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. On the other hand Mazzini’s ideologies gave him one advantage, this advantage being that the army and students were all working class, this meant that in Piedmont during their revolution Mazzini had a large amount of support which is why they were successful up until the Austrians intervened. The fact
To what extent had the pressing political problems of the 1800s been solved by 1914? After Italy’s unification in 1870 there were immediate political issues facing the new united Italy that needed to be addressed. The government that was formed was incredibly unorganized and not many people knew who was in charge at times, not only this but many of the politicians in power were incredibly corrupt and would happily take bribes, launder money and other underhanded, dishonest actions which would have been frowned upon had people known. The new united Italy was a liberal state which was actually one of the first of its kind, the Liberals had managed to oust the ruling families of each individual state, the old aristocracy and most importantly the pope. However this “liberal” Italy was actually more conservative at heart, the country was a monarchy and not a republic.
“To what extent was the unification of Italy due to the weakness of Austria?” Throughout Europe between 1815 and 1848 swept feelings of nationalism and a desire for unification, including the states collectively known as Italy. This lack of identity was underlined when Count Metternich said “Italy is just a geographical expression.” Nationalism promoted the belief in one language, one culture and the pride in one’s identity. Before unification, life in Italy was frustrating for those who wanted unification. The North and the South states were economically different; the pope influenced the central states. Nevertheless, the process began from 1861 and by 1871 boundaries had been settled.
During the twenty-nine year period between 1820 and 1849 there were three widespread attempts for Italian revolutionaries to try and unite the country and to get rid of the foreign influences they had. The three periods were 1820-21, 1831 and 1848; in all three of these uprisings there was a very clear show of Austrian interference to put down and undermine the revolutionists. While there were various other reasons as to why these revolutions failed, such as a lack of national communication and the differences in people wanting different things, we cannot deny that the Austrian interferences was the main reason why all three uprisings failed. The first potential uprising the Italian revolutionists tried was in 1820-21, when the government in Naples collapsed Metternich called a meeting in Troppau, it was called the Congress of Troppau. Metternich aimed to stop the revolution in Naples from spreading to other parts of the country, as it was obvious, as it was the first major uprising that it had the potential to be big enough to damage the Austrian rule in Italy, King Ferdiand had promised a constitution which was not being granted when they wanted and General Pepe was appointed as leader of the revolutionists and he was to be made leader of the new government.
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.
The fact that Italy had a very limited industry and lack of an efficient infrastructure also meant that hardly any money was being created to pump into the economy to keep it running or pay for these debts. This subsequently led to high inflation, increased taxes and no money being spent on education or public services. Another major economic problem under the liberal regime was the north south divide. The fact that Italy’s economy was poor was only made worse by the north south divide in the country; this divide was to do with agriculture, industrial development and general standards of living. All of which the north fared in much better than the south.
WHY DID THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 -1849 IN ITALY FAIL? The failures of the 1848 - 1849 revolutions in Italy failed to achieve anything because Italy was divided and each of the revolutions had different aims. Italy was separated into separate states and they all wanted different things to happen, most of the states did not want a money to run them instead they wanted a republic. The desertion of the Pope in the revolution had most of the Catholic supporters of the revolution. None of the states in Italy agreed on anything about from one thing - getting Austria out of Lombardy and Venetia.
For example the unification of Italy caused tension as the north and south were two different cultures. At this time in Italy language barriers were effecting how unified the country was, as only 2.5% of the population used the Italian language whereas the rest spoke with a regional dialect, therefore it made the liberal state seem weak as there is no sufficient communication happening between the country, because if all people are speaking in a different language everyone will feel excluded and not as “one” like the process of unification is intended. Also the problem of conflicting laws from the different provinces make the liberal state weak as they appear unorganised because there is no proper justice system in place that applies to the whole country. In addition many of the people resented the idea of the north and south being united which furthered the weakness of the Liberal State as there was resistance and little enthusiasm from among the people therefore making the state look weak as they weren’t a unified country as the people disliked the idea. The other major difference between the North and South that caused a weakness for the liberal State was the economy and agriculture.
This led to both countries to sign the Treaty of Villafranca in 1859 where France handed Lombardy to Piedmont. France also helped gain Duchies of Italy by giving full support through preventing the old rulers from returning to their territories. This resulted to the plebiscite in March 1860 where Duchies of Parma, Modena, Tuscany and Romagna agreed to be annexed to Piedmont. Thus, the foreign aids from France helped made the Italian Unification successful by gaining Lombardy and Duchies of Italy to unite with Piedmont. Secondly, the Italian Unification was a result of foreign aids from Prussia because Prussia needed Piedmont’s help during war against Austria.
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.