The Resorgimento of Italy?

Unification -
A Reluctant Nation?

The Patriotism of the

Italians is like that of the
ancient Greeks, and is love
of a single town, not of a
country; it is the feeling of a
tribe, not of a nation. Only
by foreign conquest have
they ever been united.
Leave them to themselves
and they split into
fragments. Luigi Blanch
Invaders Queue up & Divide the
Peninsular amongst themselves
80 City States in Medieval Italy
Consolidated into 10 Provinces during
Renaissance - Machiavellis handbook
French Invasion of 1494
Venice crushed
With help of jealous neighbours
Spanish Counter-invasion
Florence isolated
Medici help Spanish
The Borgias and the Papacy
Ottoman Turks and Greek Corsairs
Austrian Habsburgs
The Winds of Change
blow a Gale

The French Revolution

Puppet Italian State
Centralised
Industrialisation
New Legal System
Decimalisation
Public Works
But -
Too Interventionist
Heavy handed
United many Italians with a
common dislike of foreign
ruler
1815 - A Return to the
Status Quo?

Congress of Vienna
Viennese Emperor returned to
Lombardy
Bourbons return to Naples
Venice to Austria
Genoa to Piedmont
Austrian Grand Duke to
Tuscany
National consciousness
French Revolutionary ideas
Expanding middle classes
Industrial Revolution
Revival of Trade
Secret Societies
North faster than South
1848 - A Year for
Revolutions

Civil Disturbances and fighting

Naples, Tuscans, Romans and
Piedmontese over Milan
Sicilians invite Piedmontese
King to replace Bourbons
Professional intelligentsia took
part in uprisings
lawyers, students and artists
Garibaldi and Mazzini
The poor were uninterested
Infighting and intriguing
Landowners rallied to governing
classes
1849 old regimes all restored
Giuseppi Garibaldi (1807 - 1882)
International Superstar

Young Italy Secret Society

1833 Failed Insurrection
1834 Exile to South America
1848 returns to defend Roman
Republic
pursued across peninsula by
French, Neapolitan and Austrian
troops
Works for reunification through
Piedmont
1859 command against Austrians
Count Camillo di Cavour
Piedmont the Dynamo for Unification
French speaking area (Cavour had trouble
speaking Italian)
Rome completely disinterested
House of Savoy
Cavour
Theoretical Liberal
Reforms, freedom of speech, new ideas
Practical Machiavellian
Allowed revolutionary insurrections so that
his own liberal revolution appeared less
threatening
Compared Piedmont to Prussia
Showing Italians how to govern themselves!
Province by Province (Salami Tactics)
Provoked Lombardy war with Austria in
1859
Cavour gives Garibaldi free reign

Traded Nice and Savoy to France

Bitterly resented by many in Piedmont
Given free reign to invade Italian States in return by Louis
Napoleon (especially Bourbon States)
Garibaldis invasion of Sicily 1860
Cavour ready to disown if necessary
Ready to endorse if successful
Race for control of Central Italy
Cavour afraid that Garibaldi wont hand over newly won Sicily
Race for Naples (Garibaldi gets there first)
Cavour starts uprisings in Papal States
Asks Garibaldi to hand over Naples and Sicily to avoid a civil war
Anti-Clerical Garibaldi
Italy is born
Peninsular under Cavours control except
Venice Austria
Rome Papal Control (French Army)
Plebiscites to justify resorgimento
Constitutional Monarchy
1848 Articles of Sardinia
King Vittorio Emanuele II
Power between King and Parliament left deliberately vague
King appointed Ministers and signed statutes
King could issue Proclamations
Appointed Senate - Conservative
Plebiscites undermined Divine Rule
Cavours balancing act
Garibaldis Revolutionaries preferred Monarch to Pope
Catholics preferred Catholic King to heathen Garibaldi
Parliamentary Democracy?
300,000 voters out of 22 Million
Widespread corruption and intimidation
Weak Party Politics
Coalition Governments
Alliances were all
If PMs plans failed just change the plan and the coalition!
Parties owed allegiance to strong personalities rather
than to ideology However two loose groupings:
Conservative Liberal versus Radical-Democrat
Deregulation versus Radical Reforms
Radicals had instituted much of the nationalist unification
feeling
Liberals consolidated and reflected most Educated opinion
A Civil War or Counter-Revolution?
Garibaldis Radicals frustrated by
Cavours Liberals, rigging of
elections and treatment of redshirts
Garibaldi sets up rival government
in Naples and Sicily
Southern mistrust of Northern
Piedmontese
Exiled Bourbon leaders encourage
insurrection
Degenerates into Brigandage
Piedmont use of Terror
Garibaldi injured and captured
Pardoned by King
Tidying Up
Cavour dies 1861
Foreign policy becomes more timid
France more apprehensive of enlarged Italy
Venice still Austrian
Italy joins Prussia in its 1866 war against Austria
Battle of Custoza
Austrians defeated Italian army twice its size
Italian ironclads defeated by smaller Austrian Navy
However, Prussia defeated Austria
Italy gains Venice and Austrian lands as reward
Austria keeps Trentino
 p
e
,
A
n
d
h
a
n
All Roads Lead To Rome? g
t
h
e
P
Roman disinterest in Risorgimento o
Papal Industry! p
e
Garibaldis unsuccessful marches on Rome
:
S
1862 & 1867 o
Repelled by French Army u
p
French troops guard Rome and the Pope
w
Withdrawn to fight Franco-Prussian
i War
t
Rome wide open h
Pope furious Loss of PapalG Authority
a
Diplomatic Immunity
r
Freedom of Communication i
Stipend b
a
Church boycotts Italian Politicsl
d
Tries to prohibit Catholics from political activity Well get a Rope!
i
!
And Hang the Pope!
So up with Garibaldi!
 Prime-Ministers of Italy
17 March - 6 June 1861 Camillo Benso conte di Cavour 1901 - 1903 Giuseppe Zanardelli

6 June 1861 - 4 March 1862 Bettino Ric soli 1903 - 1905 Giovanni Giolitti (2nd time)

4 March - 9 December 1862 Urbano Rattazzi 1905 - 1906 Alessandro Fortis

9 December 1862 - 24 March 1863 Luigi Carlo Farini 1906 Sidney Sonnino

24 March 1863 - 23 September 1864 Marco Minghetti 1906 - 1909 Giovanni Giolitti (3rd time)

23 September 1864 - 17 June 1866 Alfonso Ferrero, Cavaliere La-M rmora 1909 - 1910 Sidney Sonnino (2nd time)

17 June 1866 - 11 April 1867 Bettino Ric soli (2nd time) 1910 - 1911 Luigi Luzzatti

1867 - 1867 Urbano Rattazzi (2nd time) 1911 - 1914 Giovanni Giolitti (4th time)

1867 - 1869 Federico Luigi, Conte Menabrea 1914 - 1916 Antonio Salandra

1869 - 1873 Giovanni Lanza 1916 - 1917 Paolo Boselli

1873 - 1876 Marco Minghetti (2nd time) 1917 - 1919 Vittorio Emanuele Orlando

1876 - 1878 Agostino Depretis 1919 - 1920 Francesco Saverio Nitti

1878 Benedetto C iroli 1920 - 1921 Giovanni Giolitti (5th time)

1878 - 1879 Agostino Depretis (2nd time) 1921 - 1922 Ivanoe Bonomi

1879 - 1881 Benedetto C iroli (2nd time) 1922 Luigi Facta

1881 - 1887 Agostino Depretis (3rd time) 1922 - 1943 Benito Mussolini (il Duce)

1887 - 1891 Francesco Crispi

1891 - 1892 Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudin

1892 - 1893 Giovanni Giolitti

1893 - 1896 Francesco Crispi (2nd time)

1896 - 1898 Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudin

1898 - 1900 Luigi Pelloux

1900 - 1901 Giuseppe Saracco

Papal Hostility to the Republic
Radicalism and Liberalism regarded as un-Christian
Pope condemns Liberalism in 1864
Syllabus of Errors
Liberal Italy gets revenge by dissolving 25,000 orders and non-
sanctioning of religious marriage ceremonies
1870 Annexation of Rome
New Italy worried about Rescuing of Pope
Law of Guarantees offered
Diplomatic immunity Pope
No taxation Pius
IX
Freedom of communication
Pope refuses to agree
Good Catholics should avoid legitimising the new regime
Impasse until 1890s when Socialism regarded as bigger threat to
Christianity
Parliamentary Dominance of
Fractious Liberals
Tiny electorate
About 500 voters per constituency
Working class removed from political life
Franchise
Property + Literacy + Male + >25
Aristocracy removed from political life
Catholic embargo
Party Bosses
Personality based
Fluid loyalties
Corrupt
Giolitti Blackmail dossiers
Fragile Alliances
29 governments between 1870 and 1911
However, often same personnel shift between
governments
Degrees of Liberalism

Conservative Liberals
More Laissez-Faire
Free Trade
Balance Budget
Strong armed forces
Left Liberals
Extend Franchise
State Education
More anti-clerical
Public Works through government expenditure
Centrists
1870 1876
Imposing Public Order

Conservative Liberal Period of Dominance

Public Order
The South Pacified
Low Government Expenditure
Pay off Unification debts
Balanced Budget 1876
Minghetti Government falls 1876
Mistakenly arrested influential individuals for plotting
to overthrow government
Depretis and Transformism
Traditionally regarded as Left Liberal
Transformismo Policy
I hope my words will help bring about the fertile
transformation of parties, and the unification of all shades of
Liberal in Parliament
Prepared to accept political opponents in government
Cynical way to neutralise political opponents or
Protecting Liberal Italy from
Radical Left (socialists)
Conservative Right (Catholics)
Colonial Adventures
Treaty of Berlin snub
Abyssinia
Dogali Disaster
First Parliamentary Dictatorship:
Francesco Crispi 1819 - 1901
Revolutionary Radical Sicilian
Fiery sounding Agenda but matures politically
Supports Monarchy
Imperial Expansion
Bismarck Model
Theoretical Left Liberal, Authoritarian in Practice
Lots of Liberal, Progressive Reforms

Public Health Act, Penal Code, Regional Self Government

Used decrees, bullying, martial law

Scandals and Corruption

Vain
Triple Alliance
Austria and Germany
Left Liberal Crispi versus the new
Socialists

Crispis reforms would seem to appeal to Socialists

Agricultural depression
High prices
Peasants forced off land and into cities
Breeding ground for new socialist ideas
Food riots in South
Dealing with Socialist threat
sends in army
Military courts
Power Corrupts? Crispi:

We Italians are authoritarian to the very

marrow of our bones, and by tradition, habit
and education we have become conditioned
either to command too much or to obey too
much. We may learn from books and from
foreigners that liberty is something to be
desired for its own sake, but we never,
absolutely never, feel that is true deep down in
our hearts!"
Live by the Nationalist Sword
Die by the Nationalist Sword

Rise of Nationalism
Scramble for Colonies
Battle of Adowa, 1896
Political tampering
Corruption
Unprepared and Inefficient Armed
Forces
Outnumbered
Nationalists humbled
Confidence of Liberal movement
dented
Fall of Crispi
Giovanni Giolitti
Expanding Liberalism?
Ruthless Opportunist or the Real Transformismo
Works with any party
Steals many Socialist ideas
Old Age Pensions
Health Insurance
Public Holidays
Women and Children regulated in workforce
Franchise extended all males >30
Socialists neutralised brought into government
Unprincipled tactics
Parliament loses even more respect
Papal edict revoked in 1905
Catholics re-engaging with Liberal Italy
Italian Colonial Ambitions bring
down another government!
Tripolitania
Only real estate left in North Africa
Ottoman
Invasion successful
3 weeks
Occupation Difficult
Guerilla War breaks out
Expensive
Deters Italian Settlement
Alienated anti-war Socialists
Withdraw support
1913 General Election
Newly enfranchised masses
Liberals win 318 out of 511 seats
Seemingly Victorious
Secret Electoral Deal
Giolitti and Catholics
Liberals would not support divorce
Support Religious schools and reopening orders
Anti-Clerical Liberals livid
Transformismo dead
Giolitti resigned expecting to make a new coalition
Out of power for next six years
Professor Antonio Salandra outmanoeuvres wily Giolitti
Drift to War
Crispis Triple Alliance pledges
Italians suspicious of Austria
Preferred British and French institutions
Military drained by Libyan Adventure
Budget drained too
Neutrality
Worried by Central powers victory
Revenge
Conservative Salandra keen to cash in on Patriotic fervour
Giolitti argues for continued neutrality
The Highest bidder
Deal with Central Powers and Allies at the same time
Secret Treaty of London
Secret from everyone even parliament
Pillaging the old Austro-Hungarian Empire to tempting to resist