Lesson 4 - Italian Unification - 1830-48 - An IB style source activity
|
Background: Italy and the Risorgimento, 1830–1848
As we have seen in the previous lessons. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Italy was not a single country but a collection of small states. Austria directly controlled Lombardy and Venetia, dominated Tuscany, Modena and Parma, and exerted great influence over the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Only Piedmont-Sardinia, ruled by the House of Savoy, retained limited independence. Across these regions, censorship, secret police, and the restoration of monarchies ensured that the ideals of liberty and equality spread during the Napoleonic period were quickly suppressed. However, new liberal and nationalist movements began to grow among educated Italians who resented foreign domination and longed for national unity. The word Risorgimento—meaning “resurgence” or “rebirth”—came to express the dream of a free and united Italy. The first serious test of this dream came with the revolutions of 1830–31. Inspired by events in France and Belgium, small uprisings broke out in Modena, Parma, and parts of the Papal States. |
The rebels wanted constitutional reform and, in some cases, a federation of Italian states. They relied on secret societies such as the Carbonari, but the revolts were local, uncoordinated, and lacked popular support from the peasantry. When France refused to assist, Austrian troops swiftly intervened and restored the old rulers. These failures taught a generation of patriots that success would require national unity, popular participation, and strong leadership, not isolated conspiracies.
|
Out of this experience emerged Giuseppe Mazzini, a Genoese intellectual who believed that Italy’s freedom could only be achieved by educating and inspiring its people. In 1831 he founded Young Italy (Giovine Italia), a political movement that called for unity, liberty, and republican government. Mazzini’s message was both moral and political: Italians had a duty to serve the nation, to act with faith in God and the people, and to replace selfish monarchy with collective purpose. His writings inspired thousands of young followers across Italy and Europe, but they also provoked repression, and Mazzini himself spent much of his life in exile.
One of those inspired by Mazzini was Giuseppe Garibaldi, a young sailor from Nice. After meeting Mazzini in 1833, he joined Young Italy and took part in a failed uprising in Piedmont. Forced to flee, he spent more than a decade in South America fighting in independence wars in Brazil and Uruguay, where he became an experienced guerrilla leader. Returning to Italy in the late 1840s, Garibaldi became the military hero of the Risorgimento, admired for his bravery and devotion to the cause. The famous painting of Mazzini and Garibaldi meeting symbolises the ideal partnership between Mazzini’s revolutionary thought and Garibaldi’s action—the union of intellect and courage that nationalists hoped would one day unite Italy. |
Garibaldi and Mazzini in Marseille in 1833
|
The revolutions of 1848–49 offered another chance. Economic hardship, famine, and political repression triggered uprisings across Europe. In Italy, revolts broke out in Milan, Venice, and Rome. King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia adopted a liberal constitution (the Statuto) and declared war on Austria in the name of Italian independence. Initially the revolutions seemed successful, but divisions soon appeared. Charles Albert was defeated by the Austrians at Custoza in 1848 and again at Novara in 1849, forcing him to abdicate. In Rome, Mazzini helped establish a short-lived Roman Republic defended by Garibaldi’s volunteers, but French troops eventually restored the Pope. By 1850, the revolutions had failed, and Austria once again dominated the peninsula.
The failure of the Risorgimento between 1830 and 1848 can be explained by five connected factors:
The failure of the Risorgimento between 1830 and 1848 can be explained by five connected factors:
- Italy remained divided into seven separate states with strong regional loyalties, and few Italians thought of themselves as members of a single nation.
- The revolutions were largely middle-class affairs that failed to win the support of peasants and workers, many of whom were conservative and suspicious of change.
- Leadership was weak and divided: Mazzini inspired idealism but lacked practical organisation, while monarchs such as Charles Albert hesitated between reform and self-preservation.
- The revolutionary movements were also divided by ideology—republicans opposed monarchists, moderates distrusted radicals, and the Papacy condemned nationalism as a threat to religion.
- Above all, Austria’s military strength and foreign intervention ensured that even determined uprisings were crushed before they could spread.
The Activity
Useful further reading
|
So what does make a source useful? Below the diagram for the lesson and (right) a link to some serious thinking about utility.
|
|