Transcript 16.ItalianUnification

The Crimean War and Italian Unification
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Causes of The Crimean War

The Ottoman Empire granted Catholic France
rather than Orthodox Russia the oversight of the
Christian shrines in the Holy Land.

Russia wanted to extend its control over the
Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Walachia
(in present day Romania). The tsar’s duty to
protect Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman
Empire furnished the pretext for the Russian
aggression.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Execution of the War
Russia
occupied Moldavia and Walachia in the
summer of 1853.The Ottoman Empire declared
war on Russia in the fall of 1853.
The
other great powers soon became involved
and a war among major European states
resulted.
Both
France and Great Britain opposed Russian
expansion in the eastern Mediterranean, where
they had extensive naval and commercial
interests.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Russia’s in Trouble
In
France, Napoleon III thought an activist foreign
policy would shore up domestic support for his
regime, so on March 28, 1854, France and
Britain declared war on Russia.
Austria
and Prussia both had their own designs
on the Balkans, so they remained neutral, to the
great consternation of Tsar Nicholas I.
Initially
both sides fought poorly, but after a long
siege, the Russian fortress of Sevastopol finally
fell to the French and British.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Treaty of Paris 1856 Humbles Russia
 Surrender
territory near the mouth of the
Danube River.
 Recognize
the neutrality of the Black Sea
 Renounce
claims of protection over
Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
 Previously
forced to withdraw from
Moldavia and Walachia.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Consequences of Crimean War
 Image
of mighty Russia shattered; Concert
of Europe destroyed.
 Great powers displayed little reverence for
the Congress of Vienna settlement.
 Napoleon III favored redrawing the map
along lines of nationality.
 To compensate for failing to act during the
war, Austrians tried to assert more
influence within the German Confederation
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Consequences of Crimean War

Prussia became increasingly unhappy playing a smaller
role in Germany than Austria.

Embarrassed by the 1856 Treaty of Paris, Russia tried to
assert itself just as Great Britain began to hesitate to
become involved in Continental affairs.

Without the restraining influence of the Concert of
Europe, each nation felt that its international ambitions
were only constrained by the limits of its military power
and diplomatic influence.

Foreign policy increasingly became an instrument of
domestic policy, as evidenced by the unifications of Italy
and Germany.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
“After 1856 there were more powers willing to fight to
overthrow the existing order than there were to take up arms
to defend it.”
– Historian Gordon Craig, on the impact of the Crimean War.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Italian Unification
 Nationalists
had long wanted to unite the
small, absolutist principalities of the Italian
peninsula.
the first half of the 19th century,
however, there were differing opinions
about how to achieve that goal.
 During
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Italian Unification
 After
nationalist uprising failed to unify Italy
in 1831, Giuseppe Mazzini assumed the
mantle of romantic republican leadership.
 He
declared “Nationality is the role
assigned by God to a people in the work of
humanity. It is its mission, its task on earth,
to the end that God’s thought maybe
realized in the world.”
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Italian Unification
 In 1831, Mazzini founded the Young
Italy Society to drive Austria from the
peninsula and establish an Italian
republic.
 During
the 1830s and 1840s, Mazzini
and his fellow republican Giuseppe
Garibaldi led insurrections, and
conducted guerilla warfare.
 They
spent much time in exile, so
they were well known across Europe
and in the United States.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Italian Unification
Republican nationalism frightened moderate
Italians, who wanted to rid themselves of
Austrian domination, but not at the cost of
establishing a republic.
 Note that moderate Italians had once looked to
the papacy as a potential vehicle for unification;
but that was ruled out after the Pius IX’s
experience with the Roman Republic in 1849.
 Yet between 1852 and 1860, Count Camillo
Cavour, the moderately liberal prime minister
from Piedmont, transformed Italy into a nationstate with a constitutional monarchy. How?

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Cavour’s Policy
Unification was achieved through armed
conflict coupled with stealth diplomacy.
 Piedmont (the Kingdom of Sardinia) in NW
Italy, was the most independent state on
the peninsula.
 It had been restored as a buffer between
French and Austrian ambitions.
 After losing to Austria a second time, King
Charles Albert of Piedmont abdicated the
throne in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel
II, who made Camillo Cavour Prime
Minister in 1852.

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Cavour’s Policy
Deeply influenced by the ideas of the
Enlightenment, classical economics, and
utilitarianism, Cavour had made a fortune
investing in railroads, reforming agriculture
on his own estates, and editing a
newspaper.
 Cavour favored monarchy over republican
government.
 He believed that if Italians proved to be
efficient and economically progressive, the
great powers might decide that Italy could
govern itself.

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Cavour’s Policy
As Prime Minister of the Piedmontese
Cabinet, Cavour worked for free trade,
railway construction, credit expansion, and
agricultural improvement.
 To gain a broader base for unification,
Cavour fostered the Nationalist Society,
which established chapters in other Italian
states to push for Italian unification under
the leadership of Piedmont.
 He also believed that Italy could only
achieve unification with French aid.

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
French Sympathies for Italian Unification

Cavour used the Crimean War to bring Italy into
European politics.
In 1855 Piedmont joined the war on France and
Britain’s team and sent in 10K troops.
 This contribution of troops allowed Cavour to
raise the issue of Italian unification at the Paris
Conference in 1856.
 His intellect and political skills impressed
everyone at the Conference, particularly
Napoleon III.

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
French Sympathies for Italian Unification
 During the rest of the decade, Cavour achieved
further respectability for the question of
unification by opposing Mazzini’s nationalist
uprisings.

By 1858, Cavour represented a moderate liberal
alternative to both republicanism and reactionary
absolutism in Italy.

In July 1858, Cavour and Napoleon met at
Plombieres and plotted to provoke a war in Italy
that would permit them to defeat Austria.

For its aid, France would receive Frenchspeaking Nice and Savoy from Piedmont.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal

War with Austria
They were just looking for a way to start the war when
Austria did some stupid things: it imposed military
conscription on Venetia and Lombardy (super
unpopular), and it sent a declaration of total
disarmament or war to Piedmont.

So after two battles at Magenta and Solferino, things are
going well when Napoleon III quits b/c he realizes he is
falling into a trap (worried about Piedmont getting too
strong)!

Signs the Treaty of Villafranca  Napoleon III pulls out
of war and the Austrian-Sardinian war ends. Piedmont
received Lombardy, but Venetia remained under Austrian
control. Later that summer, Parma, Modena, Tuscany,
and the Romagna voted to unite with Piedmont.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
I’m a baldi, you’re a baldi, Girabaldi!
 Girabaldi
recruits a thousand volunteers,
sails down to Sicily and attacks the
Kingdom of Two Sicily.
 As he wins battles, his army grows, and he
is soon ready to take on the Papal States
(also France then) and Cavour (b/c
Garibaldi is a republican and Cavour
favors monarchy).
 So, in 1860 he marches to meet the North
and, in order to prevent a civil war, he
gives ALL his conquests to Cavour. In late
1860 Naples and Sicily voted to join the
northern union forged by Piedmont.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
The New Italian State

In March 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was
proclaimed the king of Italy. Three months later,
Cavour died.

So now Northern Italy (with the exception of
Venetia and Rome) joins Southern Italy.
In 1866, through the Austro-Prussian war, Italy
gets Venetia, and then, in 1870, through the
Franco-Prussian war, Italy sneaks in and takes
Rome. Now Italy is totally unified.
 Go Italy, its your birthday, Go! Go! Go! Go!

I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
The New Italian State
 The economies of North and South Italy
were incompatible.
 The south was rural, poor, and backward
 The North was industrializing, and its
economy was increasingly linked to the
rest of Europe.
 The social structures of the two regions
reflected those differences, with large
landholders and peasants dominant in the
south and an urban working class
emerging in the north.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Political Problems

The political framework of the united Italy could
not overcome these problems.

The Constitution provided for a conservative
constitutional monarchy.

Parliament consisted of two houses: A senate
appointed by the king, and a Chamber of
Deputies elected on a narrow franchise.

Ministers were responsible to the monarch, not
to Parliament.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
Political Problems
 These
arrangements didn’t foster a strong
parliamentary system.
 Political
opponents were “transformed”
into government supporters through
bribes, favors, or a seat in the cabinet
 Italian
politics became synonymous with
corruption.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal
The New Italian State

Many Italians wanted other territories, such as Venetia
and Rome, added to their nation.

After Venetia was gained in 1866, Rome continued to be
guarded by French troops until the Franco-Prussian war
forced their withdrawal in 1870.

The Italian state then annexed Rome and made it the
Capital.

By 1870, only the small province of Trent and the city of
Trieste, both ruled by Austria, remained outside of Italy.

The desire to liberate these two small outposts was one
reason for the Italian support of the Allies against Austria
and Germany during World War I.
I.B. History of the Americas II :: Session 16 :: The Crimean War and Italian Unification :: Davis & Bakkal