Italian nationalism reached a fever pitch as a result of the Revolutions of 1848 that shook much of Europe. So too did arguments over whether to create an Italian republic or a kingdom. The most viable plans for a unified Kingdom of Italy came from Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, ruled by the House of Savoy.
While Cavour laid the diplomatic and economic groundwork for Italian unification, Giuseppe Garibaldi, a republican nationalist and military man, bore much of the military burden of unifying Italy. Cavour’s and Garibaldi’s visions for unifying Italy often clashed and the two mistrusted each other. But in the end they did end up unifying Italy.
Italian nationalist forces fought a series of wars with Austria, which held much of northern Italy after the demise of Napoleon in order to discourage any new French ambitions to reoccupy Italy. Cavour gained the assistance of France in nationalist conflicts with Austria through shrewd diplomatic maneuvers that showed France had nothing to fear from a unified Italy. But in that process, Cavour had bartered off Savoy and Nice to France. Garibaldi, a native son of Nice, grew angry and made unification plans of his own in 1860: He landed a force in Sicily and advanced through southern Italy. Cavour responded by rushing forces south to confront him. In the process, much of Italy was unified, but the march through papal territory to confront Garibaldi without permission made the Catholic Church hostile to Italian unification efforts. In the end, Cavour’s vision for Italian unification had prevailed, and the Kingdom of Italy was created in 1861. Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia-Piedmont became Italy’s first king.
After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy several problems remained. The papacy remained hostile to the Kingdom of Italy until the Lateran Accord of 1929. Glaring economic and social disparities among regions posed serious challenges to the survival of the new state. Most significantly, there were large areas of Italy that remained outside the new kingdom, regions that came to be known as Italia Irredenta or “Unredeemed Italy.”
The Veneto remained under Austrian control: Italy gained it by treaty after Prussia won the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Italy was rewarded for tying down Austrian forces in conflicts across northern Italy.
Rome remained under papal control until Italy seized it when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870. As a result of the Franco-Prussian War, France needed troops to fight the Germans. Consequently, French troops protecting the papacy from from Italian attempts to seize Rome withdrew from the city. Unprotected, Rome fell to Italian forces in 1870. The Kingdom of Italy established Rome as its capital in 1871.
Istria, once part of the Venetian Empire, remained under Austrian control until the Versailles Treaty after World War I awarded it to Italy in 1919-1920.
Trentino remained under Austrian control until Italy gained it, along with the German-speaking South Tirol/Alto Adige region, through the Versailles Treaty.
Martin F. Ederer
Assistant professor of History
Buffalo State College
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