The Unification of Italy
Austria’s victory in 1850 did not prevent Italian and German patriots from carrying on with their struggle to found their own nation-states. The Italians would ultimately prevail thanks to the efforts of Victor Emmanuel II’s first minister, Camillo Benso, better known as the Count of Cavour.
Italian unification constitutes the paradigm of the consolidation of the nation-state principle in the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe.16.6.1 II Risorgimento
As we have seen, on March 4, 1848 the King of Piedmont-Sardinia, Charles Albert, promulgated a liberal constitution which, in his honor, came to be called the Albertine Statute.[909] This constitutional text, despite the revolution’s failure, persisted as a symbol of a free Italy, as it was not abolished, despite the Austrian reoccupation. After being defeated by the Austrians, Charles Albert abdicated and ceded the throne to his son, Victor Emmanuel II, who, was wise enough to appoint as his first minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810-1861), a patriot determined to bring about a united Italy.[910] This period during which the Italians managed to integrate and form a single nation-state is known as II Risorgimento (The Resurgence), because it aimed to transform Italy into one of the great European powers.[911]
16.6.2 French Support for the Italian Cause
Cavour came to power in 1852, and spent 7 years at the head of the Piedmontese Government, during which time he converted the Kingdom of Sardinia into a strong state, and secured support from France to oust Austria from Italy through an alliance with Napoleon III (Blumberg 1990, 17). By virtue of the Plombieres Agreement of 1858, the French received Nice and Savoy in exchange for providing the Piedmontese with military assistance to free Italy from Austrian occupation.
Once signed, Cavour provoked Vienna into declaring war on Victor Emmanuel II. The ensuing conflict was brief (May-July 1859), as two bloody battles (Magenta and Solferino) led to the Austrians’ defeat.[912]16.6.3 A Democratic Integration
Despite the fact that France had signed a truce with Austria (Armistice of Villafranca), the army of the Italian patriots continued military operations, annexing the Kingdom of Sardinia and central Italy after the Piedmontese army’s occupation of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and part of the Papal States. The conquest of these territories was legally formalized through the convocation of the corresponding constitutional assemblies which, once elected, approved their incorporation into the Sardinian Kingdom (August-September 1859). The procedure was concluded by a referendum in which the people were asked whether they accepted their integration into the new Italian Kingdom (Ghisalberti 2006, 97100). One should bear in mind that the new state was based on the constitutional regime of Piedmont-Sardinia, which since 1848, had been grounded on the Albertine Statute, based on the principle of national sovereignty. In this way “Italian unity” was legitimized by the free consent of its people (the “Italian nation”).
16.6.4 Garibaldi and the Annexation of the South
The next step was the annexation of the south, carried out by Garibaldi and his army of “red shirts”. Taking advantage of an insurrection against Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, Garibaldi landed in Sicily (May 11, 1860), in command of 1,000 volunteers. After conquering Sicily, the camicie rosse proceeded to the mainland, where they took the Kingdom of Naples before moving on to the Papal States. To prevent the Kingdom of the two Sicilies and the Papal States from becoming independent republics, as was Garibaldi’s aspiration, in September of 1860, Cavour ordered Victor Emmanuel II’s troops to cross the Papal States and enter Naples.[913] As a result, the people of the former King of the Two Sicilies approved their annexation into the Kingdom of Sardinia via successive referendums, and by overwhelming majorities.
16.6.5 The Kingdom of Italy Is Founded (March 14,1861)
By way of successive additions the small Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which in July of 1859 had a population of just 5 million, 2 years later boasted over 22 million. The next constitutional step was to convene an Italian Parliament. Meeting in Turin, this body proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy “by the grace of God and the will of the nation” (March 17, 1861),[914] with the new Italian State promptly adopting its tricolor flag.
Three months later (June 1861), Cavour died, but not before he had realized his objective of Italian unification. As Venice and Rome were still yet to be integrated, Florence served as the capital of Italy (1864).
16.6.6 The “Roman Question”
Venice would be incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in October of 1866 via plebiscite,[915] but Rome was still a holdout, posing a difficult situation as the Pope was simultaneously the spiritual head of the Catholic Church and the political head of the Papal States, making governments and Catholic sovereigns, including Victor Emmanuel II himself, reticent to occupy his territory.[916] It was Garibaldi, supported
by Italian public opinion, who dared to do so, his volunteers attacking Rome in October of 1867, where they were met with resistance from French soldiers of the Second Empire in Mentana (November 3, 1867). Garibaldi was defeated. On this occasion, Napoleon III, rather than supporting the cause of Italian unification, chose to defend the Pope, as he happened to be married to Spaniard Eugenia de Montijo, a fervent Roman Catholic.
It would not be until the Franco-Prussian War when, after a defeat at Sedan, French soldiers withdrew from the Eternal City. On September 20, 1870, Italian troops finally entered Rome. The annexation was consolidated through an ensuing plebiscite, and the city became the capital of Italy.
In an effort to assuage the concerns of European Catholics,[917] the Italian Parliament then proceeded, via the “Law of Guarantees” (May 1871), to recognize the Pope’s spiritual independence.[918] Nevertheless, Pius IX (1846-1878), refusing to accept the loss of the Papal States, rejected subsidies from the Italian State and deeming himself to be a kind of prisoner.[919] The Roman question was not fully resolved for another 60 years, when on February 11, 1929, after difficult negotiations (Pollard 2005, 42-46), Mussolini signed accords with the Papacy in Lateran creating today’s Vatican State (Lateran Accords, or Lateran Pacts) (Kertzer 2014).
16.7