However, the argument that carries the greatest weight is that the individuals who led these revolts and were at the forefront of the revolutionary movements were not united themselves in how they wanted Italy to unite. Austria clearly had a central role in putting down many of the revolts and so played an important role in both the failure of the 1820-21 revolutions and the ones that took place between 1848-49. Prior to 1820, Italy was unsettled and highly divided with nationalists, liberals and extremists amongst the masses. As the hostility in Italy increased under Austrian rule, secret societies emerged such as ‘The Carbonari’ – which was particularly popular in Southern Italy. By 1815, the aims of these secret societies changed in the direction of driving out the Austrians and restoring old Monarchs.
The fact that Austria had influenced Italy so much before the revolutions contributed hugely to the failure of the revoltutions. After the Vienna conference in 1815 Austria was granted a lot of power in Italy, this gave them an incentive to stop the revolutions as their authority would be threatened and they would lose out on a lot of things like trade. Mettinich, the chancellor of Italy said that ‘Italian affairs do not exist’ which shows his determination to stopping Italian nationalists. An example of Austrians intervention was in Naples where after being asked for help from Ferdinand I, Mettinich sent Austrian troops in to restore order. Similarly, in Piedmont in 1821, where Charles Felix declared Charles Albert (the temporary monarch of Piedmont) a rebel and so exiled him to Tuscany and then appealed to Mettinich for help.
Although, the development of change already faced opposition from right-winged supporters, including rich landowners who feared social changes that the Republic would try to implement. Under Generals Sanjurjo, Franco and Mola, the Spanish Civil War began as a military coup, which was aimed to put an end to the democratic political change that was seen in 1931. As seen in Italy with Mussolini in 1922 and with Hitler in Germany in 1933, one could argue that the rise of fascism subsequently kick started the demand of a takeover in Spain. But, we have to bear in mind the bad timing of 1931 to implement such a change, with the worldwide economic crisis caused by the 1929 Wall Street Crash in America, and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, there was now fear throughout Europe of communism and revolution. Although at the beginning of the rebellion, the three main generals were not actually all in Spain.
In Piedmont, King Victor Emmanuel I returned and took on a reactionary policy; he even went as far as destroying roads and gaslights that Napoleon had put in place- he was very much regressive. This was similar to the situation in Naples and Sicily, as King Ferdinand restricted his people and slowly made the state more and more under developed as public work was stopped. In 1820, news of the Spanish revolution encouraged the people to take action in Naples. King Victor fled the country when some of the army took sides with the rebels such as General Pepe. A new government was then appointed and it seemed that the revolution was a success Over in Sicily, prisoners were released and offices were burned as there was a demand for constitution- finally the revolutionaries sent the Neapolitan governor home and took over the city.
January 2012 Why did Piedmont become, and remain, the driving force towards closer Italian unity in the years 1848–61? To what extent can Italy be described as completely unified by 1870? June 2012 How far do you agree that the failure of Italian revolutionaries in the years 1820–49 was primarily due to a lack of popular support? How far do you agree that Cavour made the most significant individual contribution to the process of Italian unification in the years 1852–70? January 2013 How significant was
For example, a major issue during this period was the transformismo; a coalition created by Giovanni Giolitti that influenced Liberals, Nationalists, Catholics and Socialist who did not get along – making the issues that would later arise inevitable. This ‘transformismo’ was unstable from the beginning with Francesco Crispi (Giolitti predecessor) describing it as “Political incest” because it was so corrupt. However, the ‘transformismo main challenges did not start until September 1911 when Italy invaded Libya because Giolitti wanted to quickly defeat the Turkish Empire and increase Italy’s colonies. The Socialists had condemned the war (the Italian people did not know what they were fighting for) and the Socialist newspaper ‘Avanti!’ wanted to overthrow the state and advocated strikes. Many blamed Giolitti’s refusal to use force against the strikes and insisted that this weakness encouraged left wing extremism.
The years of 1919-1922 saw Benito Mussolini’s role a vital to the development of the Fascist movement as he exemplified his strength and supremacy in distinction to the weak liberal government within the period of three years. Pre 1919 and the year of 1919 saw Italy struggle through a period of social and political unrest where Italy was suffering from a bad economic slump, high rates of unemployment and anger from failed promises delivered by its Allies. Following the examples of “Action Francaise”, a counter-revolutionary movement, came the National Fascist Party, the leader being the only thing saving Italy, an arrogant man, Benito Mussolini. The First World War had left Italy with nothing but high inflation, high unemployment, large debts and the economy in a complete slump leading to social and political unrest. Influenced by the Russian Revolution of 1917, a series of strikes and revolts had broken out making Italy nothing but a ground for organised crime.
Back in Italian possession would be a major step to Unification. However, Italy and France could not simply declare war. Austria had to be the aggressor so Cavour’s aim was to provoke Austria enough to actually get Austria to start the war. Austria became increasingly aggravated by Cavour’s provocation and on the 29th April 1849, they declared war on Italy. Cavour had succeeded in his provocation attempts and now had the backing of the French to face Austria with.
Long running weaknesses within the original political system aided in developing support for Mussolini, along with his ability to change the party’s policies to accommodate all members of society. Although the war was important in allowing this rise in support for the PNF, it was not the only factor which played a part. After the land promised to Italy in the Treaty of London did not materialise, many Italians felt that their victory was one which had been ‘mutilated’. Orlando, Italy’s Prime Minister had failed to fight for the promised land during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference, leaving Italy bitter towards its own government. Prominent socialist at the time D’Annunzio led some 2000 soldiers into the city of Fiume in defiance of the Italian Government.
Lastly, Russia's backward society is one of the main reasons Nicholas II survived after 1905. There were three main groups that opposed the Tsar up until 1905. The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) was a Marxist political party for the industrial workers in Russia. They disliked the Tsar the most, and wanted to wrest control from him and have Russia become the first communist state in the world. However, there was a dispute on how the party should be run.