Kylee Strate & Saya Barbera

  Austria dominate power of Italian peninsula (1850)  After failed revolution of , advocates for Italian unification grew, focusing on northern Italian state of Piedmont, ruled by the royal house of Savoy  New king, Victor Emmanuel II named Count Camilla di Cavour as prime minister (1852). He expanded the economy by building new roads, canals, and railroads as well as fostering business enterprise  This growing economy allowed Cavour to spend money on equipping a large army. In 1858, Cavour and Napoleon III became allies to drive the Austrians out of Italy. If successful, France would get Nice, Savoy, and a kingdom in Central Italy and Piedmont would gain new Italian provinces.  Cavour provoked the Austrians into invading Piedmont in April 1859  France was largely involved in defeating the Austrians in battle at Magenta and Solferino but Napoleon realized that Prussia supported Austria and didn’t want to fight two enemies at once Italy

  On July 11, 1859, France made with Austria without telling Italy and as a result Piedmont only received part of the land they intended on getting.  After the Italian-Austrian war, some northern states were taken over Italian nationalists. In plebiscites held in 1860, these states agreed to join Piedmont and Napoleon agreed to the annexations in return he got Nice and Savoy.  Meanwhile, in southern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian patriot who supported the republican cause of Young Italy, rose to power and created an army of a thousand men called the Red Shirts.  On May 1860, the Red Shirts stomped out a revolt against the Bourbon king of Two Sicilies and by July, Garibaldi controlled most of Sicily and in August he crossed over the mainland and Naples and the Two Sicilies fell in September  Cavour feared Garibaldi’s plan to march to Rome would bring war with France who were defenders of the papal interests  Piedmont’s army invaded the Papal States, bypassing Rome, and moved into Naples Italy

  Garibaldi, rather than to provoke a civil war, retired to his farm  Plebiscites in the Papal States and the Two Sicilies resulted in support for a union with Piedmont  On March 17, 1861, the new kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under the control of Piedmont  Cavour died three months later  Despite the proclamation of the new kingdom, unification was not yet complete since Venetia was under the control of Austria and Rome under papal control, supported by French troops  The Prussian army indirectly completed Italian unification during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 when Prussia and the new Italian state became allies  Although the Italian army was defeated by the Austrians, Prussia’s victory left Italians with Venetia  In 1870, the Franco-Prussian war led to the withdrawal of French troops from Rome  The Italian army annexed Rome on September 20, 1870 and it became the capital of Italy