Italian unification

Italy hasn’t always been a whole country, since the Roman times until the 19th
century, it was divided, and the process of the Unification wasn’t easy, as they went
through numerous wars with some of the most important European powers.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the Italian peninsula was divided in various
states, and also some regions were part of other powers as Spain, France, Holy
Roman Empire and Austria. It remained like this until the outbreak of the French
Revolution.

During the French Revolution Italy became part of the French Empire, this
increased the revolutionary ideas. When Napoleon’s reign began to fall Murat
reached an agreement with Austria to keep his throne, Murat heard that tin the
congress of Vienna they planned to remove him from the throne, as they aimed to
reverse everything that happened during the French Revolution. In responded to that
he moved north with an army of patriots to fight Austria, but he was defeated in the
battle of Tolentino in 1815. So finally, all the rulers where back to their thrones as
was planned in the congress of Vienna, this increased even more the desire of
unification of the Italian people.

It quickly became clear to many Italians that Italy created by the Congress of
Vienna was inefficient and ineffective. This was shown by hunger due to crop
failures, the lack of employment and other necessities. Secret societies were formed
to oppose the new conservative regimes. Some of these societies also promoted
Italian nationalism and the idea of a unified Italy. One such society was the
Carbonari, and it aimed to liberate Italy through armed uprisings. The Carbonari
were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution. The members were
persecuted by the authorities, they were condemned to death for even attending
Carbonari meetings. The society, however, continued to exist and was the cause of
many of the political disturbances in Italy from 1820 until after unification.
Giuseppe Mazzini was a member of the Carbonari and the creator of another
organization called Young Italy. He is one of the most important figures that led to
the Italian unification. Young Italy was formed in 1831 and aimed for the
independence and unification of Italy. This organization tried to encourage young
men to join and support the cause of unification.
Young Italy attracted the attention of Giuseppe Garibaldi, another iconic figure in
the Italian unification. He fourth for the unification until February 1834, when a
failed Mazzinian insurrection in Piedmont forced Garibaldi to escape to South
America

In the First Italian War of Independence, Garibaldi, who came back from south
America to fight, won minor victories. The new pope didn’t approve the
unification. A defeat at the Battle of Novara in 1849 made Garibaldi move to Rome
and support the recently proclaimed Roman Republic in the Papal States. To stop
that Napoleon III of France sent an army to return the pope to Rome. Although they
won the battle at Rome they escaped from Rome because they couldn’t hold more
there.

Later on, Victor Emmanuel II, king of piedmont Sardinia, made a secret
defensive pact with France, so he tried to start a fight with Austria and he did so, but
France didn’t help Italy and they were forced to sing an armistice and some Italian
territories were ceded to France (Nice and Savoy).

Cavour, the prime minister of Piedmont Sardinia reached an agreement with

Parma, Modena, Tuscany and the papal Estates, except Rome, to unify. This forced
Garibaldi to cede Sicily to Victor Emmanuel II, which will become the king of the
nation of Italy in 1861.

Although most states of the Italian Peninsula were united and the Kingdom of
Italy was created, Venice and the much-reduced Papal States weren’t part of their
territories. Prussia knew the Italians didn’t like Austria’s presence in Venice, and
the Italian Government was looking for an ally against Austria, so they decided to
ally with Italy. Italy would now support Prussia in the case of war against
Austria. Austria soon realized that they were on a bad position, and offered Venice
to Italy. Italy didn’t have time to make a decision because Prussia attacked Austria.
Italy joined Prussia in the war, as they agreed before. Austria soon surrendered as
they saw they had no chance to win the war. In the treaty of Vienna, 30 October
1866, Lombardy and Venice were given to Italy.
 But Italy wasn’t complete yet, Rome was under French control, so when France
moved the troops that were on Rome to fight against Prussia Italy invaded Rome.
They made the Pope prisoner in his house, this turned the Pope against Italy for
decades. The Capital was moved to Rome in 1871, until then the capital was
Florence.

The complete Annexation of all the Italian provinces didn’t end until the First
World War ended, then Tretino, Friuli and Trieste were incorporated.

Once Italy was Unified things didn’t work at all. The middle class didn’t like the
revolutionary ideas, the Pope remained against Italy until the reign of Mussolini, and
the most important one, the Italian parliament had a block because socialist and
liberals didn’t reach an agreement to create a legislation.

As I’ve mentioned the process started when Italy was under French control, but
the idea of an Unified Italy came from before, but the revolutionary ideas of the
French revolution made people realize that they had the power to make big changes
and it encouraged them to fight for a change. This is the whole process that made
Italy the country we know nowadays,