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The Carbonari were a large secret society that opposed conservative regimes and advocated for a constitutional monarchy. They were mainly focused on their individual states, instead of Italy as a whole, but they paved the way for the Risorgimento movement.
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Italy was made up of different states, some of which were republics. The Restoration of 1815 did not allow republics. Monarchies were re-established and any republics were absorbed. Austria was dominant over Italy and controlled many cities as well as having connections with other rulers. Many Italian states were under the rule of absolute monarchies which heavily taxed the population and did not care for the common people.
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- The Quadruple Alliance made up of Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, divided the old Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy into eight separate states.
- This was known as the Restoration because it placed so many monarchs back in power
- The Vienna Settlement wanted to contain France so that they could not rise to power.
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- News of revolts in Naples reached the major powers
- Austria called a congress in Troppau
- The Troppau Protocol stated that the major powers should intervene to stop revolts from being successful
- Austria, Prussia, and Russia signed it. France and Britain did not
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- Naples and Sicily began to revolt against King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. -The king was forced to make concessions and promised a constitutional monarchy.
- Austria called a meeting that resulted in the Troppau Protocol
- In 1821 King Ferdinand I asked Austria for help to crush the rebellion. Austria agreed and was able to re-take Naples and Sicily.
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- A Piedmont army officer and a minor aristocrat named Santarosa lead a group of soldiers demanding a constitution
- King Victor Emmanuel I abdicated for Charles Felix, naming Charles Albert as regent
- Albert made promises of a constitution and placed Santarosa as chief of the army
- Austria used the Troppau Protocol to invade Piedmont and install Charles Felix as an absolute monarch
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- Charles Albert becomes king of Piedmont-Sardinia
- He implemented minor reforms but did not want any major changes
- He changes the legal system and joined the customs union with Tuscany and the Papal States.
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- Enrico Misley, a Carbonari lawyer, approached the Duke Francis of Modena and suggested that they cause a revolt in Modena and Piedmont
- Francis arrested Misley
- Revolt still happened and Francis fled
- The Austrian army stepped in and crushed the revolt
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- Middle-class liberals in Bologna, Perugia, and Ancona wanted to challenge the rule of the Pope because they were upset that they lost power after the Restoration
- They revolted but were stopped by the Austrian army.
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- Young Italy was a secret society formed in 1831 by Mazzini
- They wanted to create a united Italy
- They supported republican views
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- A cholera outbreak occurred in Sicily
- Around 65,000 people were killed
- Many blamed Neopolitan rule
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- The lower class was more hungry, poor, and desperate than usual, adding tension before 1848
- The rich began to enclose common fertile land, taking it away from the lower class
- The harvests of 1836 and 1837 were not successful, resulting in food prices rising dramatically
- Workers were laid off from jobs
- Frequent riots
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Pius IX was elected as the Pope. He was seen as a more liberal Pope
- He released political prisoners
- Ended press censorship
- Created a civic guard of locals to collect property
- Created a council of state to help advise the Papacy on how to run the Papal States. -
- Charles Albert was under a lot of pressure from his citizens
- Protests and riots in Genoa and Turin advocated for greater political freedom
- Charles Albert is forced to introduce a constitution called the Statuto Albertino
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- Austria was alarmed by the changes being implemented in Italy
- They sent troops to garrison the city of Ferrara located in the Papal States
- This was meant as a warning to Italy that Austria was in charge
- The Italians were unhappy with this, and Pope Pius IX sent a formal complaint
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- Metternich was forced to resign due to riots in Vienna
- He was the prime minister who was very influential with keeping Austria in power
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- The people of Lombardy stopped smoking in protest of Austrian rule
- The tobacco tax was a major source of income for Austria
- The people of Lombardy stopped smoking so that Austria could no longer collect the tax
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Mazzini failed to unite Italy but became a romantic figure in the eyes of Garibaldi.
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- Revolutionaries wanted the return of the 1812 constitution and independence for Sicily from Naples
- Revolutionaries had taken over almost the entire island by April
- They created a parliament and declared that Sicily was independent
- The Neopolitan army crushed the revolution in May of 1849
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Five days of fighting in the streets of Milan resulted in the retreat of Austrian troops led by General Radetsky
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The Venetian Republic was declared with radical leader Danial Manin as its head
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Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes the dominant figure in the Sardinia government. He was a liberal who followed the politics of reality. He wanted to improve railroads, improve agriculture, emancipate trade, and did not like the clergy. He succeeded in moving the Italian Unification forward by allying with France, but ultimately, he was not able to unify Italy during his time in charge.
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Cavour began a war with Austria to get Italian territories and Napoleon III came to his aid. However, due to French Catholic unhappiness, Napoleon III switched and Cavour could only gain Lombardy.
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Garabaldi gathers an army called the Red Shirts. He led the Red Shirts soldiers to capture Lombardy for Piedmont and later conquered Sicily and Naples, giving southern Italy to King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, who established the Kingdom of Italy. This made him very influential in the unification of Italy
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The Franco-Austrian war ended, resulting in peace. This ultimately kickstarted the Italian Unification under Piedmontese leadership. This peace meant that the unification of Italy was not going to be immediate as Cavour would have wanted. This war unified the Northern Italian states under the common enemy of Austria.
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Garibaldi attempted to attack the papal states, but was stopped by Cavour in order to avoid conflict with France.
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Garibaldi led his Red Shirts in a victory against the Silician army. He emerged as an independent political force.
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Pope Pius IX returns to Rome and creates the Syllabus of Errors. In this, he denounces nationalism, socialism, separation of church and state, and religious liberty.
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The Prussian army threatened French borders in the Franco-Prussian War.
- The Italians invaded
- Rome war pronounced the capital of Italy
-The Italians entered the Papal States in September 1870 and, through the backing of a vote, they were able to annex the Papal States and Rome to the Kingdom of Italy. This allowed them to gain all remaining territories by 1870 -
After the unification, Italy struggled due to religious differences, resentment from Southern Italians who did not want to be governed by Rome, and the fact that the Catholic Church did not recognize Italy as a legitimate nation. All of this led to high tensions and a lack of unity within Italy.