What were the forces for change on the
Italian Peninsula up to 1848?
Effect of Napoleonic Rule
• Division of Italy into 4 then 3 territorial units
• Code Napoleon etc.
• Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
Early concepts of Italia
• Dante Alighiere (author of The Divine Comedy) wrote of
‘Italia’ as a country in the early 14th Century
• Niccolo Machiavelli (author of The Prince) also spoke of
Italia in the 16th Century as a single cultural entity.
• Much of the 19th Century Composer Giuseppe Verdi’s
music (of the 1840s) made direct allusions to ‘enslaved
peoples’ and had a tendency to incite violence between
Italian nationalists and Austrian soldiers.
Rise of liberalism, radicalism and
nationalism from 1815:
• Grew out of reactionary measures imposed by
Metternich and the congressmen from 1815:
• LIBERALS: Pushed for a CONSTITUTIONAL
MONARCHY whereby the ruler’s power was limited
by a parliament elected by property owners designed
to guarantee rights and freedoms.
• RADICALS: tended to push for more Republican and
Democratic solutions to the situation imposed in
1815.
• NATIONALISTS: Supported sometimes by both
liberals and radicals, believed in he concept of
NATION STATES (as opposed to dependency on
mother countries within empires).
Carbonari ritual:
…often gave rise, in Italy, to SECRET
SOCIETIES:
• Generally educated, middle class types born out of
freemasonry and the desire in the 1790s to drive out the
French.
• CARBONARI : meaning ‘Charcoal Burners’ – very active
in Southern Italy – 60,000 members in Naples. Engaged
in secret revolutionary activity with various goals: Naples
(1820-1) aimed at forcing Ferdinand I to grant a
constitution; Sicily (1821) independence from Naples;
Piedmont (1821) constitutional Monarchy.
• Adelfi – Northern-based and aimed at expulsion of
Austrians; Italian Federation – aimed at creation of
North Italian Constitutional Monarchy.
Revolutions of 1820-1:
•
Naples: Motivated by Ferdinand I’s increasing of Church censorship of media
and halting key public works and encouraged by contemporary Spanish revolt.
Started with 100 soldiers and 30 Carbonari advancing on Avellino, leading to a
wider spread rising and the defection of army regiments led by General Pepe.
July 1820 – Ferdinand agreed to Spain 1812-style constitution with Pepe at
head of army.
• Sicily: Riots began in the capital Palermo, stemming from wish for
independence from Neapolitan King who they felt was neglecting their needs.
Neapolitan governor sent home forcibly by boat!
TWO REVOLUTIONS UNDONE by decision of Neapolitan revolutionary assembly to
subdue the Sicilian rebels AND by the sending of Austrian troops into Naples
in October 1821 after Ferdinand I had appealed to the members of the Holy
Alliance.
Piedmont (1820-1):
- Encouraged by news of the Neapolitan revolt, Carbonari members, determined to
rail against Victor Emmanuel I’s reactionary rule, set up a revolutionary
government in Alessandria named ‘The Kingdom of Italy’ and declared war on
Austria. Following an army mutiny, V.E. I decided to abdicate. Second in line to
throne, CHARLES ALBERT, was turned to as a leader who might tolerate a
constitution based on the 1812 Spanish model. Charles Felix, first in line to the
throne, then appealed to Metternich and the rebels were crushed by an
Austrian/Charles Felix-loyalist force at the Battle of Novara in April 1821.
‘King Wobble’ (pictured c.
1831)
The revolutions of 1831-2:
•
•
•
•
Central Duchies’ rebels encouraged partly by relative moderation of
rulers there – Ferdinand III in Tuscany (education and hospital reforms
+ flourishing Antologia journal) and Marie Louise in Parma (Code
Napoleon-style legal system) and partly by REVOLUTION IN PARIS,
JULY 1830.
MODENA revolt kicked off after Duke Francesco IV had betrayed
Enrico Misley’s plans to form a united Italy with the Duke as monarch,
Febraury 1831. Rebels took over city of Modena in the Duke’s
absence.
This, in turn, encouraged rebels in PARMA to rise up and demand a
constitution from Marie-Louise, who fled in terror. These
revolutionaries agreed to a joint army command with the rebels in
Modena.
However, Modena quickly subdued by Duke Francesco at the head of
an Austrian force. An Austrian army also reoccupied Parma.
The revolutions of 1831-2 (continued):
• PAPAL STATES: Following an unsuccessful attempt
by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to seize power in
Rome, liberals from among the professional classes,
spurred on by Ciro Menotti, one of the leaders of the
Central State rebellions decided to try to limit the
temporal authority of the Pope. Papacy unable to
offer much resistance and ‘The Government of the
Italian Provinces’ was set up in Bologna. This was
also quickly and fiercely suppressed by troops sent
by Metternich.
• Revolutions had all failed at Austrian hands BUT
there had at least been some collusion between
revolutionaries in separate states AND some attempt
at unification.
Mazzini
A Young Italy meeting
Mazzini and ‘Young Italy’:
• Garibaldi (on why he joined ‘Young Italy’ in a failed revolt in Genoa in 1834):
‘He alone was awake when all around were slumbering’.
• Beliefs: the next stage in World History to be dominated by nation states;
strongly opposed to the idea of a FEDERAL ITALY and claimed in 1829 ‘The
fatherland of an Italian is not Rome, Florence or Milan but the WHOLE of
Italy’ (i.e. North and South); believed in democratic ‘revolution from below’;
prepared to tolerate the assistance of individual rulers who would fight
Austrian occupation – hence (1831) called [unsuccessfully] upon Charles
Albert to ‘put yourself at the head of the nation…with Union, Liberty,
Independence as your banner’.
• Founded ‘Young Italy’ in 1831 (unsatisfied with progress of Secret Societies)
with the aim of ‘remaking Italy as one independent nation of freemen and
equals’ and requiring members to swear to work for ‘one free independent
republican nation’. Campaigned peacefully but also took part in several
flawed revolutionary acts: Naples, 1832 (where the peasants failed to be ‘a
volcano about to erupt); A failed army coup in Piedmont in 1833; attempted
uprisings in Piedmont and Genoa (1834) for which both Mazzini and
Garibaldi were both condemned to death in their absence.
Mazzini and ‘Young Italy’ (continued):
- Although he spent 1834-7 in Switzerland and 1837-49 in
London, his value to Risorgimento was that of a legend and
inspiration, writing prolifically in his exile. He would return in
1849…
The Roman Republic,
1849