Victor Emmanuel Is Proclaimed King of Italy
On February 18, 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of Italy, marking a significant moment in the unification of Italy and the broader context of 19th-century European nationalism. This proclamation followed years of fragmentation, as Italy had been divided into various kingdoms, foreign territories, and the Papal States since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Victor Emmanuel, previously the king of Sardinia, ascended to the throne after his father's abdication in the wake of uprisings across Europe in 1848, which highlighted demands for democratic participation and self-rule.
The unification process gained momentum with the help of influential figures such as Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, who served as Victor Emmanuel's premier and played a crucial role in diplomatic efforts, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a popular leader who rallied support for the nationalist cause. Victor Emmanuel's leadership facilitated the annexation of key regions, including Lombardy, Piedmont, and Sicily, as various territories voted for union with Sardinia. However, the unification was not fully realized until 1870, when Venice was acquired after the Seven Weeks' War and the Papal States were annexed. Victor Emmanuel II's reign concluded with his death in Rome on January 9, 1878, solidifying his legacy as the first king of a unified Italy.
Victor Emmanuel Is Proclaimed King of Italy
Victor Emmanuel Is Proclaimed King of Italy
On February 18, 1861, the Italian parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel, formerly king of Sardinia, to be the king of the newly unified Italian nation. Shortly thereafter, on March 17, 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was formally proclaimed. It was a milestone in the progress of European nationalism during the 19th century.
Italy had not been a unified nation since the days of the Western Roman Empire, which collapsed in a.d. 476. The Empire fell when a German mercenary chieftain named Odoacer overthrew the emperor Romulus Augustulus, who had retained his services. From this time until the 19th century, Italy consisted of separate kingdoms in the north that had been settled by barbarian Germanic tribes, the Papal States in central Italy run by the Catholic Church, and a southern portion usually controlled by foreign rulers—Norman, French, Spanish, and, in Sicily, Arabic. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Austrians, who conquered much of northern Italy, including eventually Venice, were also a significant presence.
The man who would become the first king of a unified modern Italy was Victor Emmanuel II, king of the large independent island of Sardinia off the western coast of Italy. He became king after his father, Charles Albert, abdicated the Sardinian throne in 1849. The event that precipitated Charles Albert's abdication was the general uprising across Europe in the preceding year, 1848. All over the continent there were riots and demonstrations against a wide variety of social injustices, from poverty to lack of democratic participation in government to lack of self-rule by ethnic populations. The last was a major source of tension in the multinational Austrian Empire, which almost collapsed but was able to save itself with Russian military assistance. Charles Albert misjudged Austria's weakness and heeded the call of Italian nationalists to liberate northern Italy from foreign rule. He was defeated in the Battle of Novara in March 1849, but despite his humiliation and subsequent abdication, his son Victor Emmanuel II and the Sardinians were henceforth looked to with hope by the nationalists as the potential saviors of Italy.
The task of unification would take Victor Emmanuel just 12 years, thanks to the assistance of two remarkable men. The first was his premier, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, a brilliant diplomatic strategist dedicated to the cause of Italian unification under his king's banner. The second was Giuseppe Garibaldi, a commoner who had organized thousands to fight for the nationalist cause in 1848. He emigrated to the United States afterwards, but returned in the mid-1850s and embraced the cause of Italian unification under Sardinian leadership. Garibaldi was immensely popular with the common people, and with his followers he started a revolution in the south and successfully conquered Sicily in the summer of 1860. Meanwhile, with French assistance secured by Cavour, Victor Emmanuel had managed to avenge his father in 1859 by taking Lombardy and Piedmont in the north from the Austrians. Now all across Italy—in Modena, Parma, Romagna, Tuscany—people were flocking to the cause, voting for union with Sardinia. An Italian parliament was assembled, and in February and March 1861, on the dates noted previously, they proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II to be their king and established the Kingdom of Italy.
The task of unification was not complete, however, since Venice was still under Austrian control and the Papal States were still independent. Venice was taken in 1866 when Italy allied itself with Prussia, which defeated Austria in the Seven Weeks' War, and the Papal States were annexed in 1870. Victor Emmanuel took up residence in the new capital city of Rome, where he died on January 9, 1878.