History: European History

Italian Unification

Italian Unification or Italian Risorgimento, series of political and military events that resulted in a unified kingdom of Italy in 1861. After the settlements reached at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, which divided territory among the victors of the Napoleonic Wars and restored Austrian domination of the Italian peninsula, Italy was left completely fragmented.

At that time it faced three obstacles to unity: Austrian occupation of the north and northeast; the Papal States—the principality under the pope's sovereignty—which divided the north from the south; and the existence of several independent states including the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the two Sicilies.

Sentiment for unity grew, and beginning in 1820, a secret society called the Carbonari spearheaded unsuccessful uprisings throughout the kingdoms. In 1831 Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini created an organization called Young Italy to spread the ideals of nationalism and republicanism to the Italian people. The Revolutions of 1848—a series of uprisings in France, Germany, the Austrian Empire, and parts of northern Italy—attempted to establish constitutional government or to gain independence for a particular nationality. The first of these revolutions on Italian soil took place in the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, where the king was forced to grant a constitution for the whole of his kingdom. In the Papal States, the pope's temporal power was abolished and a republic was proclaimed.

In the Kingdom of Sardinia, nationalists called for a war to drive out the Austrians, and in 1852 Count Camillo di Cavour became prime minister there. Cavour's policy was to secure for the Kingdom of Sardinia the diplomatic and military support of Napoleon III, the French emperor.
Napoleon and Cavour warred against Austria, forcing it to surrender Lombardy to Napoleon III. In 1859 Napoleon placed Lombardy under the sovereignty of Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia. In a series of elections during 1859 and 1860, all the states in the northern part of the Italian peninsula, with the exception of Venetia, which still belonged to Austria, voted to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1860 Italian nationalist revolutionary leader Giuseppe Garibaldi led successful campaigns in Sicily and Naples. Those provinces, as well as most of the Papal States, voted to join Sardinia. In 1861 an all-Italian parliament proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, with Victor Emmanuel as the first king and Cavour as the first prime minister. Venice was added to Italy in 1866 after Austria's defeat in the Seven Weeks' War. After Napoleon III withdrew his troops from Rome in 1870, the city voted for union and became the capital of a united.

Revolutions of 1848

Revolutions of 1848-, series of violent uprisings in European countries where legal attempts at economic and political change had proven unsuccessful. The revolutions were initiated by members of the bourgeoisie and nobility who began demanding constitutional and representative governments, and by workers and peasants who revolted against developing capitalist practices that were resulting in greater poverty. Although governmental changes achieved by the revolutions of 1848 were short-lived, the revolutions undermined the concept of absolute monarchy and established an impetus for liberalism and socialism.

Revolution first erupted in 1848 in France, where rebels overthrew King Louis Philippe and established the Second Republic. Movements for unification in several Italian and German states followed. Although the revolutions failed, the movement eventually resulted in the Italian Unification (1861) and the German Unification (1871). Growing nationalism among groups within the Austrian empire led to the ousting of the Habsburg emperor, Ferdinand I, in 1848, but lack of cohesion among ethnic groups within the empire allowed the imperial forces to regain control in 1849.