The Unification of Italy

         The unification of Italy was greatly helped by the revolutions of 1848. It helped unify the armies of the south (ITALY & HUNGARY) against the Austrians and Russians on the northern boarders. One of the many factors that also helped this eventual state unification was the shear numbers of the enemy troops. They were outnumbered and had decided to share alliance and share the common enemy in order for them to prevail.

         The key actors of this unification were the southern states themselves. They co-operated to overcome their common enemy (Austria), which was on their part, a very smart move. Once the armies began to march under unified commands, it was easy to defeat the Austrians and Russians in many instances. Unified, the Italians and the Hungarians were able to start re-gaining previously lost lands from the Austrians and beat back the Russians till the Austrian boarders, eventually leading to the formation of modern-day Italy and Hungary.

The key figures of this unification were:

1.)         Giuseppe Mazzini

2.)         Pope Pius IX

3.)         King Charles Albert of Sardinia

4.)         Camillo di Cavour

5.)         Napoleon III

6.)         Victor Emmanuel II

7.)         Giuseppe Garibaldi

First of all we will see Giuseppe Mazzini’s importance in the Italian Unification. He was the Italian patriot that started a national revolutionary movement. Mazzini’s ideology of an independent integrated republic spread quickly among large segments of the Italian people. All over the country, many masses of people calling for revolution formed an alliance.

Massive reforms that took place during the 1840s in the Papal States, Lucca, Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Sardinia were intended to slow the revolutionary movements. Instead, these reforms only made things worse for the revolutionary groups in Southern Italy that was now spreading to the north of Italy and parts of Hungary

The first revolution on the Italian peninsula took place in the Kingdom of Sicily, which resulted in a constitution for the whole kingdom. A violent uprising against authority in 1848 caused Pope Pius IX (Catholic Ruler of Rome) to flee Rome and a republic was proclaimed. King Charles Albert of Sardinia mobilized his army and marched to the assistance of Lombardy and joined in the war to drive the Austrians from Italian soil. 

Count Camillo di Cavour became prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1852. It was his leadership and accommodating policies that led to the unification of Italy.

Cavour was able to persuade Napoleon III to a secretly planned war against Austria.  By early 1859, Cavour had caused a crisis that provoked the Austrians to send an ultimatum demanding Piedmontese disarmament. As part of the "plan", Cavour rejected the ultimatum, which led to the subsequent war with the Austrians.  The French came to the aid of the Piedmontese and the Austrians were defeated in the two major battles of Magenta and Solferino.  The Austrians were forced to surrender Lombardy, with its great city of Milan to Napoleon III.  Finally, in 1859, Napoleon transferred Lombardy to the sovereignty of Victor Emmanuel II. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian nationalist revolutionary hero and leader in the struggle for Italian unification and independence.  Born in 1807 in Nice, France, he joined Mazzini's movement in 1833.  In 1834 Garibaldi was ordered to seize a warship, but police discovered the plot and he was condemned to death.  He escaped to South America, where he lived for 12 years. He then moved to New York and got his US citizenship. During the same year he returned to Italy and participated (again) in the movement for Italian freedom and unification, which became widely known as the Risorgimento (Italian for "revival").