Download mediterraneans 2011

MEDITERRANEANS
2011
Quanto cammino, quanti morti
Per un pezzo di terra, per un ideale,
Per una bandiera
Non e’ stata la forza dei mille ad unirci
Ma il grande amore per la Patria,
Che oggi sentiamo poco
Forse siamo meno uniti di allora
Ma il brivido del’inno
Ad ogni occasione ci fa dire siamo ITALIANI
Con I mille difetti, con le nostre chiacchire da bar
Sara’ che ancora distante il divario da Nord a Sud
Ma una cosa ci unisce piu’ di tutte, l’amore verso
il nostro tricolore.
Non m’importa che colore erano Garibaldini
Con la forza delle idée, sentimenti hanno fatto
L’ITALIA
Quei sentimenti e idée che oggi non ci sono piu’.
150 Anni, buon compleanno mi vecchia Italia
Buon compleanno a tutti gli Italiani che con le due
guerre
Hanno mantenuto la democrazia e la liberta’
Buon compleanno a tutti I governi che pur con
mille e mille storie
Hanno con fatica mantenuto l’Italia UNITA
Buon Compleanno a tutti I cittadini di questo
SPLENDIDO Paese
Che ogni giorno per secoli ci garantiscono la
vivibilita’ in un Paese pieno di profumi, con la sua
cucina,
Buon Compleanno a tutti gli artistic he hanno reso
questo Paese UNICO nel Mondo
Buon Compleanno a tutti I nostri connazionali in
giro per il Mondo, che con la loro semplicita’
portano il nome dell’Italia con orgoglio.
Buon Compleanno Italia sono fiero di appartenere
a questa terra, a questa bandiera, sono fiero di
essere un ITALIANO!
Italian unification
(Italian: il Risorgimento, or "The Resurgence") was the
political and social movement that agglomerated different
states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in
the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact
dates for the beginning and end of this period, many
scholarsagree that the process began in 1815 with the
Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and
ended sometime around 1871 with the Franco-Prussian War.
The last città irredente however, did not join the Kingdom of
Italy until after World War I.
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.[1] Following the defeat of Napoleonic
France, the Congress of Vienna (1815) was convened to
redraw the European continent. In Italy, the Congress
restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent
governments, either directly ruled or strongly influenced by
the prevailing European powers, particularly Austria.
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 the predominantly
Italian-speaking northeastern part of present-day Italy and
were the single most powerful force against unification. The
Austrian Empire vigorously repressed nationalist sentiment
growing on the Italian peninsula, as well as in the other parts
of Habsburg domains. The Austrian diplomat Klemens von
Metternich, an influential diplomat at the Congress of
Vienna, stated that the word Italy was nothing more than "a
geographic expression." [2]
Artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards
nationalism; and perhaps the most famous of protonationalist works was Alessandro Manzoni's I Promessi
Sposi (The Betrothed). Some read this novel as a thinly
veiled allegorical critique of Austrian rule. The novel was
published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following
years. The 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a
standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort
by the author to provide a language and force people to learn
it.
Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the
Holy See, particularly after failed attempts to broker a
confederation with the Papal States, which would have left
the Papacy with 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.[3]
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. Vincenzo Gioberti, a
Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian
states under rulership of the Pope. His book, Of the Moral
and Civil Primacy of the Italians, was published in 1843 and
created a link between the Papacy and the Risorgimento.
Many leading revolutionaries wanted a republic, but
eventually it was a king and his chief minister who had the
power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.
Giuseppe Mazzini
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, the Carbonari movement
spread into the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena and the
revolutionaries were so feared that the reigning authorities
passed an ordinance condemning to death anyone who
attended a Carbonari meeting. The society, however,
continued to exist and was at the root of many of the
political disturbances in Italy from 1820 until after
unification. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III to
death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost
succeeded in assassinating him in 1858. Many leaders of
the unification movement were at one time members of
this organization. (Note: Napoleon III, as a young man,
fought on the side of the 'Carbonari'.)
Two prominent radical figures in the unification
movement were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe
Garibaldi. The more conservative constitutional
monarchic figures included Count Cavour and Victor
Emmanuel II, who would later become the first king of a
united Italy.
Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him
to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he
concluded that Italy could - and therefore should - be
unified and formulated his program for establishing a free,
independent, and republican nation with Rome as its
capital. After Mazzini's release 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.
Carbonari insurrections (1820–1821)
In 1814 the Carbonari began organizing revolutionary
activities.
Two Sicilies insurrection
In 1820, Spaniards successfully revolted over disputes about
the constitution, which influenced the development of a
similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, (who, in
1812, had created their constitution) a regiment in the army of
the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, commanded by Guglielmo Pepe,
a Carbonaro, mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two
Sicilies. The king, Ferdinand I, agreed to enact a new
constitution. The revolutionaries, though, failed to court
popular support and fell to Austrian troops of the Holy
Alliance. Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began
systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many
supporters of revolution in Sicily, including the scholar
Michele Amari, were forced into exile during the decades that
followed.
Piedmont insurrection
The leader of the 1823 revolutionary movement in Piedmont
was Santorre di Santarosa, who wanted to remove the
Austrians and unify Italy under the House of Savoy. The
Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria, where troops adopted
the green, white and red tricolore of the Cisalpine Republic.
The king's regent, prince Charles Albert, acting while the
king Charles Felix was away, approved a new constitution
to appease the revolutionaries, but when the king returned
he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance
from the Holy Alliance. Di Santarosa's troops were
defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled
to Paris.
1830 insurrections
By 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified
Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of
insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one
nation along the Italian peninsula.
The Duke of Modena, Francis IV, was an ambitious noble,
and he hoped to become king of Northern Italy by
increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that
he would not act against those who subverted opposition
toward the unification of Italy. Encouraged by the
declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize.
During the July Revolution of 1830 in France,
revolutionaries forced the king to abdicate and created the
July Monarchy with encouragement from the new French
king, Louis-Philippe. Louis-Philippe had promised
revolutionaries such as Ciro Menotti that he would
intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops.
Fearing he would lose his throne, though, Louis-Philippe
did not intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke
of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested
Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again
conquered his duchy with help from the Austrian troops.
Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centered
in Modena faded.
At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal
Legations of Bologna, Forlì, Ravenna, Imola, Ferrara,
Pesaro and Urbino. These successful revolutions, which
adopted the tricolore in favour of the Papal flag, quickly
spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly
installed local governments proclaimed the creation of a
united Italian nation.
The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired
similar activity in the Duchy of Parma, where the tricolore
flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess Marie Louise left
the city during the political upheaval.
Insurrected provinces planned to unite as the Province
Italiane unite (united Italian Provinces), which prompted
Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against the
rebels. Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had
no intention of letting Italian matters be, and that French
intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe
withheld any military help and even arrested Italian
patriots living in France.
In the spring of 1831, the Austrian army began its march
across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in
each province that had revolted. This military action
suppressed much of the fledging revolutionary movement,
and resulted in the arrest of many radical leaders, including
Menotti.
Revolutions of 1848–1849
Camillo Benso, count of Cavour
In 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began on January
5 with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy, as citizens
stopped smoking and playing the lottery, which denied
Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this,
revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples against
King Ferdinand, who conceded as he had in 1821 and
granted The Kingdom of two Sicilies a constitution, as
well as releasing political prisoners.
In February 1848 there were revolts in Tuscany that were
relatively nonviolent, after which Ferdinand granted the
Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican
provisional government formed in Tuscany during
February shortly after this concession. On 21 February,
Pope Pius IX granted a constitution to the Papal States,
which was both unexpected and surprising considering the
historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On February 23,
King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris,
and a republic was proclaimed. By the time the revolution
in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions —
four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state.
Meanwhile in Lombardy tensions increased until the
Milanese and Venetians rose up in revolt on 18 March
1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the
Austrian garrison after five days of street fights -18 March
till 22 March- (Cinque giornate di Milano). An Austrian
army under Marshal Josef Radetzky besieged Milan, but due
to defection and the popularity of the Milanese, they were
forced to retreat. Soon, Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia
(whose kingdom was actually centered around Piedmont
and Savoy), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid
their cause, decided that this was the moment to unify Italy
and declared war on Austria. After initial successes at Goito
and Peschiera, he was decisively defeated at the Battle of
Custoza on July 24, by Radetzky. An armistice was quickly
agreed to, and Radetzky was able to regain control of all of
Lombardy-Venetia save Venice itself, where a republic was
proclaimed under Daniele Manin.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1866
While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy-Venetia
and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters began to take
a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs
who had so reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March
began to come into conflict with their constitutional
ministers, often leading to outright conflict. At first, the
republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee
their capitals, including Pope Pius IX.
Pius IX had been initially seen as something of a reformer,
but conflicts with the revolutionaries led him to sour on the
idea of constitutional government. In November 1848,
following the assassination of his Minister Pellegrino Rossi,
Pius IX fled Rome. Subsequently, Garibaldi and other
patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held
for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a Roman
Republic on February 9. On February 2, 1849, at a political
rally held in the Apollo Theater, a young Roman priest, the
Abbé Arduini, had made a speech in which he had declared
that the temporal power of the popes was a "historical lie, a
political imposture, and a religious immorality." [4]. In early
March 1849, Mazzini arrived in Rome and was appointed
Chief Minister. In the Constitution of the Roman Republic
[5]
, religious freedom was guaranteed by article 7, the
independence of the pope as head of the Catholic Church
was guaranteed by article 8 of the Principi fondamentali,
while the death penalty was abolished by article 5, and free
public education was provided by article 8 of the Titolo I.
Before the powers had a chance to respond to the founding
of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had
been trained in the meanwhile by the exiled Polish general
Albert Chrzanowski, determined to renew the war with
Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on
March 23, 1849. This time the defeat was final. Charles
Albert himself abdicated in favour of his son, Victor
Emmanuel II, and all Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy
or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment at least,
brought to an end. The war was formally ended by a treaty
signed on August 9. A popular revolt broke out in Brescia
in the very day of the Novara defeat, but was fiercely
suppressed by the Austrians ten days later.
There remained the Roman and Venetian Republics. In
April a French force under Charles Oudinot was sent to
Rome. Apparently, the French wished to mediate between
the Pope and his subjects, but soon the French were forced
to take sides, and determined to restore the Pope. After a
two month siege, Rome capitulated on June 29, 1849, and
the Pope was restored. Garibaldi and Mazzini once again
fled into exile — in 1850 Garibaldi became a resident of
New York City. Meanwhile, the Austrians besieged Venice,
which was forced to surrender on August 24. Proindependence fighters were hanged en masse in Belfiore,
while the Austrians also moved to restore order in central
Italy, restoring the princes who had been expelled and
establishing their control over the Papal Legations. The
revolutions were thus completely crushed.
Creation of the Italian State
The War of 1859 and its aftermath
Victor Emmanuel II
Although Charles Albert had been crushingly defeated in
his bid to drive the Austrians from Italy, the Piedmontese
did not abandon all hope of aggrandizement. Camillo di
Cavour, who became president of the Council of Ministers
in 1852, also had expansionist ambitions. Cavour, however,
saw that Piedmont would not be able to singlehandedly add
to its territory. Instead, he hoped to secure aid from Britain
and France in expelling the Austrians from the Italian
peninsula. An attempt to gain British and French favour by
supporting them in the Crimean War, which Piedmont
entered in 1855, was unsuccessful, as Italian matters were
ignored at the Congress of Paris. Nevertheless, the war
achieved a useful objective — it left Austria, which had
uncomfortably tried to balance between the two sides
during the war, dangerously isolated.
On January 14, 1858, an Italian nationalist Felice Orsini
attempted to assassinate Napoleon III, the French Emperor.
Writing from his prison cell, Orsini did not plea for his life,
accepting death for his role in the failed assassination
attempt, but rather appealed to Napoleon III to fulfill his
destiny by aiding the forces of Italian nationalism.
Napoleon, who had belonged to the Carbonari in his youth,
and who saw himself as an advanced thinker, in tune with
the ideas of the day, became convinced that it was his
destiny to do something for Italy. In the summer of 1858,
Cavour met with Napoleon III at Plombières and the two
signed a secret agreement, which was known as the Patto di
Plombières ("Pact of Plombières").[6] Cavour and Napoleon
III agreed to a joint war against Austria. Piedmont would
gain the Austrian territories in Italy (Lombardy and
Venetia), as well as the Duchies of Parma and Modena,
while France would be rewarded with Piedmont's
transalpine territories of Savoy and Nice. Central and
Southern Italy, being largely under-developed and of little
interest to the wealthier north, would remain largely as it
was, although there was some talk that the Emperor's
cousin Prince Napoleon would replace the Habsburgs in
Tuscany. In order to allow the French to intervene without
appearing as the aggressors, Cavour was to provoke the
Austrians into aggression by encouraging revolutionary
activity in Lombardy.
At first, things did not work out as planned. The Austrians,
ignorant of the secret agreement signed at Plombières, were
surprisingly patient in dealing with the Piedmonteseinspired insurrections. The Piedmontese mobilization in
March 1859 was then something of an admission of defeat,
as it appeared that the strategy of provoking the Austrians
into aggression had failed. Without Austrian aggression, the
French could not intervene, and without French support,
Cavour was unwilling to risk war. At this time however, the
Austrians conveniently made their opponents' task easier by
sending an ultimatum to the Piedmontese demanding
demobilization. This the Piedmontese could conveniently
reject and, by making Austria seem the aggressor, allowed
the French to intervene.
The war itself was quite short. The Austrian advance into
Piedmont was incompetent, and they were unable to secure
the Alpine passes before the arrival of the French army, led
personally by Napoleon III. At the Battle of Magenta on
June 4, the French and Sardinians were victorious over the
Austrian army of Count Gyulai, leading to Austrian
withdrawal from most of Lombardy and a triumphal entry
by Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel into Milan. On June
24, a second battle was fought between the two armies at
Solferino. This bloody engagement, at which the Austrian
Emperor Franz Joseph had also taken personal command
of his troops, saw little skill demonstrated by the leaders on
either side, but the French were again victorious. The
Austrians withdrew behind the Quadrilateral of fortresses
on the borders of Venetia.
There were many reasons Napoleon III sought peace at this
point. Fear that a long and bloody campaign would be
necessary to conquer Venetia, fear for his position at home,
worry at the intervention of German states, and fear of a
too-powerful Piedmont-Sardinia led him to look for a way
out. On July 11, he met privately with Franz Joseph at
Villafranca, without the knowledge of his Piedmontese
allies. Together, the two agreed on the outlines of a
settlement to the conflict. The Austrians would retain
Venetia, but would cede Lombardy to the French, who
would then immediately cede it to Piedmont (the Austrians
were unwilling to cede the area to Piedmont themselves).
Otherwise, the Italian borders would remain unchanged. In
Central Italy, where the authorities had universally been
expelled following the outbreak of war, the rulers of
Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, who had fled to Austria,
would be restored, while Papal control of the Legations
would be resumed. Because Napoleon had not fulfilled the
terms of his agreement with Piedmont, he would not gain
Savoy and Nice.
The Sardinians were outraged at this betrayal by their ally.
Cavour demanded that the war be carried on regardless and
resigned when Victor Emmanuel determined that
acquiescence was the only realistic option. But the
Villafranca agreement would prove a dead letter long
before it was formalized into the Treaty of Zürich in
November. Piedmontese troops occupied the smaller
Italian states and the Legations, and the French proved
unwilling to pressure them to withdraw and allow the
restoration of the old order, while the Austrians no longer
had the power to compel it. In December, Tuscany, Parma,
Modena, and the Legations were unified into the United
Provinces of Central Italy, and, encouraged by the British,
were seeking annexation by the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Cavour, who triumphantly returned to power in January
1860, wished to annex the territories, but realized that
French acquiescence was necessary. Napoleon III agreed to
recognize the Piedmontese annexation in exchange for
Savoy and Nice. On March 20, 1860, the annexations
occurred. Now the Kingdom of Sardinia encompassed
most of Northern and Central Italy.
The Mille expedition
Main article: Expedition of the Thousand
Thus, by the spring of 1860, only four states remained in
Italy - the Austrians in Venetia, the Papal States (now
minus the Legations), the new expanded Kingdom of
Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
There is no special reason to think that Cavour now
envisaged the unification of the rest of Italy under
Piedmontese rule since these areas were of little interest
economically and could be a financial burden, but events
proved to have a life of their own.
Carte De Visite of a Garibaldino and member of the
Thousand Red Shirts, Giuseppe Barboglio. He wears the
rare 'Medal of the Thousand' or 'Marsala Medal', issued
by the city of Palermo in 1865.
Francis II of the Two Sicilies, the son and successor of
Ferdinand II (the infamous "King Bomba"), had a wellorganized army of 150,000 men. But his father's tyranny
had inspired many secret societies, and the kingdom's
Swiss Mercenaries were unexpectedly recalled home
under the terms of a new Swiss law that forbade Swiss
citizens to serve as mercenaries. This left Francis with
only his mostly unreliable native troops. It was a critical
opportunity for the unification movement. In April 1860,
separate insurrections began in Messina and Palermo in
Sicily, both of which demonstrated a history of opposing
Neapolitan rule. These rebellions were easily suppressed
by loyal troops.
In the meantime, Garibaldi, a native of Nice, was deeply
resentful of the French annexation of his home city. He
hoped to use his supporters to regain the territory. Cavour,
terrified of Garibaldi provoking a war with France,
persuaded Garibaldi to instead concentrate his forces on
the Sicilian rebellions. On May 6, 1860, Garibaldi and his
cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (called I
Mille), steamed from Quarto near Genoa, and after a stop
in Talamone on May 11 landed near Marsala on the west
coast of Sicily.
Near Salemi, Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of
rebels, and the combined forces defeated the opposing
army at Calatafimi on May 13. Within three days, the
invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. On May 14,
Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily, in the
name of Victor Emmanuel. After waging various
successful but hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced
upon the Sicilian capital of Palermo, announcing his
arrival by beacon-fires kindled at night. On May 27, the
force laid siege to the Porta Termini of Palermo, while a
mass uprising of street and barricade fighting broke out
within the city.
With Palermo deemed insurgent, Neapolitan general
Ferdinando Lanza, arriving in Sicily with some 25,000
troops, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins.
With the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice
was declared, leading to the Neapolitan troops' departure
and surrender of the town to Garibaldi and his much
smaller army.
This resounding success demonstrated the weakness of
the Neapolitan government. Garibaldi's fame spread and
many Italians began to consider him a national hero.
Doubt, confusion and dismay overtook the Neapolitan
court — the king hastily summoned his ministry and
offered to restore an earlier constitution, but these efforts
failed to rebuild the peoples' trust in Bourbon
governance.
Six weeks after the surrender of Palermo, Garibaldi
attacked Messina. Within a week its citadel surrendered.
Having conquered Sicily, Garibaldi proceeded to the
mainland, crossing the Straits of Messina with the
Neapolitan fleet at hand. The garrison at Reggio Calabria
promptly surrendered. Progressing northward, the
populace everywhere hailed him and military resistance
faded: on August 18 and 21 people of Basilicata and
Puglia, two regions of the Kingdom of Naples, had
autonomously declared their annexation to the Kingom of
Italy. At the end of August Garibaldi was at Cosenza, and
on September 5 at Eboli, near Salerno. Meanwhile,
Naples had declared a state of siege, and on September 6
the king gathered the 4,000 troops still faithful to him and
retreated over the Volturno river. The next day Garibaldi,
with a few followers, entered Naples by train, whose
people openly welcomed him.
Defeat of the Kingdom of Naples
Garibaldi in Naples, 1861
Though Garibaldi had easily taken the capital, the
Neapolitan army had not joined the rebellion en masse,
holding firm along the Volturno River. Garibaldi's
irregular bands of about 25,000 men could not drive
away the king or take the fortresses of Capua and
Gaeta without the help of the Sardinian army.
The Sardinian army, however, could only arrive by
traversing the Papal States, which extended across the
entire center of the peninsula. Ignoring the political
will of the Holy See, Garibaldi announced his intent to
proclaim a "Kingdom of Italy" from Rome, the capital
city of Pope Pius IX. Seeing this as a threat to the
domain of the Catholic Church, Pius threatened
excommunication for those who supported such an
effort. Afraid that Garibaldi would attack Rome,
Catholics worldwide sent money and volunteers for the
Papal Army, which was commanded by General Louis
Lamoricière, a French exile.
The settling of the peninsular standoff now rested with
Louis Napoleon. If the French emperor had let
Garibaldi have his way the latter would likely have
ended the temporal sovereignty of the pope and made
Rome the capital of Italy. Napoleon, however, may
have arranged with Cavour to leave the king of
Sardinia free to take possession of Naples, Umbria and
the other provinces, provided that Rome and the
"patrimony of St. Peter" were left intact.
It was in this situation that a Sardinian force of two
army corps, under Fanti and Cialdini, marched to the
frontier of the Papal States, its objective being not
Rome but Naples. The Papal troops under Lamoricière
advanced against Cialdini, but were quickly defeated
and besieged in the fortress of Ancona, finally
surrendering on September 29. On October 9, Victor
Emmanuel II arrived and took command. There was
no longer a papal army to oppose him, and the march
southward proceeded unopposed.
Victor Emmanuel II meets Garibaldi near Teano
Garibaldi distrusted the pragmatic Cavour, particularly
due to Cavour's role in the French annexation of Nice,
Garibaldi's birthplace. Nevertheless, he accepted the
command of Victor Emmanuel. When the king entered
Sessa Aurunca at the head of his army, Garibaldi
willingly handed over his dictatorial power. After
greeting Victor Emmanuel in Teano with the title of
King of Italy, Garibaldi entered Naples riding beside
the king. Garibaldi then retired to the island of
Caprera, while the remaining work of unifying the
peninsula was left to Victor Emmanuel.
The progress of the Sardinian army compelled Francis
II to give up his line along the river, and he eventually
took refuge with his best troops in the fortress of
Gaeta. His courage boosted by his resolute young
wife, Duchess Marie Sophie of Bavaria, Francis mounted a
stubborn defence that lasted three months. But European
allies refused him aid, food and munitions became scarce,
and disease set in, so the garrison was forced to surrender.
Nonetheless, ragtag groups of Neapolitans loyal to Francis
would fight on against the Italian government for years to
come.
The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the
brink of fruition — only Rome and Venetia remained to be
added. On February 18, 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled
the deputies of the first Italian Parliament in Turin. On
March 17, 1861, the Parliament proclaimed Victor
Emmanuel II King of Italy, and on March 27, 1861 Rome
was declared Capital of Italy, despite that it was not even in
the new Kingdom. Three months later Cavour, having seen
his life's work nearly complete, died. When he was given
the last rites, Cavour purportedly said: "Italy is made. All is
safe."[7]
Roman Question
Mazzini was discontented with the perpetuation of
monarchical government, and continued to agitate for a
republic. With the motto "Free from the Alps to the
Adriatic," the unification movement set its gaze on Rome
and Venice. There were obstacles, though. A challenge
against the Pope's temporal domain was viewed with great
distrust by Catholics around the world, and French troops
were stationed in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the
international repercussions of attacking the Papal States,
and discouraged his subjects from participating in
revolutionary ventures with such intentions.
Nonetheless, Garibaldi believed that the government would
support him if he attacked Rome. Frustrated at inaction by
the king, and bristling over perceived snubs, he organized a
new venture. In June 1862, he sailed from Genoa and
landed again at Palermo, where he gathered volunteers
for the campaign, under the slogan Roma o Morte
(Rome or Death). The garrison of Messina, loyal to the
king's instructions, barred their passage to the
mainland. Garibaldi's force, now numbering two
thousand, turned south and set sail from Catania.
Garibaldi declared that he would enter Rome as a
victor or perish beneath its walls. He landed at Melito
on August 14, and marched at once into the Calabrian
mountains.
Far from supporting this endeavour, the Italian
government was quite disapproving. General Cialdini
dispatched a division of the regular army, under
Colonel Pallavicino, against the volunteer bands. On
August 28 the two forces met in the Aspromonte. One
of the regulars fired a chance shot, and several volleys
followed, but Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire
on fellow subjects of the Kingdom of Italy. The
volunteers suffered several casualties, and Garibaldi
himself was wounded; many were taken prisoner.
Garibaldi was taken by steamer to Varignano, where he
was honorably imprisoned for a time, but finally
released.
Meanwhile, Victor Emmanuel sought a safer means to
the acquisition of the Papal States. He negotiated the
removal of the French troops from Rome through a
treaty, the September Convention, with Napoleon III in
September 1864, by which the emperor agreed to
withdraw his troops within two years. The pope was to
expand his own army during that time so as to be selfsufficient. In December 1866, the last of the French
troops departed from Rome, in spite of the efforts of
the pope to retain them. By their withdrawal, Italy
(excluding Venetia and Savoy) was freed from the
presence of foreign soldiers.
The seat of government was moved in 1865 from Turin,
the old Sardinian capital, to Florence, where the first
Italian parliament was summoned. This arrangement
created such disturbances in Turin that the king was
forced to leave that city hastily for his new capital.
Third War of Independence (1866)
In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria contested
with Prussia the position of leadership among the
German states. The Kingdom of Italy seized the
opportunity to capture Venetia from Austrian rule and
allied itself with Prussia. Austria tried to persuade the
Italian government to accept Venetia in exchange for non
-intervention. However, on April 8, Italy and Prussia
signed an agreement that supported Italy's acquisition of
Venetia, and on June 20, Italy declared war on Austria.
Within the context of Italian unification, the AustroPrussian war is called Third Independence War, after the
First (1848) and the Second (1859).
Victor Emmanuel hastened to lead an army across the
Mincio to the invasion of Venetia, while Garibaldi was to
invade the Tyrol with his Hunters of the Alps. The
enterprise ended in disaster. The Italian army
encountered the Austrians at Custoza on June 24 and
suffered a defeat. On July 20 the Regina Marina was
defeated in the battle of Lissa where the Austrians
completely destroyed Italian vessels. Italy's fortunes were
not all so dismal, though. The following day, Garibaldi's
volunteers defeated an Austrian force in the battle of
Bezzecca, and moved toward Trento.
Meanwhile, Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck saw that
his own ends in the war had been achieved, and signed an
armistice with Austria on July 27. Italy officially laid
down its arms on August 12. Garibaldi was called back
from his successful march and resigned with a brief
telegram reading only "Obbedisco" ("I obey").
In spite of Italy's poor showing, Prussia's success on the
northern front obliged Austria to cede Venetia. Under the
terms of a peace treaty signed in Vienna on October 12,
Emperor Franz Joseph had already agreed to cede
Venetia to Napoleon III in exchange for non-intervention
in the Austro-Prussian War and thus Napoleon III ceded
Venetia to Italy on October 19 in exchange for the earlier
Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy
and Nice.
In the peace treaty of Vienna, it was written that the
annexation of Venetia would have become effective only
after a referendum — taken on October 21 and October
22 — to let the Venetian people express their will about
being annexed or not to the Kingdom of Italy. Historians
suggest that the referendum in Venetia was held under
military pressure,[8] as a mere 0.01% of voters (69 out of
more than 642,000 ballots) voted against the annexation.
[9]
Many Venetian independence movements (see
Venetism) refer to this deceit to claim for independence
of Veneto.
Austrian forces put up some opposition to the invading
Italians, to little effect. Victor Emmanuel entered Venice
and Venetian land, and performed an act of homage in
the Piazza San Marco.
Rome
Mentana and Villa Glori
The national party, with Garibaldi at its head, still aimed
at the possession of Rome, as the historic capital of the
peninsula. In 1867 Garibaldi made a second attempt to
capture Rome, but the papal army, strengthened with a
new French auxiliary force, defeated his badly armed
volunteers at Mentana. Subsequently, a French garrison
remained in Civitavecchia until August 1870, when it
was recalled following the outbreak of the FrancoPrussian War.
Battle of Mentana
Before the defeat at Mentana, Enrico Cairoli, his brother
Giovanni and 70 companions had made a daring attempt
to take Rome. The group had embarked in Terni and
floated down the Tiber. Their arrival in Rome was to
coincide with an uprising inside the city. On 22 October
1867, the revolutionaries inside Rome seized control of
the Capitoline Hill and of Piazza Colonna. Unfortunately
for the Cairolis and their companions, by the time they
arrived at Villa Glori, on the northern outskirts of Rome,
the uprising had already been suppressed. During the night
of 22 October 1867, the group was surrounded by Papal
Zouaves, and Giovanni was severely wounded. Enrico was
mortally wounded and bled to death in Giovanni's arms.
At the summit of Villa Glori, near the spot where Enrico
died, there is a plain white column dedicated to the Cairoli
brothers and their 70 companions. About 100 meters to the
left from the top of the Spanish Steps, there is a bronze
monument of Giovanni holding the dying Enrico in his
arm. A plaque lists the names of their companions.
Giovanni never recovered from his wounds and from the
tragic events of 1867. According to an eyewitness[10], when
Giovanni died on 11 September 1869:
In the last moments, he had a vision of Garibaldi and
seemed to greet him with enthusiasm. I heard (so says a
friend who was present) him say three times: "The union of
the French to the papal political supporters was the terrible
fact!" he was thinking about Mentana. Many times he
called Enrico, that he might help him! then he said: "but we
will certainly win; we will go to Rome!
Capture of Rome
In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early
August, the French Emperor Napoleon III recalled his
garrison from Rome, thus no longer providing protection to
the Papal State. Widespread public demonstrations
illustrate the demand that the Italian government take
Rome. The Italian government took no direct action until
the collapse of the Second French Empire at the Battle of
Sedan. King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count Gustavo
Ponza di San Martino to Pius IX with a personal letter
offering a face-saving proposal that would have allowed
the peaceful entry of the Italian Army into Rome, under the
guise of offering protection to the pope. The Papacy,
however, exhibited something less than enthusiasm for
the plan:
The Pope’s reception of San Martino (10 September
1870) was unfriendly. Pius IX allowed violent outbursts
to escape him. Throwing the King’s letter upon the table
he exclaimed, "Fine loyalty! You are all a set of vipers, of
whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith." He was perhaps
alluding to other letters received from the King. After,
growing calmer, he exclaimed: "I am no prophet, nor son
of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome!"
San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day.[11]
The Italian Army, commanded by General Raffaele
Cadorna, crossed the papal frontier on 11 September and
advanced slowly toward Rome, hoping that a peaceful
entry could be negotiated. The Italian Army reached the
Aurelian Walls on 19 September and placed Rome under
a state of siege. Although now convinced of his
unavoidable defeat, Pius IX remained intransigent to the
bitter end and forced his troops to put up a token
resistance. On September 20, after a cannonade of three
hours had breached the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, the
Bersaglieri entered Rome and marched down Via Pia,
which was subsequently renamed Via XX Settembre. 49
Italian soldiers and four officers, and 19 papal troops
died. Rome and Latium were annexed to the Kingdom of
Italy after a plebiscite held on October 2. The results of
this plebiscite were accepted by decrete of October 9.
Initially the Italian government had offered to let the pope
keep the Leonine City, but the Pope rejected the offer
because acceptance would have been an implied
endorsement of the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom's
rule over his former domain. Pius IX declared himself a
prisoner in the Vatican, although he was not actually
restrained from coming and going. Rather, being deposed
and stripped of much of his former power also removed a
measure of personal protection — if he had walked the
streets of Rome he might have been in danger from political
opponents who had formerly kept their views private.
Officially, the capital was not moved from Florence to
Rome until July 1871.
Historian Raffaele de Cesare made the following
observations about Italian unification:
The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon’s feet
— that dragged him into the abyss. He never forgot, even in
August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign
of a Catholic country, that he had been made Emperor, and
was supported by the votes of the Conservatives and the
influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not
to abandon the Pontiff.[12]
For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign
of Rome, where he had many friends and relations….
Without him the temporal power would never have been
reconstituted, nor, being reconstituted, would have endured.
[13]
Risorgimento in the Modern era
The process of unification of the Italian people in a national State
was not completed in the nineteenth century. Many Italians
remained outside the borders of the Kingdom of Italy and this
situation created the Italian irredentism.
Italia irredenta (Unredeemed Italy) was an Italian nationalist
opinion movement that emerged after Italian unification. It
advocated irredentism among the Italian people as well as other
nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a
movement; it is also known as "Italian irredentism." Not a formal
organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that
Italy had to reach its "natural borders". Similar patriotic and
nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century.
Irredentism and the two World Wars
During the post-unification era, some Italians were unsatisfied
with the current state of the Italian Kingdom since they wanted
the kingdom to include Trieste, Istria and other areas around as
well. This Italian irredentism succeeded in World War I with the
annexation of Trieste and Trento, with the respective territories
of Venezia Giulia and Trentino.
The Kingdom of Italy had declared neutrality at the beginning of
Italian irredentism obtained an important result after World War
I, when Italy gained Trieste, Gorizia, Istria and the city of Zara.
During WWII, after the Axis aggression against Yugoslavia,
Italy created the "Governatorato di Dalmazia" (from 1941 to
September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily
even Spalato (Split), Cattaro (Kotor) and most of coastal
Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943 even Corsica (Corse) and Nizza
(Nice) were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy,
nearly totally fulfilling in those years the requests of the Italian
irredentism.
The Vittoriano in Rome, honoring King Victor Emmanuel and
celebrating the unity of Italy. The decision to build it was
reached in 1878, shortly after the king's death that year; the site
on the Capitoline Hill was chosen in 1882; and the design of 28
year-old Giuseppe Sacconi was selected in 1884. Construction
began in 1885 and the monument was inaugurated in 1911,
although features were subsequently added or altered during the
fascist period.
Piazza Risorgimento in Rome - one of the numerous squares
and streets bearing this name in Italian cities
The movement had for its avowed purpose the emancipation of
all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after Italian
unification. The Irredentists took language as the test of the
alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to
emancipate, which were Trentino, Trieste, Dalmatia, Istria,
Gorizia, Ticino, Nice (Nizza), Corsica and Malta. AustriaHungary promoted Croatian interests in Dalmatia and Istria to
weaken Italian claims in the western Balkans before WWI.
After World War II
After WWII the irredentism movement faded away in
Italian politics. Only a few thousand Italians remain in
Istria and Dalmatia as a consequence of the Italian defeat
in WWII and of the slaughter of approximately 2,000
Italians as reprisals for fascist atrocities and the
subsequent choice of Italian citizenship by an additional
200,000 - 250,000 people in what became known as the
Istrian exodus
.
Secession movements
The Italian unification process was generally popular with
contemporary people living in the Italian peninsula,
especially with regard to the end to Austrian rule.
Nevertheless, dissenters were present in the 19th century
(in particular, the rulers of the annexed states), and
regionalist sympathies continue to the present day. There
are two chief secession movements, (that in the past
reached less than 5% of the national electoral votes and
currently in the last 2008 national election reached about
10% nationwide and 20% in the north) represented by
active political parties: one in the North (Lega Nord), and
one in the South (M.I.S.). This southern secession
movement was mainly the result of peasants revolting
against the new government. The former has elected
several representatives to the national parliament.
The Veneto region (corresponding to the central portion of
what was the Most Serene Republic of Venice) has an
especially strong and growing feeling toward autonomy/
independence. In the latest elections Lega Nord (North
League) reached 28.4%, and PDL reached 29.3([1]). It
should be noticed that even leading representatives of PDL
show increasing feeling toward autonomy (not
independence) of Veneto within an Italian unitary frame
([2]).
The Italian region of Alto Adige/South Tyrol had a strong
secession movement, headed by the German-speaking
majority in the region, for unification with Austria. The
movement was strongest after the Second World War.
Secessionist parties still exist, but the secessionist
movement has been mostly pacified by the granting of
substantial autonomy by the Italian government.
Notes
1. ^ "Proclamation of Rimini". 1815. http://
www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/
immagine/00402.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
2. ^ Astarita, Tommaso (2000). Between Salt Water And Holy
Water: A History Of Southern Italy. p. 264.
3. ^ E.E.Y. Hales (1954). Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics
and Religion in the Nineteenth Century. P.J. Kenedy.
4. ^ Ridley, Jasper. Garibaldi. pp. 268.
5. ^ Constituzione
6. ^ Hayes, Brian J. (2008). "Italian Unification. Cavour,
Garibaldi and the Making of Italy". http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/
history/italian_unification.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
7. ^ Holt, Edgar (1971). The Making of Italy: 1815-1870. New
York: Murray Printing Company. p. 258.
8. ^ G. Thaon di Revel: "La cessione del Veneto - ricordi di un
commissario piemontese incaricato alle trattative" (translation: "The
cession of Veneto - memories of the piedmontese commissary for
the negotiations"). Academic Press, 2002
9. ^ Beggiato, E.: "1866: la grande truffa" (translation: "1866: the
great deceit"). Venice Academic Press, 1999
10. ^ Michele Rosi, I Cairoli, L. Capelli Ed., Bologna, 1929, pp.
223–224
11. ^ De Cesare, Raffaele (1909). The Last Days of Papal Rome.
Archibald Constable & Co. p. 444.
12. ^ De Cesare, Raffaele (1909). The Last Days of Papal Rome.
Archibald Constable & Co. p. 440.
^ De Cesare, Raffaele (1909). The Last Days of Papal Rome.
Archibald Constable & Co. p. 443.
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