfonso La Marmora and King Victor Emmanuel II, met immediate defeat at the Second Battle of Custozza (June 24), even though it outnumbered the Austrian army by a ratio of three to two. The Italian navy fared no better at Lissa (July 20), losing three ironclads and a thousand men to a spirited Austrian squadron. Garibaldi’s irregulars, fighting in the Trentino, had minor successes, but Austria was not fighting Italy alone. It was no match for Prussia, and Italy’s prize in the peace treaty was permanent possession of the province of Venetia.

Now only Rome remained, and when France withdrew its troops at the end of 1866, Garibaldi once again took arms against the papal forces. His greatest success, at the Battle of Monte Rotondo (October 24, 1867), took place two days before the French army returned to Rome to protect the pope. The combined papal and French forces decimated Garibaldi’s troops at Mentana (November 3) and the Italian government arrested the survivors who sought refuge in Italy. Rome remained in papal hands until French troops were again withdrawn in 1870. The Italian army occupied the city (September 20). Annexed by Italy, Rome was proclaimed the Italian capital (October 2). The wars of Italian unification were ended at last.

Aftermath

Italy was united and immediately took its place as one of the European powers. By 1882 it was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. At the outbreak of World War I (1914), Italy abandoned the Triple Alliance and joined the Allied Powers instead. Its reward was the Trentino region in the north, which Italy finally incorporated at the end of World War I.

Bibliography

Blumberg, Arnold. A Carefully Planned Accident: The Italian War of 1859. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1990.

Coppa, Frank J. The Origins of the Italian Wars of Independence. New York: Longman, 1992.

Hibbert, Christopher. Garibaldi and His Enemies: The Clash of Arms and Personalities in the Making of Italy. New York: Penguin, 1986.

Turnbull, Patrick. Solferino: The Birth of a Nation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.

Wawro, Geoffrey. The Austro-Prussian War: Austria’s War with Prussia and Italy, 1866. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.