How Did The Unification Of Italy Lead To Italian Unification

In order to restore France after the Napoleonic Era, the Quadruple Alliance, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain, held a meeting called the Congress of Vienna in order to establish peace between countries. The four countries decided that creating borders within Europe and receiving compensation in the form of territory would be an effective reminder of the pain France had caused during its revolution. After decades of dealing with borders placed by the Quadruple Alliance, the inhabitants of Italy wanted a more unified peninsula. Although many leaders of Europe proposed ideas for fixing this problem, many of them such as Cavour and Napoleon III had ulterior motives. The unification of Italy took such a long time because its politicians were not being honest about what they actually wanted.

During this time period, there were alterations in many civilizations. Some had multiple major fluctuations, while others did not change much but were long lasting. The Mongols, for instance, did similar (if not the same things) over and over again throughout their reign. What they did was successful and because of that, their empire was long lasting. Unlike the Mongols, Italy had much change during this period of time. Both of these things caused the two different societies to flourish and last. The Mongols had the greatest continuity over time, but Italy had the greatest change over time, ending in good results for both of the civilizations.

The political history of Italy is quite extensive. The Greeks were the first to settle in Italy and established colonies in the southern part of the country and in Sicily. There was not a sense of political reality as much as there was a civilization (Windows on Italy- History). While the Greeks controlled the south the Gauls, or Celtic people, ruled the north and the Po Valley. But the most important group to settle in Italy was the Etruscans. Because of their advanced civilization, the Etruscans were the only ones to establish political and cultural ideas before the Roman Empire (Windows on Italy- History). At the end of the Etruscans rule, Rome began a unification of Italy and established Latin to be the general language (Defusco).

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

A number of people weren’t really for, but were not against the unification of Italy. Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio , a politician from Piedmont, expressed that both northern and southern states would agree that unity is best in the sense that it would control foreign domination, but other than that Italy could survive in its separated state. (DOC 7) The people who had indifferent thoughts could agree that whatever happened, they wanted foreigners gone. Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, credible in the sense that he has had neighboring states such as Tuscany, Venetia, and Lombardy

After being separated since the fall of the Roman Empire and acting as only “a geographic expression,” Italy finally underwent the process of unification and succeeded in 1870. For hundreds of years, Italy was ruled under city-states, therefore the peninsula was unable to form a unified nation. However, through several political leaders, such as Giuseppe Mazzini and Camillo Cavour, helped manifest the Italian unification process to success in the 19th century. As Italy struggled for unity and national identity in the period circa 1830-1870, contrasting viewpoints emerged on what type of government should rule over the peninsula, with options such as a republic, papacy, or not unifying at all.

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

However, it was not just the power of Austria and it’s army which contributed to the failures of the revolutions, but the revolutionaries also contributed to their own downfall. Despite wanting change in Italy, there were numerous divisions between the revolutionaries such as the liberals and nationalists having different aims and incompetence in the face of Austria. Such divisions not only affected morale but had physical impacts such as in the battle of Custoza where the Papal States and Naples withdrew their troops in favour of their own interests.

Italy has been shaped by its history of constant warring and many rulers, which in turn has made Italians doubtful toward authority as well as giving them a strong ability to survive difficult situations (Welcome to Italy).

Italy holds a long and rich history, starting from how it became one country during ancient times. For thousands of years, people have lived in Italy, relying on its vast amount of assets and resources. There was no established group of settlers to arrive first, because the chief pioneers entailed many different types of people who spoke different languages. Italy was at first preceded by several non-Italian cultures, including Greeks. The Greeks occupied southern Italy, including areas around Sicily. This remained a wealthy extent of land because of the tremendously fertile soil, which then caused the sprout of new cities and civilization. These Greek cities ultimately stood taken over by Roman control. As far as northern city-states, the Etruscans lived in areas influenced by Greek culture. The Etruscans stayed well-known engineers, builders, and traders. Italy was always back and forth in the control of foreign authorities, but finally landed in the power of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire took over at about 450 B.C., but eventually collapsed. The land that now stands as Italy was ruled by Julius Caesar. There were many civil wars before and after Julius Caesar’s death. The land was then restored by Octavian, Caesar’s son, who later passed his throne to his son Tiberius. Although ancient Italy had been taken over by diverse commands, it still held on to its vast culture and

The Italian Unification brought a rise to Nationalism. Nationalism is when a nation is joined together in ways of government, leaders, or religion. Nationalism is Italy gives freedom of press and power to the government or one ruler. This is exactly what had been done in the Italian Unification. They united under one rule and became a singular country. They also received freedom of the press and a new Parliament during the time of Camillo di Cavour. Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi all used their ideas to help with the unification witch

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.

instability, as the nation tried to re-create the social bonds broken by the war and

Now Italy has many problems in economic sector. The first is that it has very high debt level. Because of it Italy now is in crisis situation. Also Italian living standards have a considerable north-south divide. Italy suffers from structural weaknesses due to its geographical conformation and the lack of raw materials and energy resources. The country has an inefficient state bureaucracy, low property rights protection and high levels of corruption, heavy taxation and public spending that accounts for about half of