Italy before 1815

 Italy was divided into a number of small

states after the broke up of Roman Empire
 However, people living in Italy shared
some sense of common heritages:
They spoke the same language
They had the same religion
They all look back to the Roman Empire
as
their forbears
The city of Rome always reminded them
the
greatness of Italy
 Italy during Napoleonic
Wars
 Napoleon conquered Italy in 1796
 He expelled the Austrians and the Bourbons
family from Italy. He also imprisoned the Pope.
 He redivided Italy into 3 parts:
4. The Kingdom of Naples in the south;
5. The middle part of Italy was directly under
France
6. The Kingdom of Italy in the North
 He also introduced liberal reforms in Italy
 Napoleon also inspired Italian Nationalism under
his rule.
 Italy after the Congress of
Vienna
 Italy was redivided after the
Congress
 Lombardy and Venetia were given to
Austria
 Modena, Parma and Tuscany were
returned to different rulers from the
Hapsburg family
 The Papal States were returned to
the Pope
 A bourbon King, Ferdinand I,
returned to be the King of Kingdom
 Italy after the Congress of
Vienna
 Only the Kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia
was ruled by an Italian ruler.
 Although Victor Emmanuel I was the only
native Italian king in Italy, he was an old
reactionary
 Austria was the master of Italy after the
Congress of Vienna. She tried very hard to
suppress any revolution in Italy.
 That’s why Austria was treated as the
enemies of Italian unification.
 Italian Uprisings in the
1920’s
 The Carbonari was the most
important secret society in Italy in
the 1820’s
 In 1820, inspired by the revolution in
Spain and South America, the
Carbonari members revolted in
Naples
 They successfully forced Ferdinand I
to grant them a constitution
 Italian Uprisings in the
1820’s
 In 1821, a similar uprisings broke out
in Piedmont and Lombardy.
 However the revolution was short-
lived.
 The revolutions were suppressed by
Austria
 Metternich: “Italy is only a
geographical term”
 Italian Uprisings in the
1830’s
 The Carbonari rose arms in Parma,
Modena and the Papal States in 1830
after the July Revolution in France
 The revolutions were suppressed by
Austrian troops.
 Italian Uprisings in the
1830’s
 Two events were significant after the
1830 Revolution:
1. Charles Albert, became the king of
Piedmont after 1830
2. Mazzini founded the Young Italy
Society
 Mazzini and the Young Italy
Society
 Giuseppe Mazzini was from Genoa.
 He joined the Carbonari during the
1830 Revolution and participated in
the revolts organized by the
Carbonari
 He was arrested and was banished
after staying in prison for 6 months
 Mazzini and the Young Italy
Society
 In 1831, he wrote a letter to Charles
Albert and asked him to lead Italian
national movement for independence
 With no response from the King, he
decided to organized the Young Italy
Society and advocated republicanism
 The society was a great success, by 1833,
the society had move than 600,000
members of all classes including
intellectuals.
 The society advocated education (of Italian
Nationalism) and uprisings
 Mazzini and the Young Italy
Society
 The society advocated education (of
Italian Nationalism) and uprisings
 In 1849, he proclaimed a republic in
the Papal States. However, this led
to the intervention of France.
 Mazzini was forced to go to England
 Mazzini and the Young Italy
Society
 Mazzini’s contributions:
2. He organized the Young Italy
Society to awaken the national
feeling of Italian.
3. He realized that the failure of the
previous failure was due to the
narrowness of the scope. All
classes in Italy should join the
independence movement
 Revolutions in 1848
 During the year 1848, a tide of
revolution swept Europe in 1848
included Italy.
 In January, a revolution broke out in
Sicily and forced King Ferdinand II to
proclaim the constitution which had
granted in 1820
 Almost all Italian states had
revolution after the February
Revolution in France
 Revolutions in 1848
 In March, Charles Albert, proclaim a
constitution to enlist the liberals’ support
to fight against Austria
 Pope Pius IX had reforms in the Papal
States
 On March, Charles Albert of Piedmont
declared war on Austria and led an army
into Lombardy
 However, the Pope refused to lead an
Italian Federation and retreated his troops
from the battlefield in April
 In July, Charles was defeated by Austria
 Revolutions in 1848
 Mazzini and Garibaldi seized Rome
and proclaimed the Roman Republic
in February 1849
 Pope Pius IX fled to Naples
 The Roman Republic was defeated by
the French since France was the
protector of the Pope
 Revolutions in 1848
 Reasons of failure:
2. The Pope suddenly withdrew from the war
affected the morale of the Italian
3. The Italians had different political opinions
4. French intervention defeated the Roman
Republic
5. Austria could sent more troops into Italy after
she suppressed the revolutions within Austrian
Empire
6. Piedmont was not strong enough to combat
Austria
 Revolutions in 1848
 Lesson Italian learnt:
2. Piedmont had to make herself
strong
3. The Pope was not a suitable figure
to lead Italian independence
movement
4. Republicanism was not a good
choice for the independence
movement
 Sardinia after 1848
 Piedmont became the common
acknowledged leader of Italy after
the war with Austria
 Victor Emmanuel II kept the
constitution which was proclaimed by
his father
 In order to strengthen his country, he
appointed Cavour to carry out
reforms to modernized Piedmont
 Cavour
 Cavour was a aristocrat by birth, but had
strong liberal outlook. He was
sympathetic with the revolution of 1830
 In 1847, he published a newspaper

”Il Risorgimento” to advocate Italian Unity

and freedom
 He was elected as a member of the
Parliament
 He was appointed as a minister in 1850,
and as Prime Minister in 1852