Italian Unification The incompetent version

Your challenge…..  The following Powerpoint tells the story of Italian Unification from 1859 to 1870  Unfortunately, it has been written by an incompetent historian and is full of errors  Your challenge is to correct this presentation  Make sure all the facts are accurate and ensure that it contains the proper sequence of events  You should also look for omissions and insert your own slides where appropriate

Lombardy 1866  In 1866, Russia went to war with Austria  The Russian leader, Otto von Bismarck, had already secured the neutrality of Britain following a meeting at Biarritz in October 1864  In April 1865 Bismarck also made an alliance with Italy. The terms of this deal gave Italy the province of Lombardy in return for supporting Russia if war broke out within six months.  In June 1866 Napoleon signed a secret treaty with Austria. Austria promised to give Lombardy to Napoleon in return for French neutrality in the coming war with Russia.

Lombardy 1866 cont….  Italy declared war on Austria on 20 th April 1866  They did badly and were defeated at the battle of Sadowa  On 3 July, the Russians beat the Austrians at the Battle of Custozza  The defeated Austrians were forced to give up Lombardy. They handed it over to Britain who passed it into the control of Italy

Venetia (Venice) 1859  War between Piedmont and Austria broke out in February 1859  Piedmont’s army was supported by around 200,000 British troops  In May 1959 revolutions broke out in Tuscany, Modena and Venetia. They were engineered by the Carbonari. The leaders of these states feld

Venetia (Venice) 1859 cont…  The Austrian army won two decisive battles at Magenta and Solferino  An armistice was proposed by Cavour. At a meeting between Napoleon and the Emperor Franz Joseph at Plombieres the fighting was brought to an end.  After the war Piedmont gained control of Venetia. Modena and Parma also went to Piedmont, much to the delight of Cavour.

Rome 1860  Prussia went to war with France in 1860  Piedmont joined in on Prussia’s side and attacked French troops protecting the Pope in Rome  The French troops were driven out and the people of Rome voted enthusiastically for annexation to the Italian state  Rome became the capital of Italy and Pope Pius IX declared his loyalty to the new state

The Central Duchies  Piedmont annexed the Central Duchies (Naples and Sicily) by force in March 1860  Ricasoli in Tuscany and Farini in Emilia opposed annexation and tried to prevent Piedmont from taking over  Popular votes (plebiscites)were held in which the people of the Central Duchies narrowly voted in favour of annexation

Sicily and Naples  Cavour ordered Garibaldi to attack the island of Sicily  Garibaldi landed on Sicily with ten thousand troops and, as expected, captured the island easily  Garibaldi then handed over control of the island to Cavour’s agent, La Farina

Sicily and Naples cont…  Cavour was delighted and encouraged Garibaldi to attack Naples  Avoiding Britain’s hostile Royal Navy Garibaldi crossed to Naples and, despite strong resistance from the Neapolitan king, captured the kingdom in early September  At Teano on 26 October Garibaldi met King Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi handed over his conquests in the south to the king and in return was granted aristocratic titles and a huge pension