Essay On Italian Unification

Italy was frustrated by the Treaty of Versailles. Italy believed that they contributed to the allied force victory of World war One was not fairly rewarded in the treaty. They felt that Britain, France and Russia got the best deal instead, three years following the end of the war were marked by economic and political instability. Massive unemployment and debts crippled the once effective government. Because of the economic and political instability a new ruler was able to come in. Italy was under the rule of of the ruthless and violent dictator Benito Mussolini. He rose to power in the wake of World War I as a leading proponent of Fascism. Fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial

Italy’s problems started with the fact that it didn’t have one main ruler, but two people and a concept, resulting in a different approach to the unification. Gulseppe Mazzini had a radical program focusing on a centralized democratic republic based on universal suffrage and the will of the people. Vincenzo Gioberti, who was a catholic priest called for a federation of existing states

After the Congress of Vienna Italy consisted of six separate states. Controversy over whether or not Italy should be unified stirred up during the mid to late 1800’s. The unification of the Italian states was an ongoing debate for quite some time. During the years of the debates people found the unification to be positive change, a negative change, and some had different opinions for their own certain reasons.

3. In the mid-nineteenth century, Italy wasn’t unified. Italy was made up of independent states that nationalist wanted unified, but failed. Mazzini was “the most important nationalist leader in Europe and brought new fervor to the cause” (690). Mazzini desperately wanted Italy to be united and it finally was and became the Italian Republic. In 1860, the country shaped boot became a nation-state. After the war with Austria, “the forces of romantic republican nationalism compelled Cavour to pursue the complete unification of northern and southern Italy” (691).

The Italian Unification was a political and social movement where the different states of the Italian peninsula were to combine into a single Italy. The Italian Unification occurred close in time to the German Unification, which occurred only one year later. The Unification of Italy was a widely controversial topic discussed by many italian citizens and leaders during the 19th century. Many people destined for Italy to be unified as one country, a country that they considered to be stronger overall when compared to the individual countries, and would also create a new national identity and rid Italy of civil problems, like wars and revolutions that were occurring at the time. Others despised the ideas of Italian Unification, jumping ahead

When traveling in Italy, one would hardly guess the fragmentation that Italy had been previously associated with not 150 years prior. What were specific events that could have shifted Italian Identity that led to the unification of Italy in 1870? General Population: For or Against Unification of

Giolitti’s government was extremely unsuccessful in promoting political stability in Italy. It seemed that the Italian liberal state suffered from political divisions all over the country; this was something no other Liberal western power had experience in the years 1903 to 1914. However under the ‘political divisions’, Giolitti was trying to reform and modernise Italy during his periods in power as Prime Minister. Giolitti and his government attempted to broaden support for Liberalism by appealing to traditionally hostile groups such as the Catholics and the working-class, created a grand trasformismo (a key concept used to

The political structure of the Italian peninsula prior to 1861 was that of a fragmented group of small kingdoms and

In Italy at that time, nothing was entirely stable, and rulers where always changing, and the government was never standing firm

Following the Napoleonic Wars, there was a great amount of diplomatic instability within Europe, and in the Italian states there was a call to unify every state into one nation, Italy (text, 717). A leader of the unification movement, Camillo di Cavour (1810-1861) wanted to prevent chaotic revolutions to unite Italy, rather he wanted to unify the Italian states by promoting the economic developments of the Italian states (text, 717). Cavour was a prime minister of the Piedmont-Sardinia territory, he was a great leader who pushed for the advancement and increase of the region’s economic and military powers, which he believed would help promote a unified Italy (text, 717). Cavour’s territory had much to gain from a unified Italy including a larger amount of available labor, and also a

Giuseppe Mazzini was instrumental in unifying the Italian nation as his ideals spread throughout Italy’s intellectual community. Although many of his attempts at rallying the common people to a revolution failed, he circulated and popularized the idea of a fully unified Italy for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire. In his work “The Duties of Man,” Mazzini establishes that he is largely a romantic nationalist, since he draws heavily on history; however, he utilizes the power of certain liberal nationalist sentiments such as individuals’ rights in his own work.

The Italian Unification is a time period during which Italy becomes unified as one country. While trying to unify the country there were obstacles faced and conquered by Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi as they continued to unify Italy. They pushed Nationalism on the people. The problems that were faced during the time of the unification were the Austrian occupation of Lombardy and Venice. Also, the land still belonged to the Pope and not the government which meant that it did not really belong to everyone and didn’t symbolize unification. The last problem is there is an existence of many independent states which means there were states ruling themselves.

”My goal, which was, I believe, shared by most italians at that time, was to unite the country and rid it of foreign powers. Those who gave Italy her freedom would earn her people’s gratitude” (Garibaldi, page 6). During the age of Italian unification, there were three men who fought for her (Italy’s) freedom. Those men were Cavour the brains, Mazzini the soul, and Garibaldi the sword (Chastain).

As a result of how Italy was created but not fully unified, the new Italian state suffered from a variety of weaknesses which the new liberal state was unable to tackle these. This made Italy susceptible to the appeal of fascism, and therefore aided Mussolini’s rise to power.

Obviously, the newly united Italian state was greeted with much celebration. Unfortunately, it was also only a start. In truth, fundamental problems still plagued the country and had to be addressed if complete hegemony was to be achieved: firstly, the new Kingdom of Italy suffered from extreme backwardness and secondly, it was still deeply divided. The new Italy was split between north and south, between cities and countryside, between regions, between cities and localities,