Italian unification: Encyclopedia II - Italian unification - Background

Italian unification - Background

The establishment of the Italian Republic and later of the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Napoleon, began to spur nationalism in those who lived in the regions. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, other national monarchs he had installed tried to keep their thrones by feeding those nationalistic sentiments, setting the stage for the revolutions to come. Among these monarchs were the viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais, who tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the Kingdom of Italy, and Joachim Murat, who called for Italian patriots' help for the unification of Italy under his rule (See the Proclamation of Rimini).

Following the defeat of Napoleonic France, the Congress of Vienna (1815) was convened to redraw the European continent, dividing and doling out much of the Italian peninsula among the prevailing European powers, fracturing the region into a patchwork of independent governments.

But groups in several Italian states began to push the idea of a unified Italian state again, feeding the flames of nationalism that had already been ignited in the populace. At the time, the struggle for Italian unification was perceived to be waged primarily against the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, since they directly controlled northeastern Italy and were the single most powerful force against unification. The Austrian Empire fought hard against nationalist sentiment growing on the Italian peninsula (as well as in the other parts of the Empire) — at the time, Austrian Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich stated that the word Italy was "purely a geographic expression."

Artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; perhaps the most famous of these works was Alessandro Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). Some read this novel as a thinly veiled allegorical critique of Austrian rule. In any event, it had been published in 1822 and extensively revised in the following years; the 1840 version used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort by the author to provide a standard language usable by all Italians.

Those in favor of unification also faced opposition from the Holy See, particularly after failed attempts to broker a confederation with the Papal States, which would have given them some measure of autonomy over the region. The pope at the time, Pius IX, feared that giving up power in the region could mean the persecution of Italian Catholics (Hales, 1958).

Even among those who wanted to see the peninsula unified into one country, different groups could not agree on what form a unified state would take. One proposal (around 1847-1848) would have created a confederation of Italian states under the rulership of the Pope. Many leading revolutionaries wanted a republic. But eventually it was a king and his minister who had the power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.

One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari (coal-burners), a secret organization formed in southern Italy early in the 19th Century. Inspired by the principles of the French revolution, its members were mainly drawn from the middle class and intellectuals. After the Congress of Vienna divided the Italian peninsula among the European powers, Carbonari spread into the Papal States, the kingdom of Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena and the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. They were so feared that the reigning authorities passed an ordinance condemning anyone who attended a Carbonari meeting to death. But the society continued to exist and was at the root of many of the outbreaks in Italy from 1820 on. Carbonari condemned Napoleon III to death for failing to unite Italy and almost succeeded in assassinating him for his transgressions. Most leaders of the unification movement were members of this organization.

Two prominent figures in the unification movement were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Among the more conservative constitutional monarchic figures, Count Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II, later the first king of a united Italy, were also important.

Mazzini, a native of Genoa, became a member of the Carbonari in 1830. His activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be outlawed soon after he joined, and in 1831 he went to Marseille, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia ("Young Italy"). The new society, whose motto was "God and the People," sought the unification of Italy.

Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834, was sentenced to death, and escaped to South America. He spent fourteen years there, taking part in several wars, and returned to Italy in 1848.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki