How Far Do You Agree That the Limited Appeal of Mazzini’s Ideas Was the Main Reason for the Slow Progress of National Unity in Italy in the Years 1815-1848?

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It can be suggested that Mazzini’s ideas were a contributing reason for the slow progress of national unity in Italy in the years 1815-1848. However, it is clear that Mazzini’s ideas weren’t the main reason for the slow progress of national unity in Italy. Mazzini’s appeal may have been very narrow and idealistic because of its revolutionary nature; there are other factors that also need to be examined. The most important factor would be the powerful influence of Austria. Others that can be considered to be the reason for slow progress are the nature of the states at this time with reactionary governments and their leaders, regionalism, lack of mass support and Mazzini’s ideas. It can be inferred that the main reason for the slow progress of national unity was due to the powerful influence of Austria. Austria, especially Metternich, the Austrian chancellor was very powerful during this time. Therefore, it was hard for Italian states to progress and make their own decisions as Austria had a great influence over them. This can be supported by the fact that in the northern states of Italy, Metternich had a lot of influence over the Italian rulers; not only this, but Austria had influence over southern states as well, for example in Sicily Ferdinand I married the daughter of the Austrian ruler but only to discover that the marriage enabled Maria to dominate not only the marriage but the direction of government policy as well. Furthermore, Austria had a strong and powerful military which can be shown by the fact that they were able to dominate and retain this domination over Italy for a long time, and they were able to stop all revolutions that had taken place in 1821 and 1831; this shows that specifically the Austrian army imposed a threat on Italy as it prevented any change including the unification of Italy. Metternich established the congress of Vienna, which was
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