Chapter 23 Overview Notes: The Unification of Italy

Count Camillo Cavour

Giuseppe Mazzini

Giuseppe Garibaldi

King Victor Emmanuel II

1870

Giuseppe Mazzini

Unification of ItalyUnification of Italy

• OBSTACLES TO ITALIAN UNIFICATION:

1. collection of separate states ruled by foreign powers or local princes

2. Napoleon’s invasions spark nationalistic feelings against Austrian Hapsburg control or French Bourbons

3. “Young Italy,” a secret nationalistic society, founded by Mazzini,

attempts to est. a revolutionary republic in Rome but effort fails

• NATIONALISM ENCOURAGES ITALIAN UNIFICATION:

1. united by geography, a common language, the history and glory of ancient Rome, the papacy, & economic freedom among Italian states

2. Risorgimento (Italian nationalistic movement) taken over by Kingdom of Sardinia; King Victor Emmanuel

II names Count Camillo Cavour as prime minister,

a practitioner of Realpolitik to unite the Italian states of Sardinia, Lombardy, and Venetia

3. Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi

and his “Red Shirts” win Sicily and Naples

4. Victor Emmanuel II

is crowned king of Italy and unites Venetia and Rome to complete a unified Italy

• ITALY FACES NEW CHALLENGES:

1. no tradition of unity

2. regional rivalries between richer and more urban north versus rural and poor south unable to solve national issues

3. popes resent losing control of the Papal States and of Rome (papacy is granted rule of the Vatican City but not until 1929)

4. industrialization brings urbanization

5. population explosion causes emigration to the U.S., Canada, Latin America

6. Italy prospering by 1914 but unprepared for world war

• NATIONALISM THREATENS OLD EMPIRES:

HAPSBURGS

• Oldest ruling house in Europe

• Controls vast territories, esp. in E. Europe = multinational empire = Slavic groups and Hungarians • The Dual Monarchy is established

• Francis Joseph becomes emperor of Austria &king of Hungary

• Slavs resentful of union between Austria-Hungary ruled the Hapsburg

dynasty for 62 yrs., dying at the age of

84

Ottoman Turks

• Ruled multinational empire, including the Serbs & the Greeks on the Balkan Peninsula who resent foreign rule

• Ottoman Empire weak = the “sick man of Europe,” leading to attempts by European powers to take lands from Turks

EX: Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina on Balkan Peninsula in 1908 angering the Serbs

• Balkan region becomes

known as the “powder keg of

Europe” by 1914 leading to

World War I