France promote the unification of Italy in a large extent. However there were other countries such as Prussia, Britain, and Austria. Also there were significant figures who promote the unification of Italy such as Garibaldi and Cavour To start with France has not always been positive factor for the unification process. France in 1848 sent an army of about 20.000 men to destroy the roman republic. At Plombieres meeting of 1858 Cavour and Napoleon III agreed to work together which the agreement was Nice and Savoy are going to belong to France(so there would be no complete unification) and fought the war of 1859 against Austria.
Following the Crimean war (1853-56) Austria was politically isolated and had lost some of her military might. Austria was faced with divisions in her empire and was more concerned with controlling her home front than controlling Italy. Napoleon was now willing to go to war against Austria in 1859 as the decline in Austria showed a great deal of weakness and it is debatable whether Napoleon would have taken this risk if Austria’s rule did not decline. Italy gained Lombardy at the Peace of Villafranca as France and Piedmont were able to defeat her at Magenta and Solferino due to Austria’s decline. This showed great importance as without Austria declining, it would be fair to say this would not have happened.
The monarchy treated its states people terribly and they were fed up, this is how the revolutionaries came to be, in general the revolutionaries were to an extent successful because they overthrew the monarchies however they were then beaten by the Austrian reinforcements that the monarchy asked help from. Mazzini was born in 1805 in Genoa; he became a nationalist after witnessing the Piedmontese refugee revolutionaries. I will be arguing whether or not Mazzini’s limited appeal was the main reason for the slow progress of national unity or whether it was down to the weak armies, little communication or with Metternia’s army. Mazzini believed that every man was equal which is why he was very unpopular with the middle, upper and aristocratic members of society as they did not wish to lose their power, influence and money. This made it difficult for Mazzini to obtain national unification as a majority of powerful and influential people in Italy were against his ideologies, this meant that the progress of national unification was very slow as a large amount of people opposed his views.
For this agreement, both countries signed the Pact of Plombieres in 1858 where if Austria attacked Piedmont, France will send 200,000 troops to help. In return, if Piedmont wins, France will gain Nice and Savoy while Piedmont will gain Lombardy and Venetia. During the Austro-Piedmontese war 1858, Austria was defeated in the battles of Magenta and Solferino. France also backed out of the war due to heavy casualties and the opposition by the French Catholics. This led to both countries to sign the Treaty of Villafranca in 1859 where France handed Lombardy to Piedmont.
The Emperor did this to secure the Pragmatic Sanction that his daughter would be the heir to his throne. Maria Theresa, Charles VI’s daughter and heir to the leadership of Austria, was not the country’s and allies’ first choice to take over the throne. When it finally came time for her to take over Austria became weak and other countries, including those previously in alliance, began to take advantage of this weakness. The peace was broken by the King of Prussia who wanted Selisia. There was a domino effect after this initially desire:Bavaria wanted Bohemia lands, the King of France sought the Austrian Netherlands, and the Spanish longed for the Austrian territories in Italy.
The empire was then declared war on by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria. Quickly putting an army together of untrained and horribly prepared soldiers he faced the other European nations in Leipzig, a city in Germany. In 1814 Napoleon was denied the access to keep fighting and surrendered. Then he was exiled to Elba and was thought to never be a threat again. However when he heard of New king Louis XVIII struggling for power, Napoleon escaped Elba and returned to be welcomed again by France.
Both Count Camillo Cavour of Italy and Prussian Prime Minister Otto Von Bismarck brought their respective nations to unify in their own respective ways. In 1852 Cavour, the Prime Minister on Piedmont, he looked onto other liberal Italian principalities. His greatest contribution was his establishment of diplomacy; the negotiations between states. Meanwhile Prime Minister Otto Von Bismarck had a different view on the unification on his country; he was against diplomacy and remained scornful towards liberals. “The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood” (Bismarck).
Cavour then brought Napoleon III to his side with the cities of Nice and Savoy. Italian nationalism is linked back to 1797 when Napoleon took control of the Italian peninsula and created the puppet Kingdom of Italy. He joined smaller Italian city-states into larger units to make his rule more effective. He thought Austria was weakening as he created a united and powerful Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi was able to harness the power of the mass, most especially the peasants.
In 1858, Cavour and Napoleon III met at Plombieres. They agreed that the price of the French help was the return of Nice and Savoy to France. It is argued that Napoleon helped Piedmont because he wanted to substitute French influence for Austrian influence in Italy. In 1859, French armies, together with Piedmontese, defeated Austrians in Lombardy. Although France did not help Piedmont to take Venetia later, France did help Piedmont to unify Lombardy as stated in the Treaty of Villafranca of 1859.
In July 1947, Austria took Ferrara, a town in the Papal States. Austria later backed out of this due to the protests of the Pope. The Italians wanted Austrian rule to be removed from the north east of Lombardy and Venetia. The Austrian armies had more superior military skills than the Italians did. They also had more troops than the Italians had 75,000 troops to Italy’s 30,000 troops.