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History-failure of Italian Revolutionaries

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History Essay-Miss guly
How far do you agree that the failure of Italian revolutionaries in the years 1820-49 was primarily due to a lack of popular support? (30)

There were several factors affecting the failure of the Italian revolutionaries in the years 1820-49. Although the lack of popular support was a contributing factor, it is far less significant when compared to other aspects of the failure such as the intervention and military strength of Austria, the lack of unity between various revolutionary factions and the lack of outside help from other countries.
One of the key factors of the revolutionary’s failures was due to the repeated involvement by Austria and its imposing army, who were a major force in Europe and the world …show more content…

In 1831 as well, despite appeals for French help, their pleas were ignored and Austria swept the isolated revolutions aside. In fact, instead of assisting the revolutionaries, in 1848 they instead intervened seemingly on the other side of the revolutions in order to assist the Pope, but in doing so they overpowered the Roman Republic, a revolutionary area headed by Giuseppe Mazzini. The French military brought hardship upon the people of the Rome after defeating Mazzini, seemingly in a hypocritical way as they themselves had fought to rid themselves of an iron grip previously but were instead now the iron grip rulers. On the Popes return, the repressive regime present before the Roman Republic returned. This shows that the French were far more against the revolutions than for them. They would’ve been the natural protector of the revolutions due to their recent history and their hatred of Austria, but it wasn’t to be and this was a key reason in why the uprisings ultimately all failed.
Despite these reasons, the lack of popular support was no doubt a contributing factor into the revolutions failure. The fact that in most states, around 90% of the population were peasants, but were not included in any decisions or contributed to the fighting effort meant that there was never likely to be popular support,

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