Italy Is Unified
"Italy Is Unified" details the historical events leading to the unification of Italy into a single nation-state in the 19th century. The process culminated in 1870 when Rome was captured, marking the end of a long struggle for national unity. Before unification, Italy was fragmented into numerous smaller states, despite sharing a common language and cultural heritage stemming from the Roman Empire. The rise of nationalism in Europe inspired movements such as the Risorgimento, led by prominent figures like Count Camillo Benso di Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Cavour, serving King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia, skillfully navigated political alliances, particularly with France and Austria, to expand Sardinian territory. Meanwhile, Garibaldi's popular support helped secure southern regions. The Kingdom of Italy was officially proclaimed in 1861, but the unification was not complete until Venice was acquired in 1866 and Rome was taken in 1870 after French withdrawal due to the Franco-Prussian War. This historical moment solidified Italy's identity as a unified nation under King Victor Emmanuel II.
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Italy Is Unified
Italy Is Unified
The city of Rome, historically the heart of Italy and its most important city, was taken by the forces of the newly created kingdom of Italy on September 20, 1870. It was the last major step in the unification of Italy as a modern nation.
Italy had been a patchwork quilt of small and medium-sized states for many centuries when the rise of European nationalism in the 19th century began to change its political landscape. Although disunited politically, the Italian people shared a language and many cultural attributes, and despite regional differences their peninsula had a common historical heritage going back to the days of the Roman Empire. Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, a brilliant statesman in the service of King Victor Emmanuel II of the large Italian island of Sardinia, seized on the opportunity presented by the rise of nationalist fervor in the mid-19th century. Within Italy this fervor became a movement known as Risorgimento (resurgence).
Cavour forged a policy, enthusiastically embraced by his king, of promoting Italian unification under Sardinian leadership. Skillfully playing off the French and Austrians, who had competing territorial interests in Italy, Cavour managed to expand existing Sardinian possessions on the mainland to cover most of northern and central Italy. Meanwhile, the populist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi led revolutionary forces to victory in Sicily and elsewhere to the south of Italy. Garibaldi handed over his conquests to Sardinia, and so by 1861 Victor Emmanuel held nearly all of Italy. He became monarch of the new kingdom of Italy on March 17, 1861, and Cavour died just a few months later on June 6, 1861.
Italian unification was not yet complete, however. Austria still held Venice to the north, and Rome, together with the neighboring lands known as the Papal States, was still ruled by the pope. In 1866 Italy supported Prussia in the Seven Weeks' War against Austria, and after the Prussians were victorious, Venice was ceded to Italy as a reward. Meanwhile, Rome's independence was guaranteed by French forces, and Victor Emmanuel owed much of his success in unifying Italy to support from French emperor Napoléon III. The Italian king refused to support Garibaldi's desire to move on Rome, and even fought his forces on the battlefield in order to prevent it. However, Victor Emmanuel's fear of war with France ended in 1870 with the onset of the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in France's defeat and Napoléon III's abdication. After the French withdrew their forces from Rome for use in the home front, the Italian king's armies marched into Rome on September 20, 1870, and the unification of Italy was completed.