-
The Congress of Vienna restored Austrian domination over the Italian peninsula but had left Italy completely fragmented in a number of small states.
-
National revolutionary movement set up by Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian patriot.
-
Reforms in the Papal States, Lucca, Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. They were intended to weaken the revolutionary movements ("Young Italy").
-
The kingdom Piedmont-Sardinia, the largest and most powerful of the Italian states, adopted a liberal constitution.
-
Occured in the Kingdom of Sicily, which resulted in a constitution for the whole kingdom. It forced Pope Pius IX to flee Rome and a republic was proclaimed.
-
The Austrians defeated the Piedmontese and Charles Albert had to Abdicate. Victor Emmanuel II suceeded Charles in 1849.
-
Count Camillo di Cavour became prime minister of Sardinia- Piedmont.
-
All northern states voted to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. Napoleon II demanded the provinces of Savoy and Nice for France.
-
Cavour had caused a crisis that provoked the Austrians to send an ultimatum demanding Piedmontese disarmament. The Austrians then surrendered Lombardy to Napoleon III, who handed it over to Victor Emanuel II.
-
Giuseppe Garibaldi was another Italian revolutionary hero and leader in the struggle for Italian unification. He led a small army of Italian nationalists, and captured Sicily. His army became known as the Red Shirts.
-
The Austrian province of Venita (which included the city of Venice) became a part of Italy after Prussia defeated Austria in the Seven Weeks' War.
-
Napoleon III withdrew his troops from Rome, and Italian troops quickly moved into Rome without opposition.
-
The citizens of Rome voted for union with Italy and Rome became the capital of united Italy. The pope would govern a section of Rome known as the Vatican City.