Editing Unification of Italy (section)

==Background==

===From ancient times to early modern era===
[[Italy]] was unified by the [[Roman Republic]] in the latter part of the third century BCE. For 700 years, it was a ''de facto'' territorial extension of the capital of the [[Roman Republic]] and [[Roman Empire|Empire]], and for a long time experienced a [[Roman Italy|privileged status but was not converted into a province]]. Under [[Augustus]], the previous differences in municipal and political rights were abolished and Roman Italy was subdivided into administrative regions ruled directly by the Roman Senate.

After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]] remained united under the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] and after 568 was disputed between the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire]], losing its unity for centuries. Following conquest by the [[Frankish Empire]], the title of [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|King of Italy]] merged with the office of [[Holy Roman Emperor]]; however, the emperor was an absentee [[German language|German]]-speaking foreigner who had little interest in governing Italy and indeed never controlled the entire peninsula. As a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of [[Italian city-states|city-states]]. [[Southern Italy]] was governed by the long-lasting [[Kingdom of Sicily]] or [[Kingdom of Naples]], which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the pope as a temporal kingdom known as the [[Papal States]].

This situation persisted through the [[Renaissance]] but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern [[nation-state]]s in the [[early modern period]]. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of [[proxy war]]s between the major powers, notably the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (including [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]]), [[Spain]], and [[Kingdom of France|France]]. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the [[Italic League]], in 1454, and the 15th century foreign policy of [[Cosimo de' Medici]] and [[Lorenzo de' Medici]]. Leading Renaissance Italian writers [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]] and [[Francesco Guicciardini|Guicciardini]] expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in ''Italia Mia''. Machiavelli later quoted four verses from ''Italia Mia'' in ''[[The Prince]]'', which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the [[barbarians]]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLY2tlPZqvsC&q=petrarch+l%27antico+valor&pg=PA257 |title=Machiavelli and Empire&nbsp;– Mikael Hörnqvist&nbsp;– Google Books |date=2004 |access-date=1 August 2012|isbn=978-1139456340|last1=Hörnqvist |first1=Mikael |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref>

The [[Italian Wars]] saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII's]] invasion of Naples in 1494. However, the [[Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis]] (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under the direct or indirect control of the [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish Habsburgs]]. The [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the [[House of Habsburg]], which ruled the [[Spanish Empire]], continued to rule southern Italy and the [[Duchy of Milan]] until the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–14). Following this war the Austrian Habsburgs struggled for dominance with the Spanish Bourbons until the end of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]].

A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in [[Gian Rinaldo Carli]]'s ''Della Patria degli Italiani'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trampus |first1=Antonio |title=Gianrinaldo Carli at the centre of the Milanese Enlightenment |journal=History of European Ideas |date=December 2006 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=456–476 |doi=10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2006.08.001 }}</ref> written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. {{"'}}Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian', he explained."{{sfn|Holt|1971|pp=22–23}}

===French Revolution and Napoleonic era===
[[File:Flag of the Repubblica Cispadana.svg|thumb|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], which was the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]
The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with the [[Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars|campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars]] in 1792–97 when a series of [[Sister republic|client republics]] were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last [[Roman-German Emperor]], [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II]], after its defeat by Napoleon at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]]. French rule destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of the intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after the [[First French Empire]] collapsed in 1814.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grew |first1=Raymond |title=Finding Social Capital: The French Revolution in Italy |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |date=January 1999 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=407–433 |doi=10.1162/002219598551760 }}</ref>

The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=Anna Maria |title=Republicanism in Italy from the eighteenth century to the early Risorgimento |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=March 2012 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=149–167 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.641409 }}</ref> The reaction against any outside control challenged [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Viceroy of Italy]], and [[Joachim Murat]], [[Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic)|King of Naples]]) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] approval for his succession to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the [[Rimini Proclamation]], which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers.

[[Flags of Napoleonic Italy|During the Napoleonic era]], in 1797, the first official adoption of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the [[Cispadane Republic]], a Napoleonic [[sister republic]] of [[Revolutionary France]], took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national [[self-determination]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2|page=156}}</ref><ref>[http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm The tri-coloured standard].Getting to Know Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (retrieved 5 October 2008) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223131121/http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm |date=23 February 2008}}</ref> This event is celebrated by the [[Tricolour Day]].<ref name="miolegale">Article 1 of the law n. 671 of 31 December 1996 ("National celebration of the bicentenary of the first national flag")</ref> The [[Italian national colours]] appeared for the first time on a [[Cockade of Italy|tricolour cockade]] in 1789,<ref name="Cita|Ferorelli |p. 662">{{cite journal |last1=Ferorelli |first1=Nicola |date=1925 |title=La vera origine del tricolore italiano |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |volume=XII |issue=fasc. III |language=it |pages=662 |access-date=25 December 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181159/http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |url-status=dead }}</ref> anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military [[war flag]], which was adopted by the [[Lombard Legion]] in 1796.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tarozzi|first1=Fiorenza|last2=Vecchio|first2=Giorgio |title=Gli italiani e il tricolore|year=1999|publisher=Il Mulino|language=it|isbn=88-15-07163-6|pages=67–68}}</ref>

===Reaction (1815–1848)===
[[File:Giuseppe Mazzini.jpg|thumb|[[Giuseppe Mazzini]], highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement]]
After Napoleon fell (1814), the [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the [[Austrian Empire]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_room/articles/files/hicks_napoleon_kingitaly.asp |title=How Napoleon became 'King of Italy' |publisher=Napoleon.org |date=23 October 2012 |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> as they directly controlled the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]] and indirectly the duchies of [[Duchy of Parma and Piacenza|Parma]], [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Modena]] and [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]].

With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the [[Absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchical regimes]], the [[Italian tricolour]] went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=10|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|page=169|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2}}</ref> and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.<ref>Ghisi, Enrico ''Il tricolore italiano (1796–1870)'' Milano: Anonima per l'Arte della Stampa, 1931</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gay |first1=H. Nelson |title=Review of Il Tricolore Italiano, 1796-1870 |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1932 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=750–751 |doi=10.2307/1843352 |jstor=1843352 }}</ref> The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the [[Cittadella of Alessandria]], during the [[Revolutions during the 1820s|revolutions of 1820s]], after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=18|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref>

An important figure of this period was [[Francesco Melzi d'Eril]], serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic [[Italian Republic (Napoleonic)|Italian Republic]] (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nicassio|first=Susan Vandiver|title=Imperial City: Rome Under Napoleon|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|location=United States |edition=|isbn=978-0-226-57973-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica/page/n220 220]}}</ref>
Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; [[Vittorio Alfieri]], [[Francesco Lomonaco]] and [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] are generally considered three great literary precursors of [[Italian nationalism]], but the most famous proto-nationalist work was [[Alessandro Manzoni]]'s [[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|''I promessi sposi'' ''(The Betrothed)'']], widely read as thinly veiled allegorical criticism of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of ''I Promessi Sposi'' used a standardized version of the [[Languages of Italy|Tuscan dialect]], a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Henry |first1=Jean |date=1978 |title=Antonio Canova and the Tomb to Vittorio |id={{ProQuest|302938866}} |oclc=7413922 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

Three ideals of unification appeared. [[Vincenzo Gioberti]], a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the pope in his 1842 book ''Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Romani |first1=Roberto |title=Liberal Theocracy in the Italian Risorgimento |journal=European History Quarterly |date=October 2014 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=620–650 |doi=10.1177/0265691414546601 }}</ref> [[Pope Pius IX]] at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hales |first1=Edward Elton Young |title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century |date=1954 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |oclc=1024605117 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

[[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Carlo Cattaneo]] wanted the unification of Italy under a [[federal republic]], which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by [[Cesare Balbo]] (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Aristocratic Liberalism and Risorgimento: Cesare Balbo and Piedmontese Political Thought after 1848 |journal=History of European Ideas |date=November 2013 |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=835–857 |doi=10.1080/01916599.2012.762621 }}</ref>

===Carbonari===
[[File:Italian-unification.gif|thumb|Animated map of the Italian unification from 1829 to 1871]]
One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the [[Carbonari]], a secret political discussion group formed in [[southern Italy]] early in the 19th century. After 1815, [[Freemasonry]] in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to [[Italian nationalism]] and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the [[French Revolution]] regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals and were strongly anticlerical. The Carbonari movement spread across Italy.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1844987|title = The Carbonari: Their Origins, Initiation Rites, and Aims|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 69|issue = 2|pages = 353–370|last1 = Rath|first1 = R. John|year = 1964|doi = 10.2307/1844987}}</ref>

Conservative governments feared the Carbonari, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members. Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned [[Napoleon III]] (who, as a young man, had fought on their side) to death for [[Napoleon III#Italian Campaign|failing]] to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858, when [[Felice Orsini]], [[Giovanni Andrea Pieri]], [[Charles DeRudio|Carlo Di Rudio]] and [[Andrea Gomez (revolutionary)|Andrea Gomez]] threw three bombs at him. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government. Although contributing some service to the cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41885047|title = The Carbonari|journal = Social Science|volume = 39|issue = 4|pages = 234–241|last1 = Shiver|first1 = Cornelia|year = 1964}}</ref>

===Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi===
[[File:First meeting between Giuseppe Garibaldi.jpg|thumb|200px|The first meeting between [[Giuseppe Garibaldi|Garibaldi]] and [[Giuseppe Mazzini|Mazzini]] at the headquarters of [[Young Italy]] in 1833]]
Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic,<ref name="Galt 1994 785–807">{{cite journal|last=Galt|first=Anthony|title=The Good Cousins' Domain of Belonging: Tropes in Southern Italian Secret Society Symbol and Ritual, 1810–1821|journal=Man |series=New Series|date=December 1994|volume=29|issue=4|pages=785–807|doi=10.2307/3033969|jstor=3033969}}</ref> two of the most prominent being [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]. Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could&nbsp;− and therefore should&nbsp;− be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with [[Rome]] as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to [[Marseille]] in France, where he organized a new political society called [[Young Italy|''La Giovine Italia'' (Young Italy)]], whose mottos were "''Dio e Popolo''" ('God and People') and "''Unione, Forza e Libertà''" ('Union, Strength and Freedom"),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marcopolovr.gov.it/risorgimento/temi/simboli/tricolore.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223213024/http://www.marcopolovr.gov.it/risorgimento/temi/simboli/tricolore.htm|title=Il tricolore|access-date=13 December 2022|archive-date=23 February 2017|url-status=dead|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.partecipiamo.it/cultura/mazzini/giuseppe.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613005251/https://www.partecipiamo.it/cultura/mazzini/giuseppe.htm|title=Giuseppe Mazzini|access-date=13 December 2022|archive-date=13 June 2016|url-status=dead|language=it}}</ref> which sought the unification of Italy.{{sfn|Smith|1969|p={{pn|date=April 2025}}}}

Garibaldi, a native of [[Nice]] (then part of [[Piedmont]]), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America,  spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning the art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848.{{sfn|Ridley|1976|p={{pn|date=April 2025}}}}