Unification Of Italy

Unification Of Italy
The Italian Unification or Italian Risorgimento is known as the chain of political and military events that produced a united Italian peninsula under the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. These events can be broken down in five stages: Pre-Revolutionary, Revolutionary, Cavour’s Policy and the Role of Piedmont, Garibaldi’s Campaign in Southern Italy, and the creation of the ItalianKingdom.
I. Pre-Revolutionary Phase:
After the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon Bonaparte’s second defeat, the major powers that has resisted met at a conference called the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The topic of discussion was to limit France’s power, set limits on nations so no one nation become too strong, and divide up the territory conquered up by Napoleon. In its negotiations, the congressreturned domination of the Italian Peninsula to Austria. Austria now occupied Lombardy and Venice and had considerable influence on other Italian states. One of the few places of independence was the Kingdom of Sardinia, which now controlled Piedmont, Nice, Savoy and Genoa.
Some of the things that conflicted and interfered with the unification process were: Austrian control of Lombardy and Venice,several independent Italian states, the autonomy of the Papal States, and the limited power and influence of Italian leaders.
II. Revolutionary Phase:
During the first half of the 19th century, only aristocrats, intellectual, and upper middle class took the cause for unification. The masses showed no concern. However, the people with a passion for unification started to form secret societies,namely the Carbonari. Although at first, they only demanded more rights from their respective government, the cause began to grow. By 1820, the Carbonari were involved in numerous failed revolutions against the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Bolonga, and other Italian states. However, the Austrian Empire crushed all of these revolutions; thus leading to more resentment from theItalians.
The soul and spirit of the Carbonari and the revolutions was a man named Giuseppe Mazzini. Mazzini was an idealized who wanted not only wanted a united Italy, but an Italy with a republican form of government. Mazzini brought the campaign for unification into the mainstream when in 1831 he created Young Italy, a group created for the sole purpose to spread the ideas unification,revolutions, and republicanism. In 1846, a liberal pope, Pius IX, was elected who enacted numerous reforms. Soon, other states followed but these reform movements were not enough. A series of uprising known as the Revolution of 1848 occurred throughout Europe including France, Germany, the Austrian Empire, and northern Italy.
The revolution also occurred in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies were the kingsigned a constitution. In the Papal States, radical took over Rome, causing the Pope to flee. In the absence of the pope, Garibaldi and Mazzini created a republic called the Roman Republic. In Piedmont, after the insistence of nationals, the King Charles Albert sent to Lombardy in their fight for freedom from Austrian rule.
Although some of the revolutions were successful in the beginning, they werequickly crushed. In 1849, France sent troops to Rome and destroyed the short-lived Roman Republic. Piedmont lost to Austria and the king was forced to abdicate, causing his son, Victor Emanuel II to become king in 1849.
After the unsuccessful events of the last few years, unification would seem as a distant dream. However, things were about to change with the appointment of Count Camillo di Cavouras prime minister of Piedmont in 852. With the use of all the political and military tricks in the book, Cavour tackled and succeeded in making this dream into a reality. Italy and Europe would never be the same again.

III. Cavour’s Policy and the Role of Piedmont
After the numerous failed uprisings throughout Italy, Camillo di Cavour became the prime minister of the Piedmont (Kingdom of...