Editing Unification of Italy (section)

==Early revolutionary activity==

===Exiles and European and masculine ideals===
Many of the key intellectual and political leaders operated from exile; most Risorgimento patriots lived and published their work abroad after successive failed revolutions. Exile became a central theme of the foundational legacy of the Risorgimento as the narrative of the Italian nation fighting for independence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Exile and Nationalism: The Case of the Risorgimento |journal=European History Quarterly |date=October 2006 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=493–520 |doi=10.1177/0265691406068126 }}</ref> The exiles were deeply immersed in European ideas, and often hammered away at what Europeans saw as Italian vices, especially effeminacy and indolence. These negative stereotypes emerged from [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] notions of national character that stressed the influence of the environment and history on a people's moral predisposition. Italian exiles both challenged and embraced the stereotypes and typically presented gendered interpretations of Italy's political "degeneration". They called for a masculine response to feminine weaknesses as the basis of national regeneration and fashioned their image of the future Italian nation firmly in the standards of European nationalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 10.1086/531319|doi = 10.1086/531319|title = Indolence and Regeneration: Tropes and Tensions of Risorgimento Patriotism|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 110|issue = 2|pages = 380–408|year = 2005|last1 = Patriarca|first1 = Silvana}}</ref>

===Two Sicilies insurrection===
[[File:Guglielmo Pepe Illustration.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Guglielmo Pepe]]]]
In 1820, liberal Spaniards successfully [[Trienio Liberal|revolted]], demanding a Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, a regiment in the army of the [[Kingdom of Two Sicilies]], commanded by [[Guglielmo Pepe]], a Carbonaro (member of the secret republican organization),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Carbonaro |title=Carbonaro – definition of Carbonaro by The Free Dictionary |publisher=The free dictionary.com |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies|Ferdinand I]], agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, although, 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/austrohun/ftwosicilies1820.htm|title=Austria Two Sicilies Revolt 1820–1821|publisher=Onwar.com|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

===Piedmont insurrection===
[[File:Arresto pellico maroncelli.jpg|thumb|right|''The Arrest of Silvio Pellico and Piero Maroncelli'', [[Saluzzo]], civic museum]]
The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|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 [[Flag of Italy|''tricolore'']] of the [[Cisalpine Republic]]. King [[Victor Emmanuel I]] abdicated in response, and the regent for the new king, Prince [[Charles Albert of Sardinia|Charles Albert]], approved a new [[constitution]] to appease the revolutionaries, but when King [[Charles Felix of Sardinia|Charles Felix]] 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]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Broers |first1=Michael |title=Revolution as Vendetta: Patriotism in Piedmont, 1794–1821 |journal=The Historical Journal |date=September 1990 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=573–597 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013534 }}</ref>

In [[Milan]], [[Silvio Pellico]] and Pietro Maroncelli organized several attempts to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shapiro |first1=Gavriel |title=Nabokov and Pellico: Invitation to a Beheading and My Prisons |journal=Comparative Literature |date=2010 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=55–67 |doi=10.1215/00104124-2009-032 |jstor=40600349 }}</ref>

===1830 insurrections===
{{Main|Revolutions of 1830}}
[[Denis Mack Smith]] argues:
{{blockquote|Few people in 1830 believed that an Italian nation might exist. There were eight states in the peninsula, each with distinct laws and traditions. No one had had the desire or the resources to revive Napoleon's partial experiment in unification. The settlement of 1814–15 had merely restored regional divisions, with the added disadvantage that the decisive victory of Austria over France temporarily hindered Italians in playing off their former oppressors against each other. ... Italians who, like [[Ugo Foscolo]] and [[Gabriele Rossetti]], harboured patriotic sentiments, were driven into exile. The largest Italian state, the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its 8 million inhabitants, seemed aloof and indifferent: Sicily and Naples had once been ruled by Spain, and it had always been foreign to the rest of Italy. The common people in each region, and even the intellectual elite, spoke their mutually unintelligible dialects, and lacked the least vestiges of national consciousness. They wanted good government, not self-government, and had welcomed Napoleon and the French as more equitable and efficient than their native dynasties,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=D. Mack |chapter=Italy |page=552 |editor1-last=Bury |editor1-first=J. P. T. |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 10, The Zenith of European Power, 1830-70 |date=1960 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-04548-3 }}</ref> many of which had died out in the 18th century.}}

[[File:Assalto alla casa di Ciro Menotti e arresto del Grande Patriotta e dei suoi compagni.jpg|thumb|Ciro Menotti and his compatriots clashed with the army.]]
After 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.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

The [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Duke of Modena]], [[Francis IV of Modena|Francis IV]], was an ambitious man, 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.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

During the [[July Revolution]] of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced King [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] to abdicate and created the [[July Monarchy]] with encouragement from the new French king, [[Louis-Philippe I]]. 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, Louis-Philippe did not, however, 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 centred in Modena faded.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

At the same time, other insurrections arose in the [[Papal Legations]] of [[Bologna]], [[Ferrara]], [[Ravenna]], [[Forlì]], [[Ancona]] and [[Perugia]]. These successful revolutions, which adopted the ''tricolore'' in place of the [[List of flags of the Papacy|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 of Austria|Marie Louise]] left the city during the political upheaval.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

Insurrection provinces planned to unite as the [[Italian United Provinces]], which prompted [[Pope Gregory XVI]] to ask for Austrian help against the rebels. Austrian Chancellor [[Klemens von Metternich]] warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe sent a naval expedition to Ancona, which restored Papal authority there and even arrested Italian patriots living in France. In early 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 fledgling revolutionary movement.{{fact|date=April 2025}}