Chapter : 1. The Rise Of Nationalism In Europe
Italy unified
(ii) Italy unified :
(1) During the middle of the 19th Century, Italy was divided into seven states of which only one Sardinia predominion was ruled by an Italian princely house. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon Kings of Spain. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and local verifications.
(2) Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. Like many other wealthy and educated members of the Italian elite, he spoke French better than he did Italian.
(3) Through a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia Piedomont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Apart from regular troops a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray in 1860, they marched into south Italy and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the spanish rulers.
(4) In 1861 Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of united Italy. However, much of the Italian population, among whom rates of illiteracy were very high, remained bliss fully unaliare of liberal nationalist ideology. The peasant masses who had supported Garibaldi in Southern Italy had never heard of ‘Italia’ and believed that ‘La Italia’ was Victor Emmanuel’s wife.
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