How far do you agree that the revolutions within the Italian states failed because they were too localised? I acknowledge that to some extent localism played a role in the failure in the 1820’s and 30’s revolutions within the Italian states. However I also recognise that there were other factors that played major if not bigger roles, such as the minimal amount of public support or the lack of involvement from the French. However I do believe it was the involvement of Austria that played the greatest role in the failure of the revolutions. In the context of the question, localism played an irrefutably large role in the failure of the revolutions.
However, the Prussian army managed to defeat the liberals who were then arrested throughout the whole of Germany. This weakened Austria’s influence in Germany for two reasons. Firstly, the fact that Prussia’s army defeated the liberals and stopped the revolutions showed that they were willing to take action and that they were actually quite powerful – strong enough to stop revolutions and uprisings throughout Germany. Secondly, the revolutions affected Austria’s political dominance in Germany because Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor had resigned and the new Emperor was more focused on revolutions outside of Germany, particularly in Italy. This showed that Austria wasn’t stable and was prepared to do as much as Prussia.
With French intervention, Austria seemed to worry after already being beaten at the battles of Magenta and Solferino. The Piedmontese played no part at Magenta but a good part at Solferino, with both battles causing carnage from both sides. Due to Napoleons disgust at the amount of soldiers lost Napoleon made a separate peace treaty with Austria at Villafranca, giving the French the chance needed to defend its own boarders from Prussia, whilst controlling Cavour’s actions and interests in Tuscany. Lombardy was given to France, who then gave it to Piedmont, proving to those involved that without intervention by France Piedmont would not have gained Lombardy, as Austria was too strong for Piedmont
Italy was defeated at Caporetto in 1917 but rallied to win the battle of Vittorio Veneto in 1918. Some 600,00 Italians died. Prominent in the war were the arditi - groups of commandos who found it especially difficult to settle down afterwards. At the Treaty of St Germain in 1919 the Italian leader Orlando did not receive what had been promised and many Italians felt humiliated as their country was left out of the big three. In March 1919 Benito Mussolini an ex-socialist journalist formed the Fascist party.
Short term significance of the Austro Prussian war to Italian politics and society. 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 8 April, Italy and Prussia signed an agreement that supported Italy's acquisition of Venetia, and on 20 June Italy declared war on Austria.
One of the most important reasons as to why the early revolutions did not prove successful when uniting Italy was because each revolutionaries in the different states had different aims. There are many examples of this, e.g. in areas such as Naples, there were many financial difficulties after 1815. The Bourbon Monarchy had to pay for the Austrian occupations as well as reparations to Austria; moreover the treaty of Vienna meant that Ferdinand I had to pay for the compensation to the French viceroy which lead to cutbacks in the government spending. This undoubtedly led to widespread unhappiness in Naples.
The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London and that caused resentment especially at the losses Italy had endured fighting for the Allies. The government came over as weak and lacking pride in Italy. In the years that led up to World War One, Italy had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. In theory, Italy should have joined in the sides of these two nations when war broke out in August 1914. She did not.
In 1833 the proposed army coup was detected before it began, however Charles Albert was enraged by the intended revolution, and 12 members of Young Italy were executed, and 67 members were arrested. A year later two uprisings ended before they began in Genoa and Piedmont. Such failures occurred because the organisation was poorly organised and
There were no jobs, poverty was spreading. Moreover, German and Italian nations are considered to be very proud, and the damaged reputation after the war has only increased the instability in those countries. Fascism in Italy has developed earlier than Nazism in Germany, therefore it is often believed that Nazism was to a great extent based on the Italian Fascism. The aim of this essay is to examine the way in which fascism has influenced Nazism by analysing the similarities
How Accurate is it to Say that the Growth of Reformist Groups in the Years from 1881 was the Main Cause for the 1905 Revolution? Following Alexander II’s assassination in 1881, Russia was faced with their worst nightmare which was faced with their worst nightmare which was a truly repressive Tsar, Alexander III. His unpopularity was caused by his extremely backwards ideology that left the Russian population dissatisfied without their ‘Tsar Liberator.’ Alexander III found himself battling with millions of people who wanted their previous freedom restored and autocracy destroyed. I personally feel that the main cause for the 1905 revolution was Alexander III himself in the long term. Alexander was hopelessly out of touch with the emerging realities of a modern Russia.