The Italian “Risorgimento”

Historiography refers to “Risorgimento” (that is “a new resurrection, a new birth) as to a historical period during which some European nations achieved freedom from foreign domination and subsequently unification.

Italy stands out among these nations since the newborn Kingdom of Italy united the previous pre-unification states in a single new entity. It happened on 17th march 1861, so this year we celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification. Although there is no consensus among historians, most of these tend to establish the beginning of the Risorgimento movement, immediately after the end of Napoleon's rule and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and its end with the annexation of the Papal States and the move of the capital to Rome in February 1871. The situation of Italy after the Congress of Vienna was that of a country dismembered into various states and controlled, directly or indirectly, by Austria. The Restoration of the king of the Ancient Regime was actually fragile and as soon as in 1820-21 Italy and other European countries were already experiencing early revolutionary movements. These were bloodily crushed thanks to the intervention of the states that were close the Holy Alliance. After 10 years, in 1830-31, new riots were organized in Italy and Europe, again without success, except for the political changes in France and the regained independence of Belgium. The year 1848 was full of events. In Italy the kingdom of Naples, that of Piedmont and the Papal State granted the Constitution. Meanwhile, a revolution broke out in France that fostered all the movements of European opposition. Even Milan revolted against the Austrians and Piedmont helped Milan , so causing the outbreak of the First War of Italian Independence. But the Austrians, after an initial slip, reacted and defeated Piedmont. The following rebellions in the kingdom of Naples and the State of the Church, and the experimental Roman Republic were put down and the previous situation was restored with the exception of Piedmont. Unique among the Italian states, Piedmont mantained the constitution granted before the war: the Albertine Statute. Meanwhile, the discussion about the Italian independence among the various political movements intensified as a consequence of the failure of the war. The King of Piedmontt, Victor Emanuel II of Savoy (below on the left) was more and more seen as the only one able to unify Italy.

In fact together with Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, (above on the right) he implemented an international strategy to consolidate the position of Piedmont in Europe with the Crimean war and then a secret alliance with Napoleon III Emperor of France, through which the latter was commited to support militarily Piedmont if it was attacked by foreign powers. Later , in 1859, because of the repeated provocations of Piedmont on the borders with Austrian Lombardy, Austria declared war to Italy. So the Second War of Indipendence broke out, but this time it involved Piedmont, Lombardia, as well as Emilia and Tuscany, that in the meantime had rebelled against their rulers and voted in favour of the annexation to the State of Savoy. The south of Italy was still out of the proces of unification. In this period Giuseppe Garibaldi (below on the left) , who was, together with Giuseppe Mazzini (above on the right), one of the protagonists of the Roman Republic in 1848, despite he had a Republican faith, agreed to cooperate with Cavour just to reach the objective of Italian unification. In fact Piedmont couldn't declare war directly to the Bourbon of Naples, since this action could have been seen as an aggression with dangerous effects on international alliances. Instead, with the help of Garibaldi and one thousand armed volunteers, the revolt of the south seemed the spontaneous desire of unification of the southern populations . In a few months Garibaldi arrived from Sicily to Naples and he tried to march to Rome.

Napoleon III threatened to declare war to Savoy in case Garibaldi entered the Papal State with the intent to annex it to the rest of Italy. So Victor Emanuel II moved with his army to the south to stop Garibaldi. They met in Teano (below in the foto) and Garibaldi accepted to end the “Expedition of the One Thousand” not to put in danger what they had achieved so far, thus implicitly accepting the “Savoy way” towards the unification. He simply said to the king: “I obey”

Victor Emanuel had not crossed the region Lazio to reach Garibaldi. He had passed through Abruzzi and Marche that together with Umbria immediately asked for annexation. So on 17th of March 1861 the unification of Italy was declared, without Lazio, Veneto and Trentino. The new kingdom was troubled by brigandage caused by the absence of an effective economic system, by poverty and illiteracy. Besides, all the efforts were made in foreign policy aiming at the liberation of Rome and Veneto. The decade from 1861 – 1870 was marked by various revolutionary attempts and governative solutions to complete the unity. Veneto will be taken, in 1866, during the Third War of Independence, that is to say the conflict between Austria and Prussia, in which Italy sided in favour of Prussia that won the war. For the annexation of Lazio we had to wait the war between France and Prussia in 1870. In fact France was defeated and it could not help the Pope when the Italian army marched against Rome and the Papal State to complete the unification. The troops of “Bersaglieri” (a special Italian infantry) took Rome passing through Porta Pia (the famous gap of Porta Pia). The Pope declared himself prisoner of the new Italian State. He refused any negotiation with the occupants, he repudiated everyone and invited the Catholics to take no interest in the political life of the new State. So in 1871 Rome became the new capital of the Italian State that continued to be deprived of another region called Trentino. To annex that territory we had to wait until the massacre of the First World War.