Unification of Italy

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Italian unification or Risorgimento is a political and social process that brought to the unification of the Italian peninsula into a single nation, between 19th and the beginning of 20th century.

As in all historical processes, it is difficult to define precise dates for the beginning and the end of Italian unification. The beginning could be set in 1815, when in the Congress of Vienna the winners of Napoleonic wars decided the new European political situation, ignoring national and liberal impulses, and imposing a stifling reaction on the continent. The end of the Italian unification can be considered World War I, whose consequence was the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain that united last irredent cities to the Kingdom of Italy.

Background

After the fall of Napoleon, groups in several Italian states started a movement toward unification, seeing it as the only hope of giving Italy a position of dignity and honour among nations. Italian unification was perceived to be especially a struggle against the Austrian Empire and the Hapsburgs, since they directly controlled north-eastern Italy and were the single most powerful force against unification. Austrian Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich stated that the term Italy was "purely a geographic expression".

The different groups that desired unification were not generally agreed on what form the unified state was to take. One early project (in 1847-1848) was for a confederation of Italian states, under the presidency of the Pope. Mazzini and other revolutionaries wanted a republic. But eventually it was King Victor Emmanuel and his ministers who had the power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.

Papal and Catholic opposition to Italian unification did not solidify until after the proposal for a confederation (leaving the Papal States as well as others some autonomy) failed. After that, as English and Catholic historian E.E.Y. Hales points out, "If he (Pius IX) yielded any of his states, either to the Mazzinian republicans, or to the government of Turin, it meant yielding up his subjects to a regime under which the religious orders would be persecuted, and the rest of the secularist programme would be put into effect." (Hales, 1958)

Italy after the Congress of Vienna (1815)

According to the Congress of Vienna, the Italian peninsula was divided into the following states:

Early insurrections (1820 and 1830)

Carbonari insurrections (1820–21)

The basis of the revolutionary movements in Italy was the secret political association known as the Carbonari, formed in South Italy early in the nineteenth century, inspiring to French revolution principles. Its components were from medium class or intellectuals. After the Congress of Vienna and the restoration of the old powers, Carbonari spread into the Papal Staes, the kingdom of Sardinia, Tuscany, Modena, and Lombardy-Venetia.

In 1814 this organization planned a revolution in Naples, and in 1820 it was strong enough to invade Naples with an army and force the king to give an oath to observe the new constitution which the revolutionaries had prepared. The revolution was put down in the following year by the Austrians, acting as the agents of the "Holy Alliance" between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

Two Sicilies insurrection

In 1820, a revolt started in Spain, to obtain the restoration of 1812 constitution: the revolt was successful, and inspired a similar movement in Italy. In July, a Two Sicilies regiment, commanded by Carbonari member and general Guglielmo Pepe, revolted, and conquered the peninsular part of the kingdom. The king, Ferdinand I, conceded a constitution similar to Spanish Constitution of 1812. The revolutionary forces, however, did not seek for popular support, refusing to reform land property, and therefore remained weak. Secretly called for the help of "Holy Alliance". Austrian troops entered the Two Sicilies in 1821 and defeated revolutionary troops. Ferdinand abolished the constitution, and started a savage persecution of Liberals and Carbonari.

Piedmont insurrection

The initial success of the Neapolitan revolt caused patriots in the other parts of Italy to enter in action. While in Lombardy-Venetia the Austrian forces succeded in preventing revolts, in Piedmont the Liberals had some success. The leader of this movement was Santorre di Santarosa, whose aim was the defeat of the Austrians, and the unification of Italy under Savoy dinasty. He seeked the support of the heir to the Sardinian throne, Charles Albert, who initially provided it, but later refused to join the movement. The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria, whose troops adopted the green-white-red tricolore of the Cisalpine Republic. The king, Victor Emmanuel I, abdicated in favour of his brother, Charles Felix, who was outside the kingdom: Charles Albert was entitled of the regency, and approved the a constitutional law based on the Spanish Constitution of 1812 (15 March 1821). When Charles Felix returned to Piedmont to take the power, however, he disavowed the constitution, and called for "Holy Alliance" help. On 8 April, the constitutional troops lead by Santorre di Santarosa were defeated by Autrians near Novara.

1830–31 insurrection

The duke of Modena, Francis IV, was very ambitious, and had projected to increase his territories, thus becoming king of a Northen Italy kingdom. In 1826, contacted by Modena lawyer Enrico Misley, Francis let understand he would not oppose a liberal movement aimed at subverting current political situation towards a unification of Italy. Misley, together with Carbonari member Ciro Menotti, led the liberal movement to organize a revolution under Francis guidance.

The right moment appeared to be 1830, when, during July Revolution, middle-class forced the Bourbon king to abdicate and started the July Monarchy: The French experience showed that it was possible, for middle-class, to influence the introduction of more liberal governments. Furthermore, the new French king, Louise-Philippe, adopted a non-interventist politic that claimed that no power had the right to intervene in internal political matters of other nations, and that France would military support this politic. Italian liberals established contacts with Louise-Philippe, through the French general Lafayette, and were ensured of France intervent if Austria would have entered in Italian states. However, Francis was scared by the possibility to lose the throne, and thought that Austria would military prevent any liberal action in Italy, since he did not believe in Louise-Philippe intervent, and therefore denied his support to Ciro Menotti action. On his hand, Menotti had projected to unite the whole Italy under a constitutional monarchy with Rome as capital: the first step would be an insurrections in Duchy of Modena and Papal Legations. Francis IV was informed of Menotti's insurrection plan, and arrested him and the other conspirators on 3 February 1831.

At the same time, other insurrection took place in Papal Legations: in Bologna, led by Carbonari supporters, in Forlì, Ravenna, Imola, Ferrara, Pesaro and Urbino, insurgents created local governments, dropped papal flag and adopted the Italian tricolore. The insurrections quickly enlarged, covering all the Legations, and the local governments claimed the creation of a united Italian nation.

Fearing that insurgents in his duchy would have soon support from those of the Papal legations, Francis IV left Modena, bringing with him Menotti.

The situation of Modena and of the Papal Legations influenced also the Duchy of Parma. On 14 February, Parma government adopted tricolore as flag, and the duchess Marie Louise left the city.

Pope Gregory XVI was elected on 2 February 1831, and had immediatly to face the insurrections in the Papal Legacies. However, even Rome itself was not safe, since Italian patriots had been planning an insurrection since the end of 1830. A group of 3,000 soldiers, led by pontificial general Sercognani and including Napoleon Louis Bonaparte and Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (future Napoleon III of France), marched from Marche towards Rome, but, without the support of the troops from Bologna, entered in Spoleto and surrended in the hands of the local archibishop, Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti (future Pope Pius IX).

Insurrected provinces planned to unite in an independent country, the Province Italiane unite (united Italian provinces), when Pope Gregory XVI asked for Austrian help against the rebels. Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention to let Italian matters be, and that a French intervention would not be tolerated. Therefore, Louis-Philippe, with a volte-face, retired his support to Italian insurgents, forbade any French help to them, and arrested Italian patriots living in France.

Austrian army, led by general Radetzky, entered in Duchy of Modena on 9 March, and freed the country, restoring Francis IV. Then, it occupied one-by-one all the rebel provinces, which had been acting each with its own policy and without coordination. On 24 March, the independent provinces experience had terminated.

A strong repression took place, particulary by hand of Francis IV: Ciro Menotti, among the others was sentenced to death.

Unification movement

Two prominent figures in the unification struggle were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, both progressive and republican. Among the more conservative constitutional monarchic figures, Count Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II, later the first king of a united Italy, were especially important. It is noteworthy that Catholics were normally not involved in the process, as making a single nation of Italy meant waging war on the Papal States.

An ordinance was passed, condemning anyone who attended a meeting of the Carbonari to capital punishment. But the society continued to exist and was at the basis of many of the outbreaks that took place in Italy from 1820. Mazzini, Garibaldi and most leaders of the unification movement were members of this organization. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III to death for failing to live up to his obligations and almost succeeded in his assassination.

Mazzini, a native of Genoa Badger, became a member of the Carbonari in 1830. His activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be proscribed soon after, and in 1831 he went to Marseilles, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia ("Young Italy"), whose motto was "God and the People" and whose fundamental objective was the union of the several states and kingdoms of Italy into one nation.

Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834, was sentenced to death, and escaped to South America. He spent fourteen years there, taking part in several wars, and returned to Italy in 1848.

Creation of Italian state

The revolutions of 1848 opened Italy to these two patriots, and they hastened to return, Garibaldi to offer his services to Charles Albert of Sardinia, by whom, however, he was treated with coldness and distrust. Mazzini, after founding the Roman Republic in 1849, called upon Garibaldi to come to its defence, and the latter displayed the greatest heroism in the contest against the Neapolitan and French invaders. He escaped from Rome on its capture by the French, and, after many desperate conflicts and adventures with the Austrians, was again driven into exile, and in 1850 became a resident of New York. For some time he worked as a candlemaker on Staten Island, and afterwards made several voyages on the Pacific.

The war of 1859 was incited by Cavour and Napoleon III of France. Neither wanted to be seen as starting this war but instead Cavour made statements which incited Austria to declare war. The war opened a new and promising avenue for the devotion of Garibaldi to his native land. Being appointed major-general and commissioned to raise a volunteer corps, he organized the hardy body of mountaineers called the "Hunters of the Alps", and with them performed prodigies of valor on the plains of Lombardy, winning victories over the Austrians at Varese, Como and other places. In his ranks was his fellow-patriot Mazzini.

The success of the French and Sardinians in Lombardy during this war stirred Italy. The grand duke of Tuscany fled to Austria. The duchess of Parma sought refuge in Switzerland. The duke of Modena found shelter in the Austrian camp. Bologna threw off its allegiance to the pope, and proclaimed the king of Sardinia dictator. Several other towns in the Papal States did the same.

In the terms of the truce between Louis-Napoleon and Franz Josef the rulers of these realms were to resume their reigns if the people would permit. But the people would not permit, and they were all annexed to Sardinia, which country was greatly expanded as a result of the war.

It will not suffice to give all the credit for these revolutionary movements to Mazzini, the organizer, Garibaldi, the soldier, and the ambitious monarchs of France and Sardinia. More important than king and emperor was the eminent statesman Cavour, prime minister of Sardinia from 1852. It is to this able man that the honor of the unification of Italy most fully belongs, though he did not live to see it. He sent a Sardinian army (Bersaglieri) to the assistance of France and England in the Crimea in 1855, and by this act gave his state a standing among the powers of Europe. He secured liberty of the press and favored toleration in religion and free trade. He rebelled against the dominion of the papacy, and devoted his abilities to the liberation and unity of Italy, undismayed by the angry fulminations from the Vatican. The war of 1859 was his work, and he had the satisfaction of seeing Sardinia increased by the addition of Lombardy, Tuscany, Parma and Modena. A great step had been taken in the work to which he had devoted his life.

The Mille expedition

Now that the North had been united in the Kingdom of Italy, the Risorgimento turned to absorbing the powerful Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (Two Sicilies) in the south, a daunting task. Faced with strong political and military obstacles, Garibaldi would invade the South with a thousand volunteers and raise a popular army in rebellion.

Francis II, the son and successor of the infamous "King Bomba" of the Two Sicilies, had a well-organized army of 150,000 men. But his father's tyranny had inspired many secret societies, and the kingdom's Swiss mercenaries were unexpectedly recalled home, leaving to Francis only his unreliable native troops, a critical interval of opportunity for the unification movement.

In April, 1860, separate insurrections in Messina and Palermo signalled their intent. These were easily suppressed by loyal troops; but despite a declared state of siege in these cities, unification supporters staged popular demonstrations which energized public opinion. On May 6, 1860, Garibaldi and his cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (the so-called I Mille) steamed from Quarto, near Genoa, and after a stop in Talamone, on May 11 landed near Marsala, on the west coast of Sicily.

The invasion force proceeded to the mountains, and near Salemi gathered scattered bands of rebels into an army of 4,000 men. On May 14 Garibaldi issued a proclamation, proclaiming himself dictator of Sicily, in the name of Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy. After successfully waging various hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon the capital, Naples, announcing his arrival by beacon-fires kindled at night. On May 27 the force laid seige to the Porta Termina of Palermo, and encouraged a mass uprising of street and barricade fighting.

With the city deemed insurgent, Neapolitan General Lanza, dispatched with strong reinforcements to Sicily, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. With the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice was concluded, leading to the departure of the Neapolitan troops and ships and the surrender of the town to Garibaldi, who had defeated a regular army of 25,000 with just a band of 5,000 badly armed followers. This unequal result had tremendous consequences, demonstrating the weakness of the Neapolitan government, and spreading Garibaldi's fame far abroad. Many Italians now saw him as a national hero. Doubt, confusion and dismay overtook even the Neapolitan court. The king hastily summoned a liberal ministry, and offered to restore the constitution of 1848 (Statute), but these efforts failed to rebuild trust in Bourbon governance.

Six weeks after the surrender of Palermo Garibaldi marched against Messina. On July 21 the fortress of Milazzo was evacuated, and a week afterwards all Messina except the citadel was given up.

Garibaldi then proceeded to the mainland, crossing Messina with the Neapolitan fleet at hand and attaining the surender of the garrison at Reggio Calabria. Progressing northward, the populace everywhere hailed him and military resistance faded. At the end of August he was at Cosenza; on September 5 at Eboli, near Salerno. Meanwhile Naples had been declared in a state of siege, and on September 6 the king retreated with a guard of 4000 over the Volturno river. The next day Garibaldi, with a few followers, entered Naples, whose people openly welcomed him.

Defeat of Naples

Though Garibaldi had easily taken the capital, the Neapolitan army had not joined the rebellion en masse, remaining loyal to the king, and held firm along the Volturno River. Garibaldi's irregular bands of no more than 25,000 men could not hope to drive away the king or take the fortresses of Capua and Gaeta, without the help of Sardinia.

Accordingly, in September a Sardinian force of two army corps, under Fanti and Cialdini, marched to the frontier of the Papal States, its object being not Rome but Naples. The Papal troops under Lamoriciere advanced against Cialdini, but were quickly defeated and besieged in the fortress of Ancona, finally surrender on September 29. On October 9, Victor Emmanuel II arrived and took command. There was no longer a papal army to oppose him, and the march southward proceeded without a check.

Garibaldi distrusted the pragmatist Cavour, particularly due to Cavour's role in the annexation by France of Nice, which was Garibaldi's birthplace. Nevertheless he trusted Victor Emmanuel, who seemed just the man to unite Italy. When the king entered Sessa at the head of his army, Garibaldi willingly handed over his dictatorial power. After greeting Victor Emmanuel in Teano with the title of King of Italy, and resigning the next day with a brief telegram reading only "Obbedisco" (I obey), he entered Naples, riding beside the king. Garibaldi then retired to the island of Caprera, refusing rewards, and left the completion of the campaign to the king.

The progress of the Sardinian army compelled Francis to give up the line of the Volturno, and he eventually took refuge, with his best troops, in the fortress of Gaeta. His morale boosted by his young wife, the Bavarian Princess Mary, Francis mounted a stubborn defense that lasted three months, but European allies refused him aid, and with disease, scarcity of food and of munitions, the garrison was forced to capitulate.

First march on Rome

The fall of Gaeta brought the unification of Italy nearly to a close; only Rome and Venice remained to be added to the united kingdom. On February 18 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled at Turin the deputies of all the states that acknowledged his supremacy, and in their presence assumed the title of King of Italy, which he was the first to bear. Four months later Cavour, having seen his life's work nearly complete, died.

With the motto "Free from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea!", the unification movement looked to incorporate Rome and Venice. Garibaldi, frustrated at inaction by the king, and bristling over perceived snubs of his expedition's volunteers, organized a new venture in the same vein. In June 1862, he sailed from Genoa and landed at Palermo, where he gathered another corps of volunteers. Though the king was wary of fighting the French troops supporting the Papal army, and discouraged such moves, Garibaldi apparently believed he had the secret backing of the Italian government.

When the garrison of Messina proved steadfast, Garibaldi detoured to Catania with 2000 volunteers, where he declared he would enter Rome as a victor, or perish beneath its walls. On August 24 he landed at Melito and disappeared into the Calabrian mountains. General Cialdini dispatched a division of the regular army, under Colonel Pallavicino, against the volunteer bands. On August 28 the two forces met at Aspromonte. A chance shot was followed by several volleys from the regulars, but Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire on fellow Italians. The volunteers suffered several casualties, including Garibaldi who was wounded, and were taken prisoner.

Garibaldi was taken by steamer to Varignano , where he was held under house arrest, and underwent a tedious and painful operation on his injury. Eventually restored to health, he was set free, and allowed to return to his rocky island of Caprera.

Third Independence War (1866)

In 1866, with the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary handed the leading position among German states to Prussia. The Kingdom of Italy allied itself with Prussia, since Austria-Hungary still occupied the territory of Venetia, which Italian irredentists sought to include in unification; a pact between Prussia and Italy, signed on 8 April, supported a postwar Italian acquisition of Venetia.

Within the context of Italian unification, the Austro-Prussian war is called Third Independence War, after the First (1848) and the Second (1859 – 1861).

On 20 June, the Kingdom of Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The Italian army, commanded by Victor Emmanuel II and general La Marmora, was defeated at the Second Battle of Custoza (June 24). On 20 July the Regia Marina was defeated in the battle of Lissa. The following day, on 21 July, Garibaldi's Hunters of the Alps volunteers defeated Austrians in the battle of Bezzecca, and moved towards Trento to free it. Meanwhile, Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck signed an armistice with Austria on 26 July. Italy, deserted by her ally, recalled Garibaldi, who had conquered part of Trentino, and itself signed an armistice with Austria-Hungary on 12 August.

Under terms of the peace treaty, signed in Vienna (October 12), Austria-Hungary would cede Venetia to France, and thence to Italy. On 19 October, Venetia was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

Rome capital (1870)

The position of Pope Pius had become serious. Though Louis Napoleon counseled reforms, Pius refused them and threatened with excommunication anyone threatening the domain of the Catholic Church. Catholics worldwide sent money and volunteers for the Papal Army, which was commanded by General Lamoriciere, a French exile, in the hopes of gaining the support of the French garrison of Rome.

The settlement of the perilous situation seemed to rest with Louis Napoleon. If he had let Garibaldi have his way the latter would, no doubt, have quickly ended the temporal sovereignty of the pope and made Rome the capital of Italy. But Napoleon seems to have arranged with Cavour to leave the king of Sardinia free to take possession of Naples, Umbria and the other provinces, provided that Rome and the "patrimony of St. Peter" were left intact.

In 1870, however, Franco-Prussian War started, and French Emperor Napoleon III could no longer protect the Papal States. Italian government caught the occasion, and declared war to Papal States on 10 September. The Italian army, commanded by general Raffaele Cadorna, entered in Rome on 20 September, and the city and Latium were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

The pope declared himself a prisoner of the Vatican, although no one prevented him from coming and going as he pleased.

Modern era

Italian unification was completed with the annexation of Trieste and Trento (with respective territories of Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino), obtained at the end of World War I.

The Kingdom of Italy declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, but had contacts with both Austria-Hungary (which required Italy to stay neutral), and with France (which required Italian intervent). With the London Pact, signed in 1915, Triple Entente exchanged Friuli, Trentino and some other territories with Italian intervent in the war, against Austria and Germany. The new front contributed to central empires' defeat, and with Treaty of Saint-Germain, in 1919.

Secession movements

The Italian unification process was a popular one. Nevertheless, dissenters were present in 19th century (mostly the rulers of the annexed states) and regionalist sympathies continue. There are two chief secession movements represented by active political parties: one in the North (Lega Nord), and one in the South (Due Sicilie); the former has elected representatives to the national parliament.

References

See also

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