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=Obstacles to Italian Unity= ~ for centuries italy was the battle ground for forigen invaders ~ congress of vienna ignored the nationalists who hoped to end centuries of forgien rule and achieve unity ~ nationalist organized secret patriotic societies and focused their efforts on expelling austrian forces from northern italy

Mazzini Establishes Young Italy
~In the 1830s, the nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini founded Young Italy

Nationalism Takes Root
~To nationalists like Mazzini, a united Italy made sense not only because of geography, but also because of a common language and history. =The Struggle for Italy= ~After 1848, leadership of the Risorgimento, or Italian nationalist movement, passed to the kingdom of Sardinia, which included Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy as well as the island of Sardinia. Its constitutional monarch, Victor Emmanuel II, hoped to join other states to his own, thereby increasing his power.

Cavour Becomes Prime Minister
~In 1852, Victor Emmanuel made Count Camillo Cavour his prime minister ~Once in office, Cavour moved first to reform Sardinia’s economy

Intrigue With France
~In 1855, Sardinia, led by Cavour, joined Britain and France against Russia in the Crimean War. ~In 1858, Cavour negotiated a secret deal with Napoleon, who promised to aid Sardinia in case it faced a war with Austria.

Garibaldi’s “Red Shirts”
~Next, attention shifted to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy

Unity at Last
~Garibaldi’s success alarmed Cavour, who feared that the nationalist hero would set up his own republic in the south. ~In a patriotic move, Garibaldi turned over Naples and Sicily to Victor Emmanuel. ~Two areas remained outside the new Italian nation: Rome and Venetia. =Challenges Facing the New Nation= ~Italy faced a host of problems. Like the German empire that Bismarck cemented together out of many states, Italy had no tradition of unity.

Divisions
~The greatest regional differences were between the north and the south. ~Hostility between Italy and the Roman Catholic Church further divided the nation.

Turmoil
~Under Victor Emmanuel, Italy was a constitutional monarchy with a two-house legislature. ~In the late 1800s, unrest increased as radicals on the left struggled against a conservative government.

Economic Progress
~Despite its problems, Italy did develop economically, especially after 1900. ~The population explosion of this period created tensions.