View source for Unification of Italy

{{Short description|1848–1870 consolidation of Italian states}}
{{About|the 19th-century consolidation of Italian states into a single state|the Roman unification of the Italian peninsula|Roman expansion in Italy}}
{{Redirect|Risorgimento|the 2011 opera by Lorenzo Ferrero|Risorgimento!{{!}}''Risorgimento!''|the newspaper|Il Risorgimento (newspaper){{!}}''Il Risorgimento'' (newspaper)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox historical event
| native_name = Risorgimento
| image = Episodio delle cinque giornate (Baldassare Verazzi).jpg
| caption = [[Five Days of Milan]], 18–22 March 1848
| participants = [[Italians|Italian society]], [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], [[Five Days of Milan|Provisional Government of Milan]], [[Republic of San Marco]], [[Sicilian revolution of 1848|Kingdom of Sicily]], [[Roman Republic (19th century)|Roman Republic]], [[Carbonari|Carboneria]], [[Second French Empire|French Empire]], [[Redshirts (Italy)|Redshirts]], [[Hungarian legion (Expedition of the Thousand)|Hungarian legion]], [[Southern Army (Italy)|Southern Army]], [[United Provinces of Central Italy]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
| location = [[Italy]]
| date = 1848–1870<ref name=Collier2003/>
| outcome = 
* [[Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]]
* [[Capture of Rome]]
* [[Rome]] becomes the capital of the [[Kingdom of Italy]]
}}
{{History of Italy}}

The '''unification of Italy''' ({{langx|it|Unità d'Italia}} {{IPA|it|uniˈta ddiˈtaːlja|}}), also known as the '''{{langr|it|Risorgimento}}''' ({{IPA|it|risordʒiˈmento|lang}}; {{literally|Resurgence}}), was the 19th century [[Political movement|political]] and [[social movement]] that in 1861 ended in the [[Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy|annexation]] of [[List of historic states of Italy|various states]] of the [[Italian peninsula]] and its outlying isles to the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], resulting in the creation of the [[Kingdom of Italy]]. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the [[Congress of Vienna]], the unification process was precipitated by the [[Revolutions of 1848]], and reached completion in 1870 after the [[capture of Rome]] and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.<ref name=Collier2003>{{cite book |last=Collier |first=Martin |title=Italian unification, 1820–71 |publisher=Heinemann |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-435-32754-5 |edition=First |series=Heinemann Advanced History |location=Oxford |page=2 |quote=The ''Risorgimento'' is the name given to the process that ended with the political unification of Italy in 1871.}}</ref>{{sfn|Riall|2002|p=1}}

Individuals who played a major part in the struggle for unification and liberation from foreign domination included King [[Victor Emmanuel II]]; politician, economist and statesman [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]]; general [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]; and journalist and politician [[Giuseppe Mazzini]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lastampa.it/cultura/2016/12/12/news/fratelli-d-italia-divisi-su-tutto-1.34750698|title=Fratelli d'Italia, divisi su tutto|date=12 December 2016|language=it|access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref> Borrowing from the old [[Latin]] title ''[[Pater Patriae]]'' of the [[Roman emperor]]s, the [[Italians]] gave to King Victor Emmanuel II the epithet of ''[[Father of the Fatherland]]'' ({{langx|it|Padre della Patria}}).<ref name="raicultura"/> Even after 1870, many ethnic Italian-speakers (Italians in [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol]], [[Savoyard Italians]], [[Corfiot Italians]], [[Niçard Italians]], [[Swiss Italians]], [[Corsican Italians]], [[Maltese Italians]], [[Istrian Italians]], and [[Dalmatian Italians]]) remained outside the borders of the Kingdom of Italy, planting the seeds of [[Italian irredentism]].

Italy celebrates the [[Anniversary of the unification of Italy|anniversary of the unification]] on 17 March (the date of [[proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]]). Some of the states that had been envisaged as part of the unification process (''terre irredente'') did not join the Kingdom until after Italy defeated [[Austria-Hungary]] in [[World War I]], culminating in the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]] in 1920. Some historians see the Risorgimento as continuing to that time, which is the view presented at the [[Central Museum of the Risorgimento]] at [[Altare della Patria]] in Rome.<ref name="Arnaldi">Arnaldi, Girolamo. ''Italy and Its Invaders.'' Harvard University Press, 2005. p. 194. {{ISBN|0-674-01870-2}}.</ref><ref name="museo">{{cite web|url=http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=museo|title=Museo Centrale del Risorgimento di Roma|website=Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano|access-date=6 July 2018|language=it}}</ref>

==Background==

===From ancient times to early modern era===
[[Italy]] was unified by the [[Roman Republic]] in the latter part of the third century BCE. For 700 years, it was a ''de facto'' territorial extension of the capital of the [[Roman Republic]] and [[Roman Empire|Empire]], and for a long time experienced a [[Roman Italy|privileged status but was not converted into a province]]. Under [[Augustus]], the previous differences in municipal and political rights were abolished and Roman Italy was subdivided into administrative regions ruled directly by the Roman Senate.

After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]] remained united under the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] and after 568 was disputed between the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire]], losing its unity for centuries. Following conquest by the [[Frankish Empire]], the title of [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|King of Italy]] merged with the office of [[Holy Roman Emperor]]; however, the emperor was an absentee [[German language|German]]-speaking foreigner who had little interest in governing Italy and indeed never controlled the entire peninsula. As a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of [[Italian city-states|city-states]]. [[Southern Italy]] was governed by the long-lasting [[Kingdom of Sicily]] or [[Kingdom of Naples]], which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the pope as a temporal kingdom known as the [[Papal States]].

This situation persisted through the [[Renaissance]] but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern [[nation-state]]s in the [[early modern period]]. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of [[proxy war]]s between the major powers, notably the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (including [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]]), [[Spain]], and [[Kingdom of France|France]]. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the [[Italic League]], in 1454, and the 15th century foreign policy of [[Cosimo de' Medici]] and [[Lorenzo de' Medici]]. Leading Renaissance Italian writers [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]] and [[Francesco Guicciardini|Guicciardini]] expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in ''Italia Mia''. Machiavelli later quoted four verses from ''Italia Mia'' in ''[[The Prince]]'', which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the [[barbarians]]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLY2tlPZqvsC&q=petrarch+l%27antico+valor&pg=PA257 |title=Machiavelli and Empire&nbsp;– Mikael Hörnqvist&nbsp;– Google Books |date=2004 |access-date=1 August 2012|isbn=978-1139456340|last1=Hörnqvist |first1=Mikael |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref>

The [[Italian Wars]] saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII's]] invasion of Naples in 1494. However, the [[Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis]] (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under the direct or indirect control of the [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish Habsburgs]]. The [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the [[House of Habsburg]], which ruled the [[Spanish Empire]], continued to rule southern Italy and the [[Duchy of Milan]] until the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–14). Following this war the Austrian Habsburgs struggled for dominance with the Spanish Bourbons until the end of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]].

A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in [[Gian Rinaldo Carli]]'s ''Della Patria degli Italiani'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trampus |first1=Antonio |title=Gianrinaldo Carli at the centre of the Milanese Enlightenment |journal=History of European Ideas |date=December 2006 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=456–476 |doi=10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2006.08.001 }}</ref> written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. {{"'}}Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian', he explained."{{sfn|Holt|1971|pp=22–23}}

===French Revolution and Napoleonic era===
[[File:Flag of the Repubblica Cispadana.svg|thumb|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], which was the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]
The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with the [[Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars|campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars]] in 1792–97 when a series of [[Sister republic|client republics]] were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last [[Roman-German Emperor]], [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II]], after its defeat by Napoleon at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]]. French rule destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of the intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after the [[First French Empire]] collapsed in 1814.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grew |first1=Raymond |title=Finding Social Capital: The French Revolution in Italy |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |date=January 1999 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=407–433 |doi=10.1162/002219598551760 }}</ref>

The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=Anna Maria |title=Republicanism in Italy from the eighteenth century to the early Risorgimento |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=March 2012 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=149–167 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.641409 }}</ref> The reaction against any outside control challenged [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Viceroy of Italy]], and [[Joachim Murat]], [[Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic)|King of Naples]]) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] approval for his succession to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the [[Rimini Proclamation]], which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers.

[[Flags of Napoleonic Italy|During the Napoleonic era]], in 1797, the first official adoption of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the [[Cispadane Republic]], a Napoleonic [[sister republic]] of [[Revolutionary France]], took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national [[self-determination]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2|page=156}}</ref><ref>[http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm The tri-coloured standard].Getting to Know Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (retrieved 5 October 2008) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223131121/http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm |date=23 February 2008}}</ref> This event is celebrated by the [[Tricolour Day]].<ref name="miolegale">Article 1 of the law n. 671 of 31 December 1996 ("National celebration of the bicentenary of the first national flag")</ref> The [[Italian national colours]] appeared for the first time on a [[Cockade of Italy|tricolour cockade]] in 1789,<ref name="Cita|Ferorelli |p. 662">{{cite journal |last1=Ferorelli |first1=Nicola |date=1925 |title=La vera origine del tricolore italiano |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |volume=XII |issue=fasc. III |language=it |pages=662 |access-date=25 December 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181159/http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |url-status=dead }}</ref> anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military [[war flag]], which was adopted by the [[Lombard Legion]] in 1796.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tarozzi|first1=Fiorenza|last2=Vecchio|first2=Giorgio |title=Gli italiani e il tricolore|year=1999|publisher=Il Mulino|language=it|isbn=88-15-07163-6|pages=67–68}}</ref>

===Reaction (1815–1848)===
[[File:Giuseppe Mazzini.jpg|thumb|[[Giuseppe Mazzini]], a highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement]]
After Napoleon fell (1814), the [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the [[Austrian Empire]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_room/articles/files/hicks_napoleon_kingitaly.asp |title=How Napoleon became 'King of Italy' |publisher=Napoleon.org |date=23 October 2012 |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> as they directly controlled the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]] and indirectly the duchies of [[Duchy of Parma and Piacenza|Parma]], [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Modena]] and [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]].

With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the [[Absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchical regimes]], the [[Italian tricolour]] went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=10|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|page=169|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2}}</ref> and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.<ref>Ghisi, Enrico ''Il tricolore italiano (1796–1870)'' Milano: Anonima per l'Arte della Stampa, 1931</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gay |first1=H. Nelson |title=Review of Il Tricolore Italiano, 1796-1870 |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1932 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=750–751 |doi=10.2307/1843352 |jstor=1843352 }}</ref> The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the [[Cittadella of Alessandria]], during the [[Revolutions during the 1820s|revolutions of 1820s]], after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=18|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref>

An important figure of this period was [[Francesco Melzi d'Eril]], serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic [[Italian Republic (Napoleonic)|Italian Republic]] (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nicassio|first=Susan Vandiver|title=Imperial City: Rome Under Napoleon|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|location=United States |edition=|isbn=978-0-226-57973-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica/page/n220 220]}}</ref>
Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; [[Vittorio Alfieri]], [[Francesco Lomonaco]] and [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] are generally considered three great literary precursors of [[Italian nationalism]], but the most famous proto-nationalist work was [[Alessandro Manzoni]]'s [[The Betrothed|''I promessi sposi'']] (''The Betrothed''), widely read as thinly veiled allegorical criticism of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of ''I Promessi Sposi'' used a standardized version of the [[Languages of Italy|Tuscan dialect]], a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Henry |first1=Jean |date=1978 |title=Antonio Canova and the Tomb to Vittorio |id={{ProQuest|302938866}} |oclc=7413922 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

Three ideals of unification appeared. [[Vincenzo Gioberti]], a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the pope in his 1842 book ''Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Romani |first1=Roberto |title=Liberal Theocracy in the Italian Risorgimento |journal=European History Quarterly |date=October 2014 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=620–650 |doi=10.1177/0265691414546601 }}</ref> [[Pope Pius IX]] at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hales |first1=Edward Elton Young |title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century |date=1954 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |oclc=1024605117 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

[[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Carlo Cattaneo]] wanted the unification of Italy under a [[federal republic]], which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by [[Cesare Balbo]] (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Aristocratic Liberalism and Risorgimento: Cesare Balbo and Piedmontese Political Thought after 1848 |journal=History of European Ideas |date=November 2013 |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=835–857 |doi=10.1080/01916599.2012.762621 }}</ref>

===Carbonari===
[[File:Italian-unification.gif|thumb|Animated map of the Italian unification from 1829 to 1871]]
One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the [[Carbonari]], a secret political discussion group formed in [[southern Italy]] early in the 19th century. After 1815, [[Freemasonry]] in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to [[Italian nationalism]] and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the [[French Revolution]] regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals and were strongly anticlerical. The Carbonari movement spread across Italy.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1844987|title = The Carbonari: Their Origins, Initiation Rites, and Aims|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 69|issue = 2|pages = 353–370|last1 = Rath|first1 = R. John|year = 1964|doi = 10.2307/1844987}}</ref>

Conservative governments feared the Carbonari, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members. Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned [[Napoleon III]] (who, as a young man, had fought on their side) to death for [[Napoleon III#Italian Campaign|failing]] to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858, when [[Felice Orsini]], [[Giovanni Andrea Pieri]], [[Charles DeRudio|Carlo Di Rudio]] and [[Andrea Gomez (revolutionary)|Andrea Gomez]] threw three bombs at him. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government. Although contributing some service to the cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41885047|title = The Carbonari|journal = Social Science|volume = 39|issue = 4|pages = 234–241|last1 = Shiver|first1 = Cornelia|year = 1964}}</ref>

===Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi===
[[File:First meeting between Giuseppe Garibaldi.jpg|thumb|200px|The first meeting between [[Giuseppe Garibaldi|Garibaldi]] and [[Giuseppe Mazzini|Mazzini]] at the headquarters of [[Young Italy]] in 1833]]
Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic,<ref name="Galt 1994 785–807">{{cite journal|last=Galt|first=Anthony|title=The Good Cousins' Domain of Belonging: Tropes in Southern Italian Secret Society Symbol and Ritual, 1810–1821|journal=Man |series=New Series|date=December 1994|volume=29|issue=4|pages=785–807|doi=10.2307/3033969|jstor=3033969}}</ref> two of the most prominent being [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]. Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could&nbsp;− and therefore should&nbsp;− be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with [[Rome]] as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to [[Marseille]] in France, where he organized a new political society called [[Young Italy|''La Giovine Italia'' (Young Italy)]], whose mottos were "''Dio e Popolo''" ('God and People') and "''Unione, Forza e Libertà''" ('Union, Strength and Freedom"),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marcopolovr.gov.it/risorgimento/temi/simboli/tricolore.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223213024/http://www.marcopolovr.gov.it/risorgimento/temi/simboli/tricolore.htm|title=Il tricolore|access-date=13 December 2022|archive-date=23 February 2017|url-status=dead|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.partecipiamo.it/cultura/mazzini/giuseppe.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613005251/https://www.partecipiamo.it/cultura/mazzini/giuseppe.htm|title=Giuseppe Mazzini|access-date=13 December 2022|archive-date=13 June 2016|url-status=dead|language=it}}</ref> which sought the unification of Italy.{{sfn|Smith|1969|p={{pn|date=April 2025}}}}

Garibaldi, a native of [[Nice]] (then part of [[Piedmont]]), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America,  spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning the art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848.{{sfn|Ridley|1976|p={{pn|date=April 2025}}}}

==Early revolutionary activity==

===Exiles and European and masculine ideals===
Many of the key intellectual and political leaders operated from exile; most Risorgimento patriots lived and published their work abroad after successive failed revolutions. Exile became a central theme of the foundational legacy of the Risorgimento as the narrative of the Italian nation fighting for independence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Exile and Nationalism: The Case of the Risorgimento |journal=European History Quarterly |date=October 2006 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=493–520 |doi=10.1177/0265691406068126 }}</ref> The exiles were deeply immersed in European ideas, and often hammered away at what Europeans saw as Italian vices, especially effeminacy and indolence. These negative stereotypes emerged from [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] notions of national character that stressed the influence of the environment and history on a people's moral predisposition. Italian exiles both challenged and embraced the stereotypes and typically presented gendered interpretations of Italy's political "degeneration". They called for a masculine response to feminine weaknesses as the basis of national regeneration and fashioned their image of the future Italian nation firmly in the standards of European nationalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 10.1086/531319|doi = 10.1086/531319|title = Indolence and Regeneration: Tropes and Tensions of Risorgimento Patriotism|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 110|issue = 2|pages = 380–408|year = 2005|last1 = Patriarca|first1 = Silvana}}</ref>

===Two Sicilies insurrection===
[[File:Guglielmo Pepe Illustration.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Guglielmo Pepe]]]]
In 1820, liberal Spaniards successfully [[Trienio Liberal|revolted]], demanding a Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, a regiment in the army of the [[Kingdom of Two Sicilies]], commanded by [[Guglielmo Pepe]], a Carbonaro (member of the secret republican organization),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Carbonaro |title=Carbonaro – definition of Carbonaro by The Free Dictionary |publisher=The free dictionary.com |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies|Ferdinand I]], agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, although, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of the [[Holy Alliance]]. Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many supporters of revolution in [[Sicily]], including the scholar [[Michele Amari]], were forced into exile during the decades that followed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/austrohun/ftwosicilies1820.htm|title=Austria Two Sicilies Revolt 1820–1821|publisher=Onwar.com|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

===Piedmont insurrection===
[[File:Arresto pellico maroncelli.jpg|thumb|right|''The Arrest of Silvio Pellico and Piero Maroncelli'', [[Saluzzo]], civic museum]]
The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont]] was [[Santorre di Santarosa]], who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under the [[House of Savoy]]. The Piedmont revolt started in [[Alessandria]], where troops adopted the green, white, and red [[Flag of Italy|''tricolore'']] of the [[Cisalpine Republic]]. King [[Victor Emmanuel I]] abdicated in response, and the regent for the new king, Prince [[Charles Albert of Sardinia|Charles Albert]], approved a new [[constitution]] to appease the revolutionaries, but when King [[Charles Felix of Sardinia|Charles Felix]] returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from the [[Holy Alliance]]. Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to [[Paris]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Broers |first1=Michael |title=Revolution as Vendetta: Patriotism in Piedmont, 1794–1821 |journal=The Historical Journal |date=September 1990 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=573–597 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013534 }}</ref>

In [[Milan]], [[Silvio Pellico]] and Pietro Maroncelli organized several attempts to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shapiro |first1=Gavriel |title=Nabokov and Pellico: Invitation to a Beheading and My Prisons |journal=Comparative Literature |date=2010 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=55–67 |doi=10.1215/00104124-2009-032 |jstor=40600349 }}</ref>

===1830 insurrections===
{{Main|Revolutions of 1830}}
[[Denis Mack Smith]] argues:
{{blockquote|Few people in 1830 believed that an Italian nation might exist. There were eight states in the peninsula, each with distinct laws and traditions. No one had had the desire or the resources to revive Napoleon's partial experiment in unification. The settlement of 1814–15 had merely restored regional divisions, with the added disadvantage that the decisive victory of Austria over France temporarily hindered Italians in playing off their former oppressors against each other. ... Italians who, like [[Ugo Foscolo]] and [[Gabriele Rossetti]], harboured patriotic sentiments, were driven into exile. The largest Italian state, the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its 8 million inhabitants, seemed aloof and indifferent: Sicily and Naples had once been ruled by Spain, and it had always been foreign to the rest of Italy. The common people in each region, and even the intellectual elite, spoke their mutually unintelligible dialects, and lacked the least vestiges of national consciousness. They wanted good government, not self-government, and had welcomed Napoleon and the French as more equitable and efficient than their native dynasties,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=D. Mack |chapter=Italy |page=552 |editor1-last=Bury |editor1-first=J. P. T. |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 10, The Zenith of European Power, 1830-70 |date=1960 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-04548-3 }}</ref> many of which had died out in the 18th century.}}

[[File:Assalto alla casa di Ciro Menotti e arresto del Grande Patriotta e dei suoi compagni.jpg|thumb|Ciro Menotti and his compatriots clashed with the army.]]
After 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

The [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Duke of Modena]], [[Francis IV of Modena|Francis IV]], was an ambitious man, and he hoped to become king of [[northern Italy]] by increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that he would not act against those who subverted opposition toward the unification of Italy. Encouraged by the declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

During the [[July Revolution]] of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced King [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] to abdicate and created the [[July Monarchy]] with encouragement from the new French king, [[Louis-Philippe I]]. Louis-Philippe had promised revolutionaries such as [[Ciro Menotti]] that he would intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops. Fearing he would lose his throne, Louis-Philippe did not, however, intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again conquered his duchy with help from the Austrian troops. Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centred in Modena faded.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

At the same time, other insurrections arose in the [[Papal Legations]] of [[Bologna]], [[Ferrara]], [[Ravenna]], [[Forlì]], [[Ancona]] and [[Perugia]]. These successful revolutions, which adopted the ''tricolore'' in place of the [[List of flags of the Papacy|Papal flag]], quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed the creation of a united Italian nation. The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired similar activity in the [[Duchy of Parma]], where the ''tricolore'' flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess [[Marie Louise of Austria|Marie Louise]] left the city during the political upheaval.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

Insurrection provinces planned to unite as the [[Italian United Provinces]], which prompted [[Pope Gregory XVI]] to ask for Austrian help against the rebels. Austrian Chancellor [[Klemens von Metternich]] warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe sent a naval expedition to Ancona, which restored Papal authority there and even arrested Italian patriots living in France. In early 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had revolted. This military action suppressed much of the fledgling revolutionary movement.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

==Revolutions of 1848–1849 and First Italian War of Independence==
{{Main|Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states|First Italian War of Independence}}
[[File:Fratelli Bandiera.jpg|thumb|left|Execution of the [[Bandiera Brothers]]]]

In 1844, two brothers from [[Venice]], [[Bandiera Brothers|Attilio and Emilio Bandiera]], members of [[Young Italy]], planned to make a raid on the [[Calabria]]n coast against the [[Kingdom of Two Sicilies]] in support of Italian unification. They assembled a band of about twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives and set sail on their venture on 12 June 1844. Four days later they landed near [[Crotone]], intending to go to [[Cosenza]], liberate the political prisoners, and issue their proclamations. Tragically for the Bandiera brothers, they did not find the insurgent band they were told awaited them, so they moved towards [[La Sila]]. They were ultimately betrayed by one of their party, the [[Corsica]]n Pietro Boccheciampe, and by some peasants who believed them to be Turkish pirates. A detachment of [[Gendarmerie|gendarmes]] and volunteers were sent against them, and after a short fight, the whole band was taken prisoner and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of Calabrians who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. The Bandiera brothers and their nine companions were executed by firing squad; some accounts state they cried "''Viva l'Italia!''" ('Long live Italy!') as they fell. The moral effect was enormous throughout Italy, the action of the authorities was universally condemned, and the martyrdom of the Bandiera brothers bore fruit in the subsequent revolutions.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1345637/Bandiera-brothers|title=Bandiera brothers|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Image-Inno di Mameli 2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Holograph]]ic copy of 1847 of ''[[Il Canto degli Italiani]]'', the Italian [[national anthem]] since 1946]]
In this context, in 1847, the first public performance of the song ''[[Il Canto degli Italiani]]'', the Italian [[national anthem]] since 1946, took place.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2|page=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.quirinale.it/page/inno|title=Fratelli d'Italia|access-date=1 October 2021|language=it}}</ref> ''Il Canto degli Italiani'', written by [[Goffredo Mameli]] set to music by [[Michele Novaro]], is also known as the ''Inno di Mameli'', after the author of the lyrics, or ''Fratelli d'Italia'', from its [[incipit|opening line]].

On 5 January 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began with a civil disobedience strike in [[Lombardy]], as citizens stopped smoking cigars and playing the [[lottery]], which denied Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this, revolts began on the island of [[Sicily]] and in [[Naples]]. In Sicily the revolt resulted in the proclamation of the [[Sicilian revolution of 1848|Kingdom of Sicily]] with [[Ruggero Settimo]] as chairman of the independent state until 1849, when the Bourbon army took back full control of the island on 15 May 1849 by force.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/rz/twosicil.htm|title=Two Sicilies, Kingdom of, 1848–49|publisher=Ohio.edu|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Ruggero Settimo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ruggero Settimo]]]]
In February 1848, there were revolts in [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]] that were relatively nonviolent, after which Grand Duke [[Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Leopold II]] granted the Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican provisional government formed in Tuscany during February shortly after this concession. On 21 February, [[Pope Pius IX]] granted a constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On 23 February 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee [[Paris]], and the [[Second French Republic]] was proclaimed. By the time the revolution in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions—four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state.

Meanwhile, in Lombardy, tensions increased until the Milanese and Venetians rose in revolt on 18 March 1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the Austrian garrison after five days of street fights—18–22 March ([[Five Days of Milan|Cinque giornate di Milano]]). An Austrian army under Marshal [[Josef Radetzky]] besieged Milan, but due to the defection of many of his troops and the support of the Milanese for the revolt, they were forced to retreat to the [[Quadrilatero]] fortresses.

Soon, [[Charles Albert of Sardinia|Charles Albert]], the King of Sardinia (who ruled Piedmont and [[Savoy]]), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria ([[First Italian Independence War]]). After initial successes at [[Battle of Goito|Goito]] and [[Peschiera del Garda|Peschiera]], he was decisively defeated by Radetzky at the [[Battle of Custoza (1848)|Battle of Custoza]] on 24 July. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of [[Lombardy–Venetia]] save [[Venice]] itself, where the [[Republic of San Marco]] was proclaimed under [[Daniele Manin]].
[[File:Daniele Manin Repubblica di Venezia.jpg|thumb|left|[[Daniele Manin]] and [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] after the proclamation of the Republic of San Marco]]

While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy–Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters took a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March came into conflict with their constitutional ministers. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX.

Initially, Pius IX had been something of a reformer, but conflicts with the revolutionaries soured him on the idea of constitutional government. In November 1848, following the assassination of his Minister [[Pellegrino Rossi]], Pius IX fled just before [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] and other patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a [[Roman Republic (19th century)|Roman Republic]] on 9 February. On 2 February 1849, at a political rally held in the [[Tor di Nona]], a young Roman priest, the Abbé [[Carlo Arduini]], had made a speech in which he had declared that the [[Temporal power of the Holy See]] was a "historical lie, a political imposture, and a religious immorality".{{sfn|Ridley|1976|p=268}} In early March 1849, [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] arrived in Rome and was appointed Chief Minister. In the Constitution of the Roman Republic,<ref>Full text of the constitution can be found at:
<br />
{{cite web|title=Costituzione della Repubblica Romana (1849)|url=http://www.domusmazziniana.it/materiali/costirep.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209045329/http://www.domusmazziniana.it/materiali/costirep.htm|archive-date=9 February 2009|language=it}}
<br />
{{cite web|title=Costituzione della Repubblica Romana, 1849|url=http://www.liberliber.it/mediateca/libri/r/repubblica_romana_1849/costituzione_della_repubblica_etc/pdf/costit_p.pdf|work=Liberliber website|access-date=19 March 2012|language=it}}</ref> religious freedom was guaranteed by article 7, the independence of the pope as head of the [[Catholic Church]] was guaranteed by article 8 of the ''Principi fondamentali'', while the death penalty was abolished by article 5, and free public education was provided by article 8 of the ''Titolo I''.

Before the powers could respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained by the exiled Polish general [[Albert Chrzanowski]], renewed the war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at [[Battle of Novara (1849)|Novara]] on 23 March 1849. Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son, [[Victor Emmanuel II]], and Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment, brought to an end. The war ended with a treaty signed on 9 August. A popular revolt broke out in [[Ten Days of Brescia|Brescia]] on the same day as the defeat at Novara, but was suppressed by the Austrians ten days later.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

There remained the Roman and [[Republic of San Marco|Venetian]] Republics. In April, a French force under [[Charles Oudinot]] was sent to Rome. Apparently, the French first wished to mediate between the pope and his subjects, but soon the French were determined to restore the pope. After a two-month siege, Rome capitulated on 29 June 1849 and the pope was restored. Garibaldi and Mazzini once again fled into exile—in 1850 Garibaldi went to [[New York City]]. Meanwhile, the Austrians besieged Venice, which was defended by a volunteer army led by [[Daniele Manin]] and [[Guglielmo Pepe]], who were forced to surrender on 24 August. Pro-independence fighters were [[Belfiore martyrs|hanged en masse in Belfiore]], while the Austrians moved to restore order in central Italy, restoring the princes who had been expelled and re-establishing Papal control over the Legations. The revolutions were thus completely crushed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/manin.htm|title=Daniele Manin|publisher=Ohio.edu|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=11 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311021746/https://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/manin.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Cavour and prospects for unification===
[[File:Garibaldiecavour.JPG|thumb|upright|Garibaldi and Cavour making Italy in a satirical cartoon of 1861]]
Morale was of course badly weakened, but the dream of Risorgimento did not die. Instead, the Italian patriots learned some lessons that made them much more effective at the next opportunity in 1860. Military weakness was glaring, as the small Italian states were completely outmatched by France and Austria.

France was a potential ally, and the patriots realized they had to focus all their attention on expelling Austria first, with a willingness to give the French whatever they wanted in return for essential military intervention. As a result of this France received Nice and Savoy in 1860. Secondly, the patriots realized that the pope was an enemy, and could never be the leader of a united Italy. Thirdly, they realized that republicanism was too weak a force. Unification had to be based on a strong monarchy, and in practice that meant reliance on Piedmont (the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]]) under King [[Victor Emmanuel II]] (1820–1878) of the [[House of Savoy]].

[[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]] (1810–1861) provided critical leadership. He was a modernizer interested in agrarian improvements, banks, railways and free trade. He opened a newspaper as soon as censorship allowed it: ''[[Il Risorgimento (newspaper)|Il Risorgimento]]'' called for the independence of Italy, a league of Italian princes, and moderate reforms. He had the ear of the king and in 1852 became prime minister. He ran an efficient active government, promoting rapid economic modernization while upgrading the administration of the army and the financial and legal systems. He sought out support from patriots across Italy.

In 1855, the kingdom became an ally of [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and [[Second French Empire|France]] in the [[Crimean War]], which gave Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dal Lago |first1=Enrico |title=Lincoln, Cavour, and National Unification: American Republicanism and Italian Liberal Nationalism in Comparative Perspective |journal=The Journal of the Civil War Era |date=2013 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=85–113 |doi=10.1353/cwe.2013.0017 |id={{Project MUSE|499081}} |jstor=26062022 }}</ref><ref>William L. Langer, ed., ''An Encyclopedia of World History''. 4th ed. 1968. pp 704–707.</ref>
{{clear}}

==Towards the Kingdom of Italy==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| image1            = VictorEmmanuel2.jpg
| width1            = 139
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| image2            = Tuminello, Lodovico (1824-1907) - Cavour cropped.jpg
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| footer            = [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]] (left) and [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]] (right), leading figures in the Italian unification, became respectively the first king and first Prime Minister of unified Italy.
}}

===Pisacane fiasco===
In 1857, [[Carlo Pisacane]], an aristocrat from Naples who had embraced Mazzini's ideas, decided to provoke a rising in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]]. His small force landed on the island of [[Ponza]]. It overpowered guards and liberated hundreds of prisoners. In sharp contrast to his hypothetical expectations, there was no local uprising and the invaders were quickly overpowered. Pisacane was killed by angry locals who suspected he was leading a [[Romani people|Romani]] band trying to steal their food.<ref>{{cite book|first=Martin |last=Collier|title=Italian Unification, 1820–71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YG9kZBJdKJwC&pg=PA51|year=2003|publisher=Heinemann|page=51|isbn=978-0435327545}}</ref>

===Second Italian Independence War of 1859 and aftermath===
{{Main|Second Italian War of Independence}}
The Second War of Italian Independence began in April 1859 when the Sardinian Prime Minister [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour|Count Cavour]] found an ally in [[Napoleon III]]. Napoleon III signed a secret alliance and Cavour provoked Austria with military maneuvers and eventually led to the war in April 1859. Cavour called for volunteers to enlist in the Italian liberation. The Austrians planned to use their army to beat the Sardinians before the French could come to their aid. Austria had an army of 140,000 men, while the Sardinians had a mere 70,000 men by comparison. However, the Austrians' numerical strength was outweighed by an ineffectual leadership appointed by the Emperor on the basis of noble lineage, rather than military competency. Their army was slow to enter Piedmont, taking almost ten days to travel the {{convert|80|km}} to [[Turin]]. By this time, the French had reinforced the Sardinians, so the Austrians retreated.

[[File:San Fermo 1859 Gaildrau.jpg|thumb|left|[[Battle of San Fermo]]]]
The Austrians were defeated at the [[Battle of Magenta]] on 4 June and pushed back to [[Lombardy]]. Napoleon III's plans worked and at the [[Battle of Solferino]], France and Sardinia defeated Austria and forced negotiations; at the same time, in the northern part of Lombardy, the Italian volunteers known as the [[Hunters of the Alps]], led by [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], defeated the Austrians at [[Battle of Varese|Varese]] and [[Battle of San Fermo|Como]]. On 12 July, the [[Armistice of Villafranca]] was signed. The settlement, by which Lombardy was annexed to Sardinia, left Austria in control of the Veneto and [[Mantua]]. The final arrangement was ironed out by "back-room" deals. This was because neither France, Austria, nor Sardinia wanted to risk another battle and could not handle further fighting. All of the sides were eventually unhappy with the outcome of the Second War of Italian Unification and expected another conflict in the future.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Avery|first1=Robert|title=The Victorian Web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/history/risorgimento/3.html|access-date=27 March 2015}}</ref> In fact, Napoleon III and Cavour were mutually indebted: the first because he had withdrawn from the Second Italian War of Independence before the expected conquest of [[Venice]], the second because he had allowed the uprisings to spread to the territories of central-northern Italy, thus going beyond what was agreed with the [[Plombières Agreement]].
[[File:Les manifestations pro-italiennes à Nice du 1871.jpg|thumb|Pro-Italian protests in Nice, 1871, during the [[Niçard Vespers]]]]

Sardinia annexed Lombardy from Austria; it later occupied and annexed the [[United Provinces of Central Italy]], consisting of the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]], the [[Duchy of Parma]], the [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio]] and the Papal Legations on 22 March 1860. Sardinia handed Savoy and Nice over to France at the [[Treaty of Turin (1860)|Treaty of Turin]], a decision that was the consequence of the Plombières Agreement, on 24 March 1860, an event that caused the [[Niçard exodus]], which was the emigration of a quarter of the [[Niçard Italians]] to Italy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.montecarlonews.it/2017/08/28/notizie/argomenti/altre-notizie-1/articolo/un-nizzardo-su-quattro-prese-la-via-dellesilio-in-seguito-allunita-ditalia-dice-lo-scrittore.html|title='Un nizzardo su quattro prese la via dell'esilio' in seguito all'unità d'Italia, dice lo scrittore Casalino Pierluigi|date=28 August 2017|access-date=14 May 2021|language=it}}</ref>

[[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] was elected in 1871 in Nice at the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] where he tried to promote the annexation of his hometown to the [[Kingdom of Italy|newborn Italian unitary state]], but he was prevented from speaking.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://storage.canalblog.com/76/72/572678/57843167.png |title=Times article dated February 13, 1871|access-date=20 October 2011}}</ref> Because of this denial, between 1871 and 1872 there were riots in Nice, promoted by the Garibaldini and called "[[Niçard Vespers]]",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philweb.it/i_vespri_nizzardi_del_1871_conferenza_storica_e_annullo_speciale-st1940.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909073731/http://www.philweb.it/i_vespri_nizzardi_del_1871_conferenza_storica_e_annullo_speciale-st1940.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 September 2012|title=I Vespri Nizzardi del 1871: conferenza storica e annullo speciale|access-date=20 October 2011}}</ref> which demanded the annexation of the city and its area to Italy.<ref>J. Woolf Stuart, ''Il risorgimento italiano'', Turin, Einaudi, 1981, p. 44 (In Italian).</ref> Fifteen Nice people who participated in the rebellion were tried and sentenced.<ref>Giuseppe André, ''Nizza negli ultimi quattro anni'', Nice, Editore Gilletta, 1875, pp. 334–335 (In Italian).</ref>

===Expedition of the Thousand===
{{Main|Expedition of the Thousand}}
[[File:Giuseppe Garibaldi 1861.jpg|thumb|[[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times<ref name="scholar and patriot">{{cite web |url={{Google books|iWK7AAAAIAAJ |page=PA133 |keywords=Garibaldi+one+of+the+greatest+generals+of+modern+time |text= |plainurl=yes}}|title=Scholar and Patriot|publisher=Manchester University Press|via=Google Books}}</ref> and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe,<ref name="Garibaldi on Encyclopædia Britannica">{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi |title=Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italian revolutionary) |access-date=6 March 2014 | url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226091529/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi |archive-date=26 February 2014 }}</ref> who commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led to the unification of Italy]]

Thus, by early 1860, only five states remained in Italy—the Austrians in Venetia, the [[Papal States]] (now minus the Legations), the new expanded Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]], and [[San Marino]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Barbagallo|first=Francesco|title=Mezzogiorno e questione meridionale|year=1980|publisher=Guida|location=Napoli|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Seaman|first=L. C. B.|chapter=Proved Only Negative Propositions|title=The Unification of Italy, 1859–1861: Cavour, Mazzini, or Garibaldi?|editor1-last=Delzell|editor1-first=Charles|year=1980|publisher=Hold, Rinehart, and Winston|location=New York|page=72}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Commissione nazionale per la pubblicazione dei carteggi del Conte di Cavour |title=Camillo Cavour: Epistolario |publisher=Olschki |year=2005 |volume=17 |location=Firenze |page=2944 |quote=La Sicilia sarà una delle più belle gemme della sua corona; ed uno degli elementi più vitali della nazione.}}</ref>

[[Francis II of the Two Sicilies]], the son and successor of [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies|Ferdinand II]] (the infamous "King Bomba"), had a well-organized army of 150,000 men. But his father's tyranny had inspired many secret societies, and the kingdom's [[Swiss mercenaries]] were unexpectedly recalled home under the terms of a new Swiss law that forbade Swiss citizens to serve as mercenaries. This left Francis with only his mostly unreliable native troops. It was a critical opportunity for the unification movement. In April 1860, separate insurrections began in [[Messina]] and [[Palermo]] in Sicily, both of which had demonstrated a history of opposing Neapolitan rule. These rebellions were easily suppressed by loyal troops.

In the meantime, [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], a native of Nice, was deeply resentful of the French annexation of his home city. He hoped to use his supporters to regain the territory. Cavour, terrified of Garibaldi provoking a war with France, persuaded Garibaldi to instead use his forces in the Sicilian rebellions. On 6 May 1860, Garibaldi and his cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (called ''[[Redshirts (Italy)|I Mille]]''), steamed from [[Quarto dei Mille|Quarto]] near [[Genoa]], and, after a stop in [[Talamone]] on 11 May, landed near [[Marsala]] on the west coast of Sicily.

Near [[Salemi]], Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of rebels, and the combined forces defeated the [[Army of the Two Sicilies]] at the [[Battle of Calatafimi]] on 13 May. Within three days, the invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. On 14 May Garibaldi proclaimed himself [[Dictatorship of Garibaldi|dictator of Sicily]], in the name of Victor Emmanuel. After waging various successful but hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon the Sicilian capital of Palermo, announcing his arrival by beacon-fires kindled at night. On 27 May the force began the [[Siege of Palermo]], while a mass uprising of street and barricade fighting broke out within the city.

[[File:Battle of Calatafimi.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Calatafimi]]]]
With Palermo deemed insurgent, Neapolitan general [[Ferdinando Lanza]], arriving in Sicily with some 25,000 troops, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. With the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice was declared, leading to the Neapolitan troops' departure and surrender of the town to Garibaldi and his much smaller army.

This resounding success demonstrated the weakness of the Neapolitan government. Garibaldi's fame spread and many Italians began to consider him a national hero. Doubt, confusion, and dismay overtook the Neapolitan court—the king hastily summoned his ministry and offered to restore an earlier constitution, but these efforts failed to rebuild the people's trust in [[House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies|Bourbon]] governance.

Six weeks after the surrender of Palermo, Garibaldi attacked Messina. Within a week, its citadel surrendered. Having conquered Sicily, Garibaldi proceeded to the mainland, crossing the [[Strait of Messina]] with the Neapolitan fleet at hand. The garrison at [[Reggio Calabria]] promptly surrendered. As he marched northward, the populace everywhere hailed him, and military resistance faded: on 18 and 21 August, the people of [[Basilicata]] and [[Apulia]], two regions of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, independently declared their annexation to the Kingdom of Italy. At the end of August, Garibaldi was at [[Cosenza]], and, on 5 September, at [[Eboli]], near [[Salerno]]. Meanwhile, [[Naples]] had declared a state of siege, and on 6 September the king gathered the 4,000 troops still faithful to him and retreated over the [[Volturno|River Volturno]]. The next day, Garibaldi, with a few followers, entered by train into Naples, where the people openly welcomed him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/spedizione-dei-mille/|title=Spedizione Dei Mille nell'Enciclopedia Treccani|work=Treccani, l'Enciclopedia italiana|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

===Defeat of the Kingdom of Naples===
[[File:Napoli Castel Nuovo museo civico - ingresso di Garibaldi a Napoli - Wenzel bis.jpg|thumb|People cheering as Garibaldi enters Naples]]
Although Garibaldi had easily taken the capital, the Neapolitan army had not joined the rebellion ''en masse'', holding firm along the River Volturno. Garibaldi's irregular bands of about 25,000 men could not drive away the king or take the fortresses of [[Capua]] and [[Gaeta]] without the help of the [[Royal Sardinian Army]]. The Sardinian army, however, could only arrive by traversing the Papal States, which extended across the entire center of the peninsula. Ignoring the political will of the [[Holy See]], Garibaldi announced his intent to proclaim a "Kingdom of Italy" from [[Rome]], the capital city of [[Pope Pius IX]]. Seeing this as a threat to the domain of the Catholic Church, Pius threatened [[excommunication]] for those who supported such an effort. Afraid that Garibaldi would attack Rome, Catholics worldwide sent money and volunteers for the Papal Army, which was commanded by General [[Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière|Louis Lamoricière]], a French exile.

The settling of the peninsular standoff now rested with Napoleon III. If he let Garibaldi have his way, Garibaldi would probably end the temporal sovereignty of the pope and make Rome the capital of Italy. Napoleon, however, may have arranged with Cavour to let the King of Sardinia free to take possession of Naples, [[Umbria]] and the other provinces, provided that Rome and the "[[Patrimony of Saint Peter]]" were left intact.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his102/notes/garibaldi.html|title=Garibaldi and the Risorgimento|first=Charles T. |last=Evans|publisher=Novaonline.nvcc.edu|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

It was in this situation that a Sardinian force of two army corps, under generals [[Manfredo Fanti]] and [[Enrico Cialdini]], marched to the frontier of the Papal States, its objective being not Rome but Naples. The Papal troops under Lamoricière advanced against Cialdini, but were quickly defeated at the [[Battle of Castelfidardo]] and besieged in the fortress of [[Ancona]], finally surrendering on 29 September. On 9 October, Victor Emmanuel arrived and took command. There was no longer a Papal army to oppose him, and the march southward proceeded unopposed.

[[File:With Victor Emmanuel.jpg|thumb|[[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel]] meets Garibaldi near [[Teano]].]]
Garibaldi distrusted the pragmatic Cavour since Cavour was the man ultimately responsible for orchestrating the French annexation of the city of Nice, which was his birthplace. Nevertheless, he accepted the command of Victor Emmanuel. When the king entered [[Sessa Aurunca]] at the head of his army, Garibaldi willingly handed over his dictatorial power. After greeting Victor Emmanuel in [[Teano]] with the title of [[King of Italy]], Garibaldi entered Naples riding beside the king. Garibaldi then retired to the island of [[Caprera]], while the remaining work of unifying the peninsula was left to Victor Emmanuel.

The progress of the Sardinian army compelled Francis II to give up his line along the river, and he eventually took refuge with his best troops in the fortress of Gaeta. His courage boosted by his resolute young wife, Queen [[Marie Sophie of Bavaria|Marie Sophie]], Francis mounted a stubborn defence that lasted three months. But European allies refused to provide him with aid, food and munitions became scarce, and disease set in, so the garrison was forced to surrender. Nonetheless, ragtag groups of Neapolitans loyal to Francis fought on against the Italian government for years to come.

[[File:Corteo Reale all' Apertura del Parlamento del Regno d' Italia.jpg|thumb|[[Carlo Bossoli]]: the royal procession at the opening of the [[Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy]]]]
The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the brink of fruition—only [[Lazio]] and [[Venetia (region)|Venetia]] remained to be added. On 18 February 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled the deputies of the first [[Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy|Italian Parliament]] in Turin. On 17 March 1861, the [[Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy|Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel King of Italy]], and on 27 March 1861 Rome was declared capital of Italy, although it was not yet in the new kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/regno-delle-due-sicilie/ |title=Regno Delle Due Sicilie nell'Enciclopedia Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref>

Borrowing from the old [[Latin]] title ''[[Pater Patriae]]'' of the [[Roman emperor]]s, the [[Italians]] gave to King Victor Emmanuel II the epithet of ''[[Father of the Fatherland]]'' ({{langx|it|Padre della Patria}}).<ref name="raicultura">{{cite web|url=https://www.raicultura.it/storia/articoli/2019/04/Vittorio-Emanuele-II-bb3018d0-6851-47f8-bedd-9211db07e064.html|title=Vittorio Emanuele II|language=it|access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref> Three months later Cavour died, having seen his life's work nearly completed. When he was given the last rites, Cavour purportedly said: "Italy is made. All is safe."{{sfn|Holt|1971|p=258}}

===The repercussions on diplomatic relations===
[[File:Proclamation_of_the_Kingdom_of_Italy.jpg|thumb|right|Painting depicting the [[proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]] in 1861.]]
The disapproval of the various European states culminated in the direct participation of the Sardinian army in the [[Expedition of the Thousand]].<ref name=gnosis>{{cite web|url=http://www.sisde.it/Gnosis/Rivista26.nsf/ServNavig/57|title=Il problema della sicurezza ed il riconoscimento internazionale del Regno d'Italia|access-date=12 August 2011|language=it|archive-date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210083512/http://www.sisde.it/Gnosis/Rivista26.nsf/ServNavig/57|url-status=dead}}</ref> In reaction, [[Spain]] and the [[Russian Empire]] interrupted diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Sardinia, while the [[Austrian Empire]], which had not maintained relations with this country since 1859, after the Second Italian War of Independence,<ref name=gnosis/> sent its troops to the [[Mincio]] border. [[France]] made no hostile statements, but recalled its ambassador. [[Queen Victoria]] and her prime minister [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|John Russell]] convinced the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] not to hinder the ongoing process of Italian unification.<ref name=cr>{{cite web|url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1860i.htm|title=Regno delle Due Sicilie - ultimo atto|access-date=12 August 2011|language=it|archive-date=2 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202132806/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1860i.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 26 October 1860, the same day as the meeting in Teano between the king and Garibaldi, Austria organized a congress in [[Warsaw]] to apply measures against the Kingdom of Sardinia, without success; held back by this crisis, Cavour was unable to be present at Teano.<ref name=gnosis/>

After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[Swiss Confederation]] were the first to recognize the new state (30 March 1861), followed by the [[United States]] on 13 April.<ref name=gnosis/><ref name="a150">{{cite web|language=it|url=http://www.150anni.it/webi/index.php?s=36&wid=101|title=La costruzione dello Stato e i nuovi indirizzi politici, Il difficile riconoscimento diplomatico|access-date=12 August 2011}}</ref> France negotiated the presence of French troops in Rome and recognized the Kingdom of Italy on 15 June, shortly after Cavour's death. It was then [[Portugal]]'s turn on 27 June, followed by [[Greece]], the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the [[Scandinavia]]n countries. The recognition of the [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]] occurred in two phases: they recognized the new title of Victor Emmanuel II in July, then the kingdom in November, after a long clash between conservatives and liberals in the Belgian parliament over the latter.<ref name="a150"/>

===Roman Question===
{{Main|Roman Question}}
Mazzini was discontented with the perpetuation of monarchical government and continued to agitate for a republic. With the motto "Free from the [[Alps]] to the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]]", the unification movement set its gaze on Rome and Venice. There were obstacles, however. A challenge against the pope's temporal dominion was viewed with profound distrust by Catholics around the world, and there were French troops stationed in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the international repercussions of attacking the Papal States, and discouraged his subjects from participating in revolutionary ventures with such intentions.{{sfn|Smith|1969|pp=89–100}}

Nonetheless, Garibaldi believed that the government would support him if he attacked Rome. Frustrated at inaction by the king, and bristling over perceived snubs, he came out of retirement to organize a new venture. In June 1862, he sailed from Genoa and landed again at Palermo, where he gathered volunteers for the campaign, under the slogan ''o Roma o Morte'' ('either Rome or Death'). The garrison of Messina, loyal to the king's instructions, barred their passage to the mainland. Garibaldi's force, now numbering two thousand, turned south and set sail from [[Catania]]. Garibaldi declared that he would enter Rome as a victor or perish beneath its walls. He landed at [[Melito di Porto Salvo|Melito]] on 14 August and marched at once into the [[Calabria]]n mountains.

[[File:The Injured Garibaldi in the Aspromonte Mountains (oil on canvas).jpg|thumb|''The Injured Garibaldi in the [[Aspromonte|Aspromonte Mountains]]'' (oil on canvas), credited to [[Gerolamo Induno]]]]
Far from supporting this endeavour, the Italian government was quite disapproving. General Cialdini dispatched a division of the regular army, under Colonel Pallavicino, against the volunteer bands. On 28 August the two forces met at [[Battle of Aspromonte|Aspromonte]]. One of the regulars fired a chance shot, and several volleys followed, but Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire on fellow subjects of the Kingdom of Italy. The volunteers suffered several casualties, and Garibaldi himself was wounded; many were taken prisoner. Garibaldi was taken by steamer to [[Varignano, La Spezia|Varignano]], where he was honorably imprisoned for a time, but finally released.{{sfn|Smith|1969|pp=63–65}}

Meanwhile, Victor Emmanuel sought a safer means to the acquisition of the remaining Papal territory. He negotiated with the Emperor Napoleon for the removal of the French troops from Rome through a treaty. They agreed to the [[September Convention]] in September 1864, by which Napoleon agreed to withdraw the troops within two years. The pope was to expand his own army during that time so as to be self-sufficient. In December 1866, the last of the French troops departed from Rome, in spite of the efforts of the pope to retain them. By their withdrawal, Italy (excluding Venetia and Savoy) was freed from the presence of foreign soldiers.<ref>John W. Bush, ''Venetia Redeemed; Franco-Italian Relations, 1864–1866'' (Syracuse University Press, 1967).</ref>

The seat of government was moved in 1865 from [[Turin]], the old Sardinian capital, to [[Florence]]. This arrangement created such disturbances in Turin that the king was forced to leave that city hastily for his new capital.{{sfn|Smith|1969|pp=65–66}}

==Third War of Independence (1866)==
{{Main|Third Italian War of Independence}}
{{See also|Plebiscite of Veneto of 1866}}
[[File:Illustrated London News - 11 agosto 1866. Combattimento fra garibaldini e austriaci a Bezzecca.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Bezzecca]]]]

In the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866, Austria contested with [[Prussia]] the position of leadership among the German states. The Kingdom of Italy seized the opportunity to capture [[Venetia (region)|Venetia]] from Austrian rule and allied itself with Prussia.{{sfn|Smith|1969|pp=76–82}} Austria tried to persuade the Italian government to accept Venetia in exchange for non-intervention. However, on 8 April, Italy and Prussia signed an agreement that supported Italy's acquisition of Venetia, and on 20 June Italy issued a declaration of war on Austria. Within the context of Italian unification, the Austro-Prussian war is called the ''Third Independence War'', after the ''First'' (1848) and the ''Second'' (1859).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.welcometorome.net/en/about-rome/history/italian-risorgimento|title=Italian Risorgimento|publisher=Welcometorome.net|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=30 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930211556/http://www.welcometorome.net/en/about-rome/history/italian-risorgimento|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Victor Emmanuel hastened to lead an army across the [[Mincio]] to the invasion of Venetia, while Garibaldi was to [[Invasion of Trentino (1866)|invade the Tyrol]] with his [[Hunters of the Alps]]. The Italian army encountered the Austrians at [[Battle of Custoza (1866)|Custoza]] on 24 June and suffered a defeat. On 20 July the [[Regia Marina]] was defeated in the [[Battle of Lissa (1866)|Battle of Lissa]]. The following day, Garibaldi's volunteers defeated an Austrian force in the [[Battle of Bezzecca]], and moved toward [[Trento]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1800s/p/lissa.htm|title=Battle of Lissa – Third Italian War Battle of Lissa|first=Kennedy|last=Hickman|work=About|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006083944/http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1800s/p/lissa.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Meanwhile, [[Minister President of Prussia|Prussian Minister President]] [[Otto von Bismarck]] saw that his own ends in the war had been achieved, and signed an armistice with Austria on 27 July. Italy followed, officially [[Armistice of Cormons|laying down its arms]] on 12 August. Garibaldi was recalled from his successful march and resigned with a brief telegram reading only "''Obbedisco''" ('I obey').

[[File:Einzug Vittorio Emanuels in Venedig 1.jpg|thumb|[[Victor Emmanuel II]] in Venice]]
Prussia's success on the northern front obliged Austria to cede Venetia (present-day [[Veneto]] and parts of [[Friuli]]) and the city of [[Mantua]] (the last remnant of the ''[[Quadrilatero]]''). Under the terms of a peace treaty signed in [[Vienna]] on 12 October, Emperor [[Franz Joseph]] had already agreed to cede Venetia to Napoleon III in exchange for non-intervention in the Austro-Prussian War, and thus Napoleon ceded Venetia to Italy on 19 October, in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the [[Annexation of Savoy|French annexation]] of [[Savoy]] and [[Nice]].

In the [[Treaty of Vienna (1866)|Treaty of Vienna]], it was written that the annexation of Venetia would have become effective only after a [[Plebiscite of Veneto of 1866|referendum]]—taken on 21 and 22 October—to let the Venetian people express their will about being annexed or not to the Kingdom of Italy. Historians suggest that the referendum in Venetia was held under military pressure,<ref>G. Thaon di Revel: "La cessione del Veneto{{snd}}ricordi di un commissario piemontese incaricato alle trattative" (translation: "The cession of Veneto{{snd}}memories of the piedmontese commissary for the negotiations"). Academic Press, 2002</ref> as a mere 0.01% of voters (69 out of more than 642,000 ballots) voted against the annexation.<ref>Beggiato, E.: "1866: la grande truffa" (translation: "1866: the great deceit"). Venice Academic Press, 1999</ref>

Austrian forces put up some opposition to the invading Italians, to little effect. Victor Emmanuel entered Venice and Venetian land, and performed an act of homage in the [[Piazza San Marco]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/history/risorgimento/4.html|title=The Austro-Prussian War and Third War of Italian Unification (1866)|publisher=Victorian Web|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

==Rome==

===Mentana and Villa Glori===
[[File:Garibaldi at Mentana, 3rd November 1867.jpg|thumb|right|Garibaldi at [[Battle of Mentana|Mentana]], 3 November 1867]]
The national party, with Garibaldi at its head, still aimed at the possession of Rome, as the historic capital of the peninsula. In 1867 Garibaldi made a second attempt to capture Rome, but the Papal army, strengthened with a new French auxiliary force, defeated his poorly armed volunteers at [[Battle of Mentana|Mentana]]. Subsequently, a French garrison remained in [[Civitavecchia]] until August 1870, when it was recalled following the outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]].

Before the defeat at Mentana on 3 November 1867,<ref>Procacci (1973, p. 331)</ref> Enrico Cairoli, his brother Giovanni, and 70 companions had made a daring attempt to take Rome. The group had embarked in [[Terni]] and floated down the [[Tiber]]. Their arrival in Rome was to coincide with an uprising inside the city. On 22 October 1867, the revolutionaries inside Rome seized control of the [[Capitoline Hill]] and of [[Piazza Colonna]]. Unfortunately for the Cairoli and their companions, by the time they arrived at Villa Glori, on the northern outskirts of Rome, the uprising had already been suppressed. During the night of 22 October 1867, the group was surrounded by [[Papal Zouaves]], and Giovanni was severely wounded. Enrico was mortally wounded and bled to death in Giovanni's arms.

With Cairoli dead, command was assumed by Giovanni Tabacchi who had retreated with the remaining volunteers into the villa, where they continued to fire at the papal soldiers. These also retreated in the evening to Rome. The survivors retreated to the positions of those led by Garibaldi on the Italian border.

===Memorial===
At the summit of Villa Glori, near the spot where Enrico died, there is a plain white column dedicated to the Cairoli brothers and their 70 companions. About 200 meters to the right from the Terrazza del Pincio, there is a bronze monument of Giovanni holding the dying Enrico in his arm. A plaque lists the names of their companions. Giovanni never recovered from his wounds and from the tragic events of 1867. According to an eyewitness,<ref>[[Michele Rosi]], ''I Cairoli'', L. Capelli Ed., Bologna, 1929, pp. 223–224</ref> when Giovanni died on 11 September 1869:

{{blockquote|text=In the last moments, he had a vision of Garibaldi and seemed to greet him with enthusiasm. I heard (so says a friend who was present) him say three times: "The union of the French to the papal political supporters was the terrible fact!", he was thinking about Mentana. He called Enrico many times, that he might help him, then he said: "but we will certainly win; we will go to Rome!"}}

===Capture of Rome===
{{Main|Capture of Rome}}
[[File:Porta Pia Pagliari Vizzotto.JPG|thumb|[[Capture of Rome]]]]

In July 1870, the [[Franco-Prussian War]] began. In early August, the French Emperor [[Napoleon III]] recalled his garrison from Rome, thus no longer providing protection to the Papal State. Widespread public demonstrations illustrated the demand that the Italian government take Rome. The Italian government took no direct action until the collapse of the [[Second French Empire]] at the [[Battle of Sedan]]. King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count [[Gustavo Ponza di San Martino]] to Pius IX with a personal letter offering a face-saving proposal that would have allowed the peaceful entry of the Italian Army into Rome, under the guise of offering protection to the pope. The Papacy, however, exhibited something less than enthusiasm for the plan:

{{blockquote|text=The pope's reception of San Martino (10 September 1870) was unfriendly. Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King's letter upon the table he exclaimed, "Fine loyalty! You are all a set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith." He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King. After, growing calmer, he exclaimed: "I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome!". San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day.<ref>{{cite book|last=De Cesare |first=Raffaele|title=The Last Days of Papal Rome|url=https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft|publisher= Archibald Constable & Co|year=1909|page=[https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft/page/444 444]}}</ref>}}

The [[Royal Italian Army]], commanded by General [[Raffaele Cadorna]], crossed the Papal frontier on 11 September and advanced slowly toward Rome, hoping that a peaceful entry could be negotiated. The Italian Army reached the [[Aurelian Walls]] on 19 September and placed Rome under a state of siege. Although now convinced of his unavoidable defeat, Pius IX remained intransigent to the bitter end and forced his troops to put up a token resistance. On 20 September, after a cannonade of three hours had breached the Aurelian Walls at [[Porta Pia]], the [[Bersaglieri]] entered Rome and marched down ''Via Pia'', which was subsequently renamed ''Via XX Settembre''. Forty-nine Italian soldiers and four officers, and nineteen papal troops, died. Rome and [[Latium]] were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy after a plebiscite held on 2 October. The results of this plebiscite were accepted by decree of 9 October.

[[File:Quirinale palazzo e obelisco con dioscuri Roma.jpg|thumb|The [[Quirinal Palace]] in [[Rome]] became the official residence (royal residence of the [[Kings of Italy]] and after the [[Italian constitutional referendum, 1946]] residence and workplace for the [[President of Italy|Presidents of the Italian Republic]]).]]
Initially the Italian government had offered to let the pope keep the [[Leonine City]] under the [[Law of Guarantees]], but the pope rejected the offer because acceptance would have been an implied endorsement of the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom's rule over his former domain. Pius IX declared himself a [[prisoner in the Vatican]], although he was not actually restrained from coming and going. Rather, being deposed and stripped of much of his former power also removed a measure of personal protection—if he had walked the streets of Rome, he might have been in danger from political opponents who had formerly kept their views private. Officially, the capital was not moved from Florence to Rome until July 1871.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.150anni-lanostrastoria.it/index.php/presa-di-roma|title=La breccia di Porta Pia|publisher=150anni-lanostrastoria.it|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=10 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410002755/http://www.150anni-lanostrastoria.it/index.php/presa-di-roma|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Historian Raffaele de Cesare made the following observations about Italian unification:
{{blockquote|text=The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon's feet{{snd}}that dragged him into the abyss. He never forgot, even in August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign of a Catholic country, that he had been made Emperor, and was supported by the votes of the Conservatives and the influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not to abandon the [[Pontiff]].<ref>{{cite book|last=De Cesare |first=Raffaele|title=The Last Days of Papal Rome|url=https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft|publisher=Archibald Constable & Co|year=1909|page=[https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft/page/440 440]}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|text=For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign of Rome, where he had many friends and relations…. Without him the temporal power would never have been reconstituted, nor, being reconstituted, would have endured.<ref>{{cite book|last=De Cesare |first=Raffaele|title=The Last Days of Papal Rome|url=https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft|publisher= Archibald Constable & Co|year=1909|page=[https://archive.org/details/thelastdaysofpap00cesauoft/page/443 443]}}</ref>}}

==Problems==
Unification was achieved entirely in terms of Piedmont's interests. Martin Clark says, "It was Piedmontization all around."{{sfn|Clark|2010|p=86}} Cavour died unexpectedly in June 1861, at 50, and most of the many promises that he made to regional authorities to induce them to join the newly unified Italian kingdom were ignored. The new Kingdom of Italy was structured by renaming the old Kingdom of Sardinia and annexing all the new provinces into its structures. The first king was Victor Emmanuel II, who kept his old title.

National and regional officials were all appointed by Piedmont. A few regional leaders succeeded to high positions in the new national government, but the top bureaucratic and military officials were mostly Piedmontese. The national capital was briefly moved to Florence and finally to Rome, one of the cases of Piedmont losing out.

However, Piedmontese tax rates and regulations, diplomats and officials were imposed on all of Italy. The constitution was Piedmont's [[Statuto Albertino|old constitution]]. The document was generally liberal and was welcomed by liberal elements. However, its anticlerical provisions were resented in the pro-clerical regions in places such as around Venice, Rome, and Naples—as well as the island of Sicily. Cavour had promised there would be regional and municipal, local governments, but all the promises were broken in 1861.

The first decade of the kingdom saw [[Brigandage in Southern Italy after 1861|savage insurrections]] in Sicily and in the Naples region. Hearder claimed that failed efforts to protest unification involved "a mixture of spontaneous peasant movement and a Bourbon-clerical reaction directed by the old authorities".{{sfn|Hearder|1983|p=240}}

The pope lost Rome in 1870 and ordered the Catholic Church not to co-operate with the new government, [[Lateran Treaty|a decision fully reversed only in 1929]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kertzer |first1=David I. |title=Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes, the Kings, and Garibaldi's Rebels in the Struggle to Rule Modern Italy |date=2004 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-61919-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8SESoaxxbJcC&pg=PA59 |pages=59–72 }}</ref> Most people for Risorgimento had wanted strong provinces, but they got a strong central state instead. The inevitable long-run results were a severe weakness of national unity and a politicized system based on mutually hostile regional violence. Such factors remain in the 21st century.{{sfn|Clark|2010|pp=86–92}}

===Ruling and representing southern Italy===
From the spring of 1860 to the summer of 1861, a major challenge that the [[Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia|Piedmontese parliament]] faced on national unification was how they should govern and control the southern regions of the country that were frequently represented and described by northern Italian correspondents as "corrupt", "barbaric", and "uncivilized".{{sfn|Moe|2002|p=165}} In response to the depictions of [[southern Italy]], the Piedmontese parliament had to decide whether it should investigate the southern regions to better understand the social and political situations there or it should establish jurisdiction and order by using mostly force.{{sfn|Moe|2002|p=178}}

The dominance of letters sent from the northern Italian correspondents that deemed southern Italy to be "so far from the ideas of progress and civilization" ultimately induced the Piedmontese parliament to choose the latter course of action, which effectively illustrated the intimate connection between representation and rule.{{sfn|Moe|2002|p=166}} In essence, the northern Italians' "representation of the south as a land of barbarism (variously qualified as indecent, lacking in 'public conscience', ignorant, superstitious, etc.)" provided the Piedmontese with the justification to rule the southern regions on the pretext of implementing a superior, more civilized, "Piedmontese morality".{{sfn|Moe|2002|p=166}}

==Historiography==
{{See also|Brigantaggio|Southern question}}
[[File:Francesco Hayez 048.jpg|thumb|Massimo d'Azeglio, a [[Moderate Party (Italy)|moderate]] liberal statesman, novelist, and painter (1798–1866)]]

Italian unification is still a topic of debate. According to [[Massimo d'Azeglio]], centuries of foreign domination created remarkable differences in Italian society, and the role of the newly formed government was to face these differences and to create a unified Italian society. Still today the most famous quote of Massimo d'Azeglio is, "L'Italia è fatta. Restano da fare gli italiani" ('Italy has been made. Now it remains to make Italians').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/massimo-d-azeglio/ |title=Massimo D Azeglio nell'Enciclopedia Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref>

The economist and politician [[Francesco Saverio Nitti]] criticized the newly created state for not considering the substantial economic differences between [[northern Italy]], a [[Free market|free-market economy]], and [[southern Italy]], a state [[protectionism|protectionist]] economy, when integrating the two. When the Kingdom of Italy extended the free-market economy to the rest of the country, the south's economy collapsed under the weight of the north's. Nitti contended that this change should have been much more gradual in order to allow the birth of an adequate entrepreneurial class able to make strong investments and initiatives in the south. These mistakes, he felt, were the cause of the economic and social problems which came to be known as the [[southern question]] (''Questione Meridionale'').<ref>Francesco Saverio Nitti, L'Italia all'alba del secolo XX, Casa Editrice Nazionale Roux e Viarengo, Torino-Roma, 1901{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nitti |first1=Francesco Saverio |last2=Masi |first2=Domenico De |title=Napoli e la questione meridionale, 1903-2005 |date=2004 |publisher=Guida Editori |isbn=978-88-7188-876-7 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

The politician, historian, and writer [[Gaetano Salvemini]] commented that although Italian unification had been a strong opportunity for both a moral and economic rebirth of Italy's ''Mezzogiorno'' ([[southern Italy]]), because of a lack of understanding and action on the part of politicians, corruption and organized crime flourished in the south.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Riall |first1=Lucy |title=Which road to the south? Revisionists revisit the Mezzogiorno |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=January 2000 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=89–100 |doi=10.1080/135457100362670 }}</ref> The Marxist theorist [[Antonio Gramsci]] criticized Italian unification for the limited presence of the masses in politics, as well as the lack of modern [[land reform]] in Italy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cammett |first1=John M. |title=Two Recent Polemics on the Character of the Italian Risorgimento |journal=Science & Society |date=1963 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=433–457 |doi=10.1177/003682376302700403 |jstor=40400981 }}</ref>

[[Revisionism of Risorgimento]] produced a clear radicalization of Italy in the mid-20th century, following the fall of the [[House of Savoy|Savoy monarchy]] and [[fascism]] during World War II. Reviews of the historical facts concerning Italian unification's successes and failures continue to be undertaken by domestic and foreign academic authors, including [[Denis Mack Smith]], [[Christopher Duggan (historian)|Christopher Duggan]], and [[Lucy Riall]]. Recent work emphasizes the central importance of nationalism.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Silvana |editor-last1=Patriarca |editor-first2=Lucy |editor-last2=Riall |title=The Risorgimento Revisited: Nationalism and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5NoA_2uAKkC&pg=PA1|year=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=1–3|isbn=978-0230248007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/13532944.2014.935092| title=Recent works on the Risorgimento Edited by Andrea del Cornò and Nick Carter – the Risorgimento Revisited: Nationalism and Culture in Nineteenth-century Italy, edited by Silvana Patriarca and Lucy Riall, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2012, xii +303 pp., £67.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0230248007| journal=Modern Italy| volume=19| issue=3| pages=323–324| year=2014| last1=Biagini| first1=Eugenio F.| s2cid=232397474}}</ref>

==Risorgimento and Italian irredentism==
{{Main|Italian irredentism}}

===Origins of Italian irredentism===
[[File:SetteGiugno2009.jpg|thumb|The [[Sette Giugno]] monument, symbol of the pro-[[Italian Maltese]]]]
It can be argued that Italian unification was never truly completed in the 19th century. Even after the [[Capture of Rome]] (1871), the final event of the unification of Italy, many ethnic [[Italian language|Italian speakers]] ([[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino-Alto Adigan]] Italians, [[Savoyard Italians]], [[Corfiot Italians]], [[Niçard Italians]], [[Swiss Italians]], [[Corsican Italians]], [[Maltese Italians]], [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]]) remained outside the borders of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] and this situation created the [[Italian irredentism]].

The Corsican revolutionary [[Pasquale Paoli]] was called "the precursor of Italian irredentism" by [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] because he was the first to promote the Italian language and socio-culture (the main characteristics of Italian irredentism) in his island; Paoli wanted the [[Italian language]] to be the official language of the newly founded [[Corsican Republic]].<ref>N. Tommaseo. "Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli" (in Archivio storico italiano, 1st series, vol. XI).</ref>

The term ''Risorgimento'' refers to the domestic reorganization of the stratified Italian identity into a unified, national front. The word literally means 'rising again' and was an ideological movement which strove to spark national pride, leading to political oppositionalism to foreign rule and influence. There is contention on its actual impact in Italy, some Scholars arguing it was a liberalizing time for 19th century Italian culture, while others speculate that although it was a patriotic revolution, it only tangibly aided the upper-class and [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] publics without actively benefitting the lower classes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Risorgimento {{!}} Italian history|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Risorgimento|access-date=7 July 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>

''[[Italia irredenta]]'' was an Italian [[Nationalism|nationalist]] opinion movement that emerged after Italian unification. It advocated irredentism among the Italian people as well as other nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a movement; it is also known as "Italian irredentism". Not a formal organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its "natural borders", meaning that the country would need to incorporate all areas predominantly consisting of ethnic Italians within the near vicinity outside its borders. Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=alison-chapman-on-il-risorgimento|title=Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"|author=Felluga|publisher=Branchcollective.org|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

At the beginning, Italian irredentism promoted the annexation to Italy of territories where Italians formed the absolute majority of the population, but retained by the [[Austrian Empire]] after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] in 1866. During [[World War One]] the main "irredent lands" (''terre irredente'') were considered to be the provinces of [[Trento]] and [[Trieste]] and, in a narrow sense, irredentists referred to the Italian patriots living in these two areas.

The term was later expanded to also include multilingual and multiethnic areas, where Italians were a relative majority or a substantial minority, within the northern Italian region encompassed by the Alps, with [[Germans|German]], [[Italians|Italian]], [[Slovenes|Slovene]], [[Croats|Croatian]], [[Ladin people|Ladin]] and [[Istro-Romanians|Istro-Romanian]] population, such as [[South Tyrol]], [[Istria]], [[Gorizia and Gradisca]] and part of [[Dalmatia]]. The claims were further extended also to the city of [[Rijeka|Fiume]] (see ''[[Impresa di Fiume]]''), [[Corsica]], the island of [[Malta]], the [[County of Nice]] and [[Italian Switzerland]].

Many [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]] looked with sympathy towards the Risorgimento movement that fought for the unification of Italy.<ref name="corsadelricordo">{{cite web|url=http://www.corsadelricordo.it/la-storia|title=Trieste, Istria, Fiume e Dalmazia: una terra contesa|access-date=2 June 2021|language=it|archive-date=5 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605202838/http://corsadelricordo.it/la-storia|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, after the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] (1866), when the [[Veneto]] and [[Friuli]] regions were ceded by the [[Austrian Empire|Austrians]] to the newly formed [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Kingdom Italy]], Istria and Dalmatia remained part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise of [[Italian irredentism]] among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the [[Julian March]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]] and [[Dalmatia]] with Italy. The Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia supported the Italian Risorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.<ref name="ReferenceB">''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971</ref> During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]] outlined a wide-ranging project aimed at the [[Germanization]] or [[Slavization]] of the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:<ref>''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971, vol. 2, p. 297. Citazione completa della fonte e traduzione in Luciano Monzali, ''Italiani di Dalmazia. Dal Risorgimento alla Grande Guerra'', Le Lettere, Firenze 2004, p. 69.)</ref>
[[File:VenetianDalmatia1797.jpg|thumb|400px|Austrian linguistic map from 1896. In green the areas where [[Slavs]] were the majority of the population, in orange the areas where [[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]] were the majority of the population. The boundaries of [[Venetian Dalmatia]] in 1797 are delimited with blue dots.]]

{{blockquote|text=His Majesty expressed the precise order that action be taken decisively against the influence of the Italian elements still present in some regions of the Crown and, appropriately occupying the posts of public, judicial, masters employees as well as with the influence of the press, work in [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|South Tyrol]], [[Dalmatia]] and [[Austrian Littoral|Littoral]] for the Germanization and Slavization of these territories according to the circumstances, with energy and without any regard. His Majesty calls the central offices to the strong duty to proceed in this way to what has been established.|author=|source=Franz Joseph I of Austria, Council of the Crown of 12 November 1866<ref name="ReferenceB">''Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi'', Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst 1971</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jürgen Baurmann, Hartmut Gunther and Ulrich Knoop| title=Homo scribens : Perspektiven der Schriftlichkeitsforschung | year= 1993 |isbn= 3484311347|page=279| publisher=Walter de Gruyter |language=de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3tCTXoeAysC&pg=279}}</ref>}}

[[Istrian Italians]] made up about a third of the population in 1900.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Istria | volume= 14 | pages = 886&ndash;887 |short= 1}}</ref> Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial local ethnic Italian population ([[Dalmatian Italians]]). According to Austrian census, the Dalmatian Italians formed 12.5% of the population in 1865.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peričić |first1=Šime |title=O broju Talijana/talijanaša u Dalmaciji XIX. stoljeća |trans-title=On the number of Italians in Dalmatia in the 19th century |journal=Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru |date=19 September 2003 |issue=45 |pages=327–355 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/12136 |language=hr }}</ref> In the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, Istria had a population of 57.8% Slavic-speakers (Croat and Slovene), and 38.1% Italian speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919 |access-date=10 May 2021 |archive-date=29 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |url-status=dead }}</ref> For the Austrian [[Kingdom of Dalmatia]], (i.e. [[Dalmatia]]), the 1910 numbers were 96.2% Slavic speakers and 2.8% Italian speakers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?/de/datenbank|title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank|archive-date=29 May 2013}}</ref>

The Italian population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city of [[Split, Croatia|Split]] in 1890 there were 1,971 Dalmatian Italians (9% of the population), in [[Zadar]] 7,672 (27%), in [[Šibenik]] 1,090 (5%), in [[Kotor]] 646 (12%) and in [[Dubrovnik]] 356 (3%).<ref name="Perselli">{{Cite work |first=Guerrino |last=Perselli |url=https://crsrv.org/editoria/etnia/i-censimenti-della-popolazione-dellistria-con-fiume-e-trieste-e-di-alcune-citta-della-dalmazia-tra-il-1850-e-il-1936/ |title=I censimenti della popolazione dell'Istria, con Fiume e Trieste e di alcune città della Dalmazia tra il 1850 e il 1936 |publisher=Centro di Ricerche Storiche - Rovigno, Unione Italiana - Fiume, Università Popolare di Trieste, Trieste-Rovigno |year=1993}}</ref> In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Dalmatian Italians experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, in [[Rab (island)|Rab]] they went from 225 to 151, in [[Vis (island)|Vis]] from 352 to 92, in [[Pag (island)|Pag]] from 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all the inland locations. In 1909 the [[Italian language]] lost its [[Status (law)|status]] as the official language of Dalmatia in favor of Croatian only (previously both languages were recognized): thus Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere.<ref>{{Citation|year=1970|title=Dalmazia|encyclopedia=Dizionario enciclopedico italiano|volume=III|page=730|publisher=[[Treccani]]|language=it}}</ref>

===Irredentism and the World Wars===
[[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|left|Territories promised to Italy by the [[Treaty of London (1915)]], i.e. [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].]]
Italy [[Italian entry into World War I|entered into the First World War]] in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the First World War is also considered the [[Fourth Italian War of Independence]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848–1918)|date=6 March 2015|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|url-status=dead}}</ref> in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the [[revolutions of 1848]] with the [[First Italian War of Independence]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|title=La Grande Guerra nei manifesti italiani dell'epoca|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183754/http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LntMIUOXngC&q=%22quarta+guerra+d%27indipendenza%22&pg=PA41|title=Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi|isbn=978-8856818680|language=it|access-date=12 March 2021|last1=Genovesi|first1=Piergiovanni|date=11 June 2009|publisher=FrancoAngeli }}</ref>

During the post-unification era, some Italians were dissatisfied with the current state of the Italian Kingdom since they wanted the kingdom to include [[Triest]]e, [[Italian irredentism in Istria|Istria]], and other adjacent territories as well. This Italian irredentism succeeded in [[World War I]] with the annexation of Trieste and [[Trento]], with the respective territories of [[Julian March]] and [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino-Alto Adige]].

The Kingdom of Italy had declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, officially because the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] with Germany and Austria-Hungary was a defensive one, requiring its members to come under attack first. Many Italians were still hostile to Austria's continuing occupation of ethnically Italian areas, and Italy chose not to enter. [[Austria-Hungary]] requested Italian neutrality, while the [[Triple Entente]] (which included Great Britain, France and Russia) requested its intervention. With the [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]], signed in April 1915, Italy agreed to declare war against the [[Central Powers]] in exchange for the ''irredent'' territories of Friuli, Trentino, and [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]] (see ''[[Italia irredenta]]'').
[[File:GovernateOfDalmatia1941 43.png|thumb|right|400px|Map of the three Italian provinces of the [[Governorate of Dalmatia]] (1941–1943): [[province of Zara]], [[Spalato (Italian province)|province of Spalato]] and [[province of Cattaro]]]]

Italian irredentism obtained an important result after the First World War, when Italy gained [[Trieste]], [[Gorizia]], [[Istria]], and the cities of [[Zadar|Zara]] and [[Pula|Pola]] after the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]] in 1920. Some historians see the Risorgimento as continuing to that time, which is the view presented at the [[Central Museum of the Risorgimento]] at [[Altare della Patria]] in Rome.<ref name="Arnaldi"/><ref name="museo"/> But Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Treaty of London, such Dalmatia, so this outcome was denounced as a "[[mutilated victory]]". The rhetoric of "mutilated victory" was adopted by [[Benito Mussolini]] and led to the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|rise of]] [[Italian Fascism]], becoming a key point in the [[propaganda of Fascist Italy]]. Historians regard "mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel [[Italian imperialism]] and obscure the successes of [[liberal Italy]] in the aftermath of World War I.<ref>G.Sabbatucci, ''La vittoria mutilata'', in AA.VV., ''Miti e storia dell'Italia unita'', Il Mulino, Bologna 1999, pp. 101–106</ref>

During the [[Second World War]], after the Axis attack on [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], Italy created the [[Governatorate of Dalmatia]] (from 1941 to September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily [[Split, Croatia|Split]] (Italian ''Spalato''), [[Kotor]] (''Cattaro''), and most of coastal Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943, [[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]] and [[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]] (Italian ''Nizza'') were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, nearly fulfilling in those years the ambitions of Italian irredentism.

For its avowed purpose, the movement had the "emancipation" of all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after Italian unification. The Irredentists took language as the test of the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to emancipate, which were [[Trentino]], Trieste, Dalmatia, Istria, Gorizia, [[Ticino]], Nice (Nizza), Corsica, and [[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]]. Austria-Hungary promoted [[Croats|Croatian]] interests in Dalmatia and Istria to weaken Italian claims in the western [[Balkans]] before the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/irredentismo_(Enciclopedia-Italiana) |title=Irredentismo in "Enciclopedia Italiana" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=31 May 2015}}</ref>

===End of Italian irredentism===
[[File:Italians leave Pola.jpg|thumb|[[Istrian Italians]] leave [[Pula|Pola]] in 1947 during the [[Istrian-Dalmatian exodus]].]]
Under the 1947 [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947|Treaty of Peace with Italy]], [[Istria]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]], most of the [[Julian March]] as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n city of [[Zadar|Zara]] was annexed by [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], giving the people on both sides of the border the [[Option of nationality|right of option of nationality]]; the ensuing [[Istrian-Dalmatian exodus]] led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic [[Italians]] ([[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]]), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic [[Istro-Romanians]], choosing to maintain Italian citizenship.<ref>{{cite web |first=Benedetta |last=Tobagi |url=http://www.treccani.it/scuola/lezioni/storia/la_repubblica_italiana.html |title=La Repubblica italiana &#124; Treccani, il portale del sapere |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=28 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305001726/http://www.treccani.it/scuola/lezioni/storia/la_repubblica_italiana.html |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Istrian-Dalmatian exodus started in 1943 and ended completely only in 1960. According to the census organized in [[Croatia]] in 2001 and that organized in [[Slovenia]] in 2002, the Italians who remained in the former [[Yugoslavia]] amounted to 21,894 people (2,258 in Slovenia and 19,636 in Croatia).<ref name="dzs">{{Croatian Census 2001 |url=http://web.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/Census2001/Popis/E01_02_02/E01_02_02.html |title=12. Population by ethnicity, by towns/municipalities }}</ref><ref name="stat">{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.si/Popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7|title=Popis 2002|access-date=10 June 2017|archive-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806084849/http://www.stat.si/popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After World War II, [[Italian irredentism]] disappeared along with the defeated Fascists and the Monarchy of the [[House of Savoy]]. After the Treaty of Paris (1947) and the [[Treaty of Osimo]] (1975), all territorial claims were abandoned by the [[Italian Republic]] (see [[Foreign relations of Italy]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=L'Italia per De Gaulle: "Non un paese povero, ma un povero paese" |date=8 June 2012 |url=https://www.linkiesta.it/2012/06/litalia-per-de-gaulle-non-un-paese-povero-ma-un-povero-paese/ |access-date=9 September 2023 |language=it}}</ref> The Italian irredentist movement thus vanished from Italian politics. The 1947 [[Constitution of Italy]] established five autonomous regions ([[Sardinia]], [[Friuli-Venezia Giulia]], [[Sicily]], [[Aosta Valley]], and [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol]]), in recognition of their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness.

==Anniversary of the unification of Italy==
{{Main|Anniversary of the unification of Italy}}

[[File:Piazza Venezia - Il Vittoriano (cropped).jpg|thumb|The [[Victor Emmanuel II Monument]] in Rome, inaugurated in 1911 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy]]

Italy celebrates the [[Anniversary of the unification of Italy|anniversary of the unification]] every fifty years, on 17 March (the date of [[proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]]). The anniversary occurred in 1911 (50th), 1961 (100th), 2011 (150th) and 2021 (160th) with several celebrations throughout the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.150anni-lanostrastoria.it/index.php|title=Le celebrazioni del Risorgimento della Provincia di Roma|publisher=150anni-lanostrastoria.it|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=28 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528065821/http://www.150anni-lanostrastoria.it/index.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> While remaining a working day, 17 March is considered a "day promoting the values linked to national identity".<ref>{{cite act|index=222|url =https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:legge:2012-11-23;222!vig=|title=Norme sull'acquisizione di conoscenze e competenze in materia di 'Cittadinanza e Costituzione' e sull'insegnamento dell'inno di Mameli nelle scuole|legislature=Italian Parliament|date=23 November 2012|article=|article-type=|page=|type=Law}}</ref>

The [[National Unity and Armed Forces Day]], celebrated on 4 November, commemorates the end of World War I with the [[Armistice of Villa Giusti]], a war event considered to complete the process of unification of Italy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918|title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848–1918)|date=6 March 2015|language=it|access-date=17 March 2021|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918-1961|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{clear}}

==Culture and Risorgimento==
===Art===
[[File:S. croce, tomba vittorio alfieri.JPG|thumb|upright|Mourning [[Italia turrita]] on the tomb to Vittorio Alfieri by [[Antonio Canova]]]]
In art, this period was characterised by the [[Neoclassicism]] that draws inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of [[Ancient Greece]] or [[Ancient Rome]]. The main Italian sculptor was [[Antonio Canova]] who became famous for his [[marble sculpture]]s that delicately rendered [[nudity|nude]] flesh. The mourning [[Italia turrita]] on the tomb to [[Vittorio Alfieri]] is one of the main works of Risorgimento by Canova. By this time, in sculpture, a veiled woman in the style of the [[Veiled Rebecca]] of Benzoni had become an allegory for [[Italian unification]].<ref name=met>{{cite web |url=https://mymodernmet.com/the-veiled-virgin-sculpture/ |title=Exquisite 19th-Century Sculpture Cloaked in a 'Translucent' Marble Veil |last=Richman-Abdou |first=Kelly |date=27 January 2019 |website=My Modern Met |access-date=1 October 2019 }}</ref>

[[Francesco Hayez]] was another remarkable artist of this period whose works often contain allegories about Italian unification. His most known painting ''[[The Kiss (Hayez)|The Kiss]]'' aims to portray the spirit of the [[Risorgimento]]: the man wears red, white and green, representing the Italian patriots fighting for independence from the [[Austro-Hungarian empire]] while the girl's pale blue dress signifies France, which in 1859 (the year of the painting's creation) made an alliance with the [[The Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia]] enabling the latter to unify the many states of the Italian peninsula into the new kingdom of Italy. Hayez's three paintings on the ''[[Sicilian Vespers]]'' are an implicit protest against the foreign domination of Italy.

[[Andrea Appiani]], [[Domenico Induno]], and [[Gerolamo Induno]] are also known for their patriotic canvases. The Risorgimento was also represented by works not necessarily linked to Neoclassicism—as in the case of [[Giovanni Fattori]] who was one of the leaders of the group known as the [[Macchiaioli]] and who soon became a leading Italian [[En plein air|plein-airist]], painting landscapes, rural scenes, and military life during the Italian unification.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1848c.htm|title=Risorgimento – Pensiero e cultura – 1848|publisher=Cronlogia.leonardo.it|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006085909/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1848c.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{clear}}

===Literature===
[[File:Francesco Hayez 040.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alessandro Manzoni]] is famous for the novel ''[[The Betrothed]]'' (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature.<ref name="britannica">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alessandro-Manzoni|title=Alessandro Manzoni &#124; Italian author|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=18 May 2023}}</ref> He contributed to the nationwide use of the Italian language.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://manzoni.classicauthors.net/IPromessiSposiOrTheBetrothed/IPromessiSposiOrTheBetrothed1.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718073016/http://manzoni.classicauthors.net/IPromessiSposiOrTheBetrothed/IPromessiSposiOrTheBetrothed1.html|url-status=dead|title=I Promessi sposi or The Betrothed|archivedate=18 July 2011}}</ref>]]
The most well known writer of Risorgimento is [[Alessandro Manzoni]], whose works are a symbol of the Italian unification, both for its patriotic message and because of his efforts in the development of the modern, unified [[Italian language]]. He is famous for the novel ''[[The Betrothed]]'' (orig. Italian: ''I promessi sposi'', 1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of [[world literature]].

[[Vittorio Alfieri]], was the founder of a new school in the Italian drama, expressed in several occasions his suffering about the foreign domination's tyranny.

[[Ugo Foscolo]] describes in his works the passion and love for the fatherland and the glorious history of the [[Italian people]]; these two concepts are respectively well expressed in two masterpieces, ''[[The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis]]'' and ''[[Dei Sepolcri]]''.

[[Vincenzo Monti]], known for the [[Italian language|Italian]] translation of the ''[[Iliad]]'', described in his works both enthusiasms and disappointments of Risorgimento until his death.

[[Giovanni Berchet]] wrote a poetry characterized by a high moral, popular and social content; he also contributed to ''[[Il Conciliatore]]'', a progressive bi-weekly scientific and literary journal, influential in the early [[Risorgimento]] that was published in [[Milan]] from September 1818 until October 1819 when it was closed by the Austrian censors; its writers included also [[Ludovico di Breme]], [[Giuseppe Nicolini (writer)|Giuseppe Nicolini]], and [[Silvio Pellico]].

[[Giacomo Leopardi]] was one of the most important poets of Risorgimento thanks to works such as ''[[Giacomo Leopardi#First Canti|Canzone all'Italia]]'' and ''[[Giacomo Leopardi#Il Risorgimento|Risorgimento]]''.

[[File:Francesco De Sanctis ritratto.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of [[Francesco De Sanctis]] (1890) by [[Francesco Saverio Altamura]]]]
[[Niccolò Tommaseo]], the editor of the ''Italian Language Dictionary'' in eight volumes, was a precursor of the [[Italian irredentism]] and his works are a rare examples of a metropolitan culture above nationalism; he supported the liberal revolution headed by [[Daniele Manin]] against the [[Austrian Empire]] and he will always support the unification of Italy.

[[Francesco de Sanctis]] was one of the most important scholars of Italian language and literature in the 19th century; he supported the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states|Revolution of 1848]] in [[Naples]] and for this reason he was imprisoned for three years; his reputation as a lecturer on [[Dante]] in [[Turin]] brought him the appointment of professor at [[ETH Zürich]] in 1856; he returned to [[Naples]] as Minister of Public Education after the unification of Italy.

The writer and patriot [[Luigi Settembrini]] published anonymously the ''Protest of the People of the Two Sicilies'', a scathing indictment of the Bourbon government and was imprisoned and exiled several times by the Bourbons because of his support to Risorgimento; after the formation of the Kingdom of Italy, he was appointed professor of [[Italian literature]] at the [[University of Naples]].

[[Ippolito Nievo]] is another main representative of Risorgimento with his novel ''[[Ippolito Nievo|Confessioni d'un italiano]]''; he fought with [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]'s [[Expedition of the Thousand]].

The Risorgimento was also depicted in famous novels: ''[[The Leopard]]'' written by [[Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa]], ''[[Heart (novel)|Heart]]'' by [[Edmondo De Amicis]], and ''[[The Little World of the Past]]'' by [[Antonio Fogazzaro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.giorgioweiss.it/node/120|title=Risorgimento e poesia – Giorgio Weiss|publisher=Giorgioweiss.it|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=22 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222040120/http://www.giorgioweiss.it/node/120|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Music===
[[File:Verdi palermo bust 200805.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Verdi]]'s bust outside the [[Teatro Massimo]] in Palermo]]
Risorgimento won the support of many leading Italian opera composers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Körner |first1=Axel |title=Opera and nation in nineteenth-century Italy: conceptual and methodological approaches |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=September 2012 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=393–399 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.690577 }}</ref> Their librettos often saw a delicate balance between European romantic narratives and dramatic themes evoking nationalistic sentiments. Ideas expressed in operas stimulated the political mobilisation in Italy and among the cultured classes of Europe who appreciated Italian opera. Furthermore, Mazzini and many other nationalists found inspiration in musical discourses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sorba |first1=Carlotta |title=Between cosmopolitanism and nationhood: Italian opera in the early nineteenth century |journal=Modern Italy |date=February 2014 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=53–67 |doi=10.1080/13532944.2013.871420 }}</ref>

In his ''[[L'italiana in Algeri]]'' ('The Italian Girl in Algiers'), [[Gioachino Rossini]] expressed his support to the unification of Italy; the patriotic line ''Pensa alla patria, e intrepido il tuo dover adempi: vedi per tutta Italia rinascere gli esempi d’ardir e di valor'' ('Think about the fatherland and intrepid do your duty: see for all Italy the birth of the examples of courage and value') was censored in the [[Kingdom of Two Sicilies]].

[[Vincenzo Bellini]] was a secret member of the Carbonari and in his masterpiece ''[[I puritani]] (The Puritans)'', the last part of Act 2 is an allegory to Italian unification. Another Bellini opera, ''[[Norma (opera)|Norma]]'', was at the center of an unexpected standing ovation during its performance in [[Milan]] in 1859: while the [[choir|chorus]] was performing ''Guerra, guerra! Le galliche selve'' ('War, war! The Gallic forests') in Act 2, the Italians began to greet the chorus with loud applause and to yell the word ''War!'' several times towards the [[Austrian Empire|Austrian officers]] at the [[opera house]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sivainitalia.it/italia/regno.php?page=4|title=Dal Risorgimento all'Italia unita|publisher=Sivainitalia.it|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924102212/http://www.sivainitalia.it/italia/regno.php?page=4|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The relationship between [[Gaetano Donizetti]] and the Risorgimento is still controversial. Although [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] tried to use some of Donizetti's works for promoting the Italian cause, Donizetti had always preferred not to get involved in politics.<ref>Rosa Maria Mazzola, [http://www.piranesi150.altervista.org/pagina-65879.html "Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and the Risorgimento"] Piranesi150.altervista.org, Retrieved 9 September 2014</ref>

[[File:Viva VERDI grafitti.jpeg|thumb|left|Patriots scrawling "Viva VERDI" on walls]]
Historians vigorously debate how political were the operas of [[Giuseppe Verdi]] (1813–1901). In particular, the chorus of the Hebrew slaves (known as "[[Va, pensiero]]") from the third act of the opera ''[[Nabucco]]'' was intended to be an anthem for Italian patriots, who were seeking to unify their country and free it from foreign control in the years up to 1861 (the chorus's theme of exiles singing about their homeland, and its lines such as ''O mia patria, si bella e perduta—'O my country, so lovely and so lost'—were thought to have resonated with many Italians).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/NATMUSIC.html |title=Modern History Sourcebook: Music and Nationalism |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=31 May 2015}}</ref> Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan "Viva VERDI" was used as an acronym for '''''Viva V'''ittorio '''E'''manuele '''R'''e '''''D'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>'''I'''talia'' ('[[Vive, Viva|Viva]] Victor Emmanuel King of Italy'), referring to [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]].<ref>Parker 1998, p. 942{{full|date=April 2025}}</ref><ref>Budden 1973, Vol. 3, p. 80{{full|date=April 2025}}</ref>

Franco Della Peruta argues in favour of close links between the operas and the Risorgimento, emphasizing Verdi's patriotic intent and links to the values of the Risorgimento. Verdi started as a republican, became a strong supporter of Cavour and entered the Italian parliament on Cavour's suggestion. His politics caused him to be frequently in trouble with the Austrian censors. Verdi's main works of 1842–49 were especially relevant to the struggle for independence, including ''Nabucco'' (1842), ''[[I Lombardi alla prima crociata]]'' (1843), ''[[Ernani]]'' (1844), ''[[Attila (opera)|Attila]]'' (1846), ''[[Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth]]'' (1847), and ''[[La battaglia di Legnano]]'' (1848). However, starting in the 1850s, his operas showed few patriotic themes because of the heavy censorship of the absolutist regimes in power.

Verdi later became disillusioned by politics, but he was personally active part in the political world of events of the Risorgimento and was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1861.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Franco |last1=DellaPeruta |title=Verdi e il Risorgimento |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |date=2001 |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=3–24 }}</ref> Likewise Marco Pizzo argues that after 1815 music became a political tool, and many songwriters expressed ideals of freedom and equality. Pizzo says Verdi was part of this movement, for his operas were inspired by the love of country, the struggle for Italian independence, and speak to the sacrifice of patriots and exiles.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Marco |last1=Pizzo |title=Verdi, Musica e Risorgimento |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |date=2001 |volume=87 |issue=supplement 4 |pages=37–44 }}</ref> On the other side of the debate, [[Mary Ann Smart]] argues that music critics at the time seldom mentioned any political themes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smart |first1=Mary Ann |title=How political were Verdi's operas? Metaphors of progress in the reception of I Lombardi alla prima crociata |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=March 2013 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=190–204 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.753009 }}</ref> Likewise [[Roger Parker]] argues that the political dimension of Verdi's operas was exaggerated by nationalistic historians looking for a hero in the late 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Roger |title=Verdi politico : a wounded cliché regroups |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=September 2012 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=427–436 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.690581 }}</ref>
[[File:Final scene from the opera Risorgimento!.jpg|thumb|The final scene of the opera ''Risorgimento!'' (2011) by [[Lorenzo Ferrero]]]]
Giuseppe Verdi's ''Nabucco'' and the Risorgimento are the subject of a 2011 opera, ''[[Risorgimento! (opera)|Risorgimento!]]'' by Italian composer [[Lorenzo Ferrero]], written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification.

===Films===
''[[The Leopard (1963 film)|The Leopard]]'' is a film from 1963, based on the novel by [[Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa]], and directed by [[Luchino Visconti]]. It features [[Burt Lancaster]] as the eponymous character, the Prince of Salina. The film depicts his reaction to the Risorgimento, and his vain attempts to retain his social standing.

There are other movies set in this period:
* ''[[1860 (film)|1860]]'' (1934), by [[Alessandro Blasetti]]
* ''[[Piccolo mondo antico (film)|Piccolo mondo antico]]'' (1941), by [[Mario Soldati]]
* ''[[A Garibaldian in the Convent]]'' (1942), by [[Vittorio De Sica]]
* ''[[Heart and Soul (1948 film)|Heart and Soul]]'' (1948), by [[Vittorio De Sica]]
* ''[[Senso (film)|Senso]]'' (1954), by [[Luchino Visconti]]
* ''[[Garibaldi (film)|Garibaldi]]'' (1961), by [[Roberto Rossellini]]
* ''[[1870 (film)|1870]]'' (1971), by [[Alfredo Giannetti]]
* ''[[Passion of Love]]'' (1981), by [[Ettore Scola]] (later adapted by [[Stephen Sondheim]] and [[James Lapine]] into the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical ''[[Passion (musical)|Passion]]'')
* ''[[We Believed]]'' (2010), by [[Mario Martone]]

==Museums==
===Central Museum of the Risorgimento of Rome===
[[File:Museo Centrale del Risorgimento din Roma.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the Central Museum of the Risorgimento from via di San Pietro in Carcere in [[Rome]]]]

Inside the [[Altare della Patria]] in [[Rome]] are some museums dedicated to the [[history of Italy]], especially the Unification of Italy: the Central Museum of the Risorgimento ({{langx|it|Museo Centrale del Risorgimento}}) with an adjoining study institute, the [[Flag of Italy]] Memorial ({{langx|it|Sacrario delle bandiere}}) and an area that hosts temporary exhibitions of artistic interest, historical, sociological and cultural called "ala Brasini".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=dove-siamo |title=Il Museo Centrale del Risorgimento al Vittoriano – Dove siamo |access-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312143920/http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=dove-siamo |archive-date=12 March 2018 |language=it}}</ref><ref name=marina>{{cite web |url=http://www.marina.difesa.it/storiacultura/ufficiostorico/musei/sacrario/Pagine/IlSacrariodellebandierealVittoriano.aspx |title=Il Sacrario delle Bandiere al Vittoriano |access-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909005007/http://www.marina.difesa.it/storiacultura/ufficiostorico/musei/sacrario/Pagine/IlSacrariodellebandierealVittoriano.aspx |archive-date=9 September 2017 |language=it}}</ref>

Since 2020, together with [[Museo nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia|Palazzo Venezia]], it has been managed by the VIVE Institute, one of the eleven institutes of significant general interest of the [[Italian Ministry of Culture]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senzatitolo.net/luoghi/81/vive_-_vittoriano_e_palazzo_venezia/|title=VIVE-Vittoriano e Palazzo Venezia|website=senzatitolo.net|access-date=1 September 2024|language=it}}</ref>

Access to the Central Museum of the Risorgimento is on the left side of the monument, at the back of the [[Santa Maria in Ara Coeli]] along via di San Pietro in Carcere.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=dove-siamo |title=Il Museo Centrale del Risorgimento al Vittoriano – Dove siamo |access-date=12 March 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312143920/http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=dove-siamo |archive-date=12 March 2018}}</ref> The period of Italian history between the end of the 18th century and the [[First World War]] is displayed by memorabilia, paintings, sculptures, documents (letters, diaries and manuscripts), drawings, engravings, weapons and prints.<ref name= Busico2005>Augusta Busico, ''Il tricolore: il simbolo la storia'', Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Dipartimento per l'informazione e l'editoria, 2005.</ref><ref>Gilles Pécout, Roberto Balzan, ''Il lungo Risorgimento: la nascita dell'Italia contemporanea (1770–1922)'', Mondadori, 2011.</ref><ref name=risorgimento.it>{{cite web |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/php/page_gen.php?id_sezione=5 |title=Il Museo Centrale del Risorgimento al Vittoriano |access-date=2 March 2016 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304173631/http://www.risorgimento.it/php/page_gen.php?id_sezione=5 |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

On the entrance stairway of the Central Museum of the Risorgimento are visible engravings related to some significant episodes for the birth of the Risorgimento movement, from the seed thrown by the [[French Revolution]] to the [[Napoleonic Wars]], to better frame and remember the national history included between the reform of the [[List of historic states of Italy|ancient Italian states]] and the end of the First World War. Along the walls, other marble engravings show some pieces of texts enunciated by prominent personalities, which better testify and describe this part of Italian history.<ref name=Busico2005/><ref name=sitoufficiale>{{cite web |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/home_museo_ita.asp |title=Il Museo Centrale del Risorgimento al Vittoriano |access-date=2 March 2016 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091316/http://www.risorgimento.it/home_museo_ita.asp |archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref>

The Central Museum of the Risorgimento also includes the Shrine of the Flags, a museum where the [[war flag]]s of dissolved military units and decommissioned ships from the [[Italian Army]], [[Italian Air Force]], [[Italian Navy]], [[Carabinieri]], ''[[Polizia di Stato]]'', Penitentiary Police and ''[[Guardia di Finanza]]'' are collected and temporarily stored. In case a unit is reformed, the flags are retrieved by the unit.<ref name=marina /> Access to the shrine is along [[Via dei Fori Imperiali]], where memorabilia, relating mainly to the Risorgimento wars, in which the [[Italian Armed Forces]] took part, are also kept.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marina.difesa.it/storiacultura/ufficiostorico/musei/sacrario/Pagine/default.aspx |title=Museo Sacrario delle Bandiere delle Forze Armate al Vittoriano |access-date=14 March 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314175457/http://www.marina.difesa.it/storiacultura/ufficiostorico/musei/sacrario/Pagine/default.aspx |archive-date=14 March 2018}}</ref>

The "ala Brasini", reserved for temporary exhibitions, is dedicated to [[Armando Brasini]], the main promoter of the Central Museum. The wing has three exhibition rooms: the "large exhibition hall", with a surface area of {{cvt|700|m2|sqft|0}}, generally hosts art exhibitions, and those that require more space, the "central hall" of {{cvt|400|m2|sqft|0}} and the "jubilee hall" of {{cvt|150|m2|sqft|0}}, are used.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ilvittoriano.com/spazi-espositivi.html |title=Complesso del Vittoriano – Ala Brasini |archive-date=7 September 2017 |access-date=14 April 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907183950/http://www.ilvittoriano.com/spazi-espositivi.html}}</ref>

===National Museum of the Risorgimento of Turin===
{{main|Museum of the Risorgimento (Turin)}}

[[File:Torino-PalazzoCarignanoFronte.jpg|thumb|The National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento in [[Turin]]]]
The [[Museum of the Risorgimento (Turin)|National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento of Turin]] is the first, the biggest and the most important among the 23 museums in Italy dedicated to the [[Risorgimento]]; and the only one which can be considered "national" according to a 1901 law, and due to its rich and great collections. It is housed in the [[Palazzo Carignano]] in [[Turin]].

The museum was established in 1878, shortly after [[Italian unification]], even though it only had its first permanent exhibition in 1908. Originally located in the [[Mole Antonelliana]], in 1938 it was moved to its current site (which had previously housed the Subalpine Chamber of Deputies, from 1848 to 1860, and then the first Italian Chamber of Deputies, from 1861 to 1865).

Its exhibits include weapons, flags, uniforms, printed and written documents (including the original manuscript of the song ''[[Il Canto degli Italiani]]'', dated 10 November 1847 by Goffredo Mameli, now Italian national anthem since 1946), and artworks. The new exhibition, which opened on 18 March 2011, occupies about 3500 square metres across 30 rooms, and covers the real Risorgimento period, stretching from the late 18th century revolutions to the beginning of the [[First World War]]. It includes a specialized library, a print cabinet and a documentary archive.

===Museum of the Risorgimento of Milan===
{{main|Museum of the Risorgimento (Milan)}}

[[File:DSC02741 Milano - Palazzo Moriggia -1775- (Museo del Risorgimento) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto - 20 jan 2007.jpg|thumb|The Museum of the Risorgimento of [[Milan]]]]

The [[Museum of the Risorgimento (Milan)|Museum of the Risorgimento of Milan]], located in the 18th-century  [[Milan]]ese Palazzo Moriggia, houses a collection of objects and artworks which illustrate the history of [[Italian unification]] from Napoleon's [[Italian campaign of 1796]] to the [[Capture of Rome|annexation of Rome]] in 1870. The city of Milan played a key role in the process, most notably on the occasion of the 1848 uprising against the Austrians known as the [[Five Days of Milan]].

The museum was founded on a collection of documents on the [[Risorgimento]], gathered for the Exhibition of Turin in 1884 and then moved to the showroom at Milan’s Public Gardens. The exhibition was later transferred to the Rocchetta rooms at the [[Sforza Castle]], where it was officially inaugurated on 24 June 1896. In 1943, due to the war-time bombardment of the castle, the museum was temporarily moved to the estate of [[Casa Manzoni]] (home of the famed Italian poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni). Finally in 1951 it was housed inside the Moriggia Palace, where it remains today.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.comune.pv.it/museicivici/museistoria/risorgimentomi.htm |title=Museo del Risorgimento di Milano |access-date=2010-02-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304200735/http://www.comune.pv.it/museicivici/museistoria/risorgimentomi.htm |archive-date=2010-03-04 }}</ref>

The museum is part of the Civic Historical Collections. Its collections include [[Baldassare Verazzi]]'s ''Episode from the Five Days'' and [[Francesco Hayez]]'s 1840 ''[[:Image:Francesco Hayez 047.jpg|Portrait]] of Emperor [[Ferdinand I of Austria]]''. The permanent exhibition is displayed to follow the chronological order of events of the Risorgimento, leading the visitor through fifteen rooms, to which the new Weapons Room has been recently added. The latest refurbishment in 1998 included the redesign of the permanent exhibitions, to accentuate the highlights of the collections, particularly the relics.

The museum boasts the green-and-silver velvet cloak and the valuable regal insignia of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation, the banner of the Legione Lombarda Cacciatori a Cavallo (Lombard Legion on Horseback) and the first Italian flag. The last renovation saw the redesign of the lighting and information systems, as well as improvements to the ‘Romantic Garden’ behind the building.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museodelrisorgimento.mi.it/|title=Home|website=Museodelrisorgimento.mi.it|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>

===Museum of the Risorgimento of Bologna===
{{main|Museum of the Risorgimento, Bologna}}

[[File:Casacarducci.jpg|right|thumb|Civic Museum of the Risorgimento of Bologna]]
The [[Museum of the Risorgimento, Bologna|Civic Museum of the Risorgimento pf Bologna]] is located in the ground floor of the Casa Carducci, located in Piazza Carducci 5, in central [[Bologna]].

Prior to being a Museum, part of the site had housed the church of the Madonna della Pietà, known commonly as the Madonna del Piombo (Virgin Mary of the Lead). It was so named because it contained a relief of the Madonna etched on a lead plate, attributed to [[Sperandio Savelli]], that had gained veneration. There is also a legend that in the first years of the 16th century the icon had been discovered by youths playing here, near the city walls, and this led to the first chapel, then church.

This church burned down in 1712, but was soon replaced by a frescoed oratory completed in 1752. This oratory whose facade is represented by the three round arches with double central pilasters. After the [[Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars|Napoleonic occupation]], the members of the company who owned the oratory had the structure deconsecrated and the contents sold off to antiquarians.
The oratory had been decorated by the artists [[Antonio Rossi (painter)|Antonio Rossi]], [[Ercole Graziani the Younger]], [[Gaetano Ferratini]], [[Giuseppe Orsoni]], [[Antonio Gionima]], and [[Lorenzo Garbieri]].<ref>[http://www.emiliaromagna.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/108/ricerca-itinerari/7/86 Beni Culturali Emilia Romagna], history of the church and oratory, curated by Annalisa Sabattini.</ref>

A Bolognese Museum of the Risorgimento was first inaugurated on June 12, 1893. The museum has exhibits that chronicle the history from the [[Napoleonic]] invasions to the end of the [[First World War]]. The main exhibits are divided into 5 eras:
*The Napoleonic Era (1796-1814)
*The Restoration of [[Papal States]] (1815-1848)
*The Epic of the Risorgimento (1848-1860)
*The Unification of Italy (1860-1914)
*Bologna at War (1915-1918)

The Museum houses a library of documents and an archive of diverse items from the period. It houses the a project towards maintenance of the city's monumental cemetery at the [[Certosa di Bologna]].

The museum has varied in scope and themes across the decades. The initial founding of the museum focused on the patriotic events leading to Italian sovereignty and union. During and after the First World War, this conflict was defined as the Fourth War of Independence. Fascism added to the focus, the ideals of a greater Italy, the aggressive colonial wars that led to the formation of [[Italian East Africa]], the Italian intervention in the [[Spanish Civil War]], and the [[Second World War]]. The museum first closed in 1943, and did not reopen until 1954. Fascist wars and goals were now removed as a focus, and the Resistance to Fascism was viewed as the Second Risorgimento. The museum closed again from 1962 to 1975, and now focuses on the history prior to the Italy's entry into World War II.

The museum was located in the present Casa Carducci premises only in 1990, and includes the premises of the oratory. The Casa Carducci was the last home of the poet [[Giosuè Carducci]], who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1906.<ref>[http://www.comune.bologna.it/risorgimento/introduzione/47649 Official site of Museum].</ref>

===Tricolour Flag Museum===
{{main|Tricolour Flag Museum}}

[[File:Museo del tricolore 06.JPG|thumb|[[Tricolour Flag Museum]]]]
The [[Tricolour Flag Museum]] is located in [[Reggio nell'Emilia]], the city that saw the birth of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian flag]] in 1797, inside the town hall of the city, adjacent to the [[Sala del Tricolore]], whose collection is made up of relics related to the Italian flag.<ref name="Italiano1998">{{cite book|author=Roma. Museo Centrale del Risorgimento Italiano|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b_wazgEACAAJ|title=Mostra storica del tricolore: 1797-1997 : Museo centrale del Risorgimento italiano : Roma, 7 gennaio-30 aprile 1998|date=1998|publisher=Viviani|isbn=978-88-7993-057-4}}</ref>

The museum reconstructs the history of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian flag]], which was adopted in [[Reggio Emilia]] for the first time, right in the nearby [[Sala del Tricolore]]. On 7 January 1797 it was in fact chosen as the [[national flag]] of the [[Cispadane Republic]]: for the first time the tricolour became the national flag of a sovereign Italian state. In fact, previously, the tricolour was used as a [[war flag]] and as a civic symbol of local authorities. It was inspired by the [[French flag]], which at the time was a symbol of freedom against the states of the ''[[ancien régime]]''.

Inaugurated on 7 January 2004, it preserves documents, relics and Italian flags ranging from the arrival of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] in Reggio Emilia (1796) to its fall (1814), and others from the subsequent [[Italian unification]] period. The part of the museum that houses the latter was inaugurated on 7 January 2006. The dating of the relics preserved goes back to 1897, the year of the first centenary of the Italian flag. There are also a large number of tricolor flags of the Italian pre-unification States.

==Maps of Italy before and during Italian unification==
<gallery>
File:Italy 1494.svg|Italy in 1494
File:Italy 1796.svg|Italy in 1796
File:Italy 1843.svg|Italy in 1843
File:Italia1860.png|Italy in 1860: '''orange''' [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], '''blue''' [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia|Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (Austrian Empire)]], '''pink''' [[United Provinces of Central Italy]], '''red''' [[Papal States]], '''pale green''' [[Kingdom of Two Sicilies]]
File:RegnoItalia1861.png|Italy in 1861: '''orange''' Kingdom of Italy, '''blue''' [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia|Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (Austrian Empire)]], '''red''' [[Papal States]]
File:Italy 1870.svg|[[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1870, showing the [[Papal States]], before the [[Capture of Rome]]
File:Italy 1871.svg|[[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1871
File:RegnoItalia1919.png|Kingdom of Italy in 1919
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Timeline of the unification of Italy]]
* [[German unification]]
* [[Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia|Formation of Romania]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Ascoli, Albert Russell and Krystyna Von Henneberg, eds. ''Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento'' (2001) [https://www.questia.com/library/104096051/making-and-remaking-italy-the-cultivation-of-national online]
* {{cite book | title = The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy | last1 = Beales | first1 = Derek | last2 = Biagini | first2 = Eugenio | year = 2003 | publisher = Longman | edition = 2 | isbn = 978-0-582-36958-0 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1057/9781137297723 |title=Britain, Ireland and the Italian Risorgimento |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-349-67130-4 |editor-last1=Carter |editor-first1=Nick }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315833699 |title=The Italian Risorgimento |date=2010 |last1=Clark |first1=Martin |isbn=978-1-315-83369-9 }}
* Collier, Martin, ''Italian Unification, 1820–71'' (Heinemann, 2003); textbook, 156 pages [https://books.google.com/books?id=YG9kZBJdKJwC excerpt]
* {{cite book | title = Italy in the nineteenth century: 1796–1900 | editor-last = Davis | editor-first = John A. | year = 2000 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = London | url = https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=115250399 | access-date = 1 September 2017 | archive-date = 29 June 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110629132205/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=115250399 | url-status = dead }}
* De Mattei, Roberto. ''Pius IX'' (2004).
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* {{cite book |last1=Hearder |first1=Harry |title=Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento, 1790-1870 |date=1983 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-49146-5 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Holt |first1=Edgar |title=The Making of Italy, 1815-1870 |date=1971 |publisher=Atheneum |oclc=568721759 }}
* Körner, Axel. ''America in Italy: The United States in the Political Thought and Imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763–1865'' (Princeton UP, 2017)
* {{cite book |last1=Moe |first1=Nelson J. |title=The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question |date=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-93982-0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Denis Mack |title=Italy: A Modern History |date=1969 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-07051-0 }}
* Mack Smith, Denis. ''Cavour'' (1985)
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Denis Mack |title=Mazzini |date=1996 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-06884-9 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Denis Mack |title=Victor Emanuel, Cavour and the Risorgimento |date=1971 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-212550-7 }}
* Mendola, Louis. ''The Kingdom of Sicily 1130–1860'' (2015).
* Mowat, R.B. ''A history of European diplomacy, 1815–1914'' (1922) [https://archive.org/stream/historyofeuropea00mowauoft#page/n10/mode/1up pp 115–63 online free]
* {{cite book |last1=Patriarca |first1=S. |last2=Riall |first2=L. |title=The Risorgimento Revisited: Nationalism and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Italy |date=2011 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-36275-8 }} Review: {{cite journal |last1=Romani |first1=Roberto |title=Silvana Patriarca and Lucy Riall, eds, The Risorgimento Revisited: Nationalism and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Italy |journal=European History Quarterly |date=July 2014 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=565–566 |doi=10.1177/0265691414537193ai }}
* Pearce, Robert, and Andrina Stiles. ''Access to History: The Unification of Italy 1789–1896'' (4th rf., Hodder Education, 2015), textbook. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IFiGCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT3 excerpt]
* {{cite journal | last = Pozzo | first = Barbara | title = Masculinity Italian style | journal = Nevada Law Journal | volume = 13 | issue = 2 | page = 15 | url = http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol13/iss2/15 | date = 2013 }}
* Procacci, Giuliano. ''History of the Italian People'' (Pelican, London, 1973) Trans Anthony Paul.
* {{cite book |doi=10.1057/9781137342980 |title=Religion and Politics in the Risorgimento |date=2014 |last1=Raponi |first1=Danilo |isbn=978-1-349-46543-9 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203412343 |title=The Italian Risorgimento |date=2002 |last1=Riall |first1=Lucy |isbn=978-0-203-41234-3 }}
* Riall, Lucy. ''Garibaldi: Invention of a hero'' (Yale UP, 2008).
* {{cite journal |last= Riall | first = Lucy | title = Hero, saint or revolutionary? Nineteenth-century politics and the cult of Garibaldi | journal = [[Modern Italy]] | volume = 3 | issue = 2 | pages = 191–204 | doi = 10.1080/13532949808454803 | date = 1998 | s2cid = 143746713 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Ridley |first1=Jasper Godwin |title=Garibaldi |date=1976 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=978-0-670-33548-0 }}
* {{cite journal |last= Sarlin | first = Simon | title = Fighting the Risorgimento: foreign volunteers in southern Italy (1860–63) | journal = [[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] | volume = 14 | issue = 4 | pages = 476–490 | doi = 10.1080/13545710903281987 | date = 2009 | s2cid = 144416217 }}
* {{cite book |last=Thayer |first=William Roscoe |title=The Life and Times of Cavour vol 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zfwNAQAAMAAJ |year=1911 }} old interpretations but useful on details; vol 1 goes to 1859]; [https://books.google.com/books?id=sK_CnX3-ZMQC volume 2 online covers 1859–62]
* {{cite book |last=Trevelyan |first=George Macaulay |title=Garibaldi and the making of Italy |publisher=Longmans, Green and Company |year=1911 |url=https://archive.org/details/garibaldiandmak01trevgoog |quote=garibaldi trevelyan. }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Wawro |first1=Geoffrey |title=Austria Versus the Risorgimento: A New Look at Austria's Italian Strategy in the 1860s |journal=European History Quarterly |date=January 1996 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=7–29 |doi=10.1177/026569149602600102 }}
* Woolf, Stuart Joseph. ''The Italian Risorgimento'' (1969).
* Woolf, Stuart. '' A History of Italy 1700–1860: The Social Constraints of Political Change'' (1960), 519 pp
* {{cite journal |last= Wright | first = Owain | title = British foreign policy and the Italian occupation of Rome, 1870 | journal = [[The International History Review]] | volume = 34 | issue = 1 | pages = 161–176 | doi = 10.1080/07075332.2012.668343 | date = 2012 | s2cid = 154971989 }}
* Massimo Colella, ''Luigi Russo interprete di Vincenzo Cuoco. Un inedito corso universitario'', in «Otto/Novecento», 2020, pp.&nbsp;153–187.

===Historiography===
* {{cite book |last1=Alio |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Mendola |first2=Louis |title=Sicilian Studies: A Guide and Syllabus for Educators |date=2018 |publisher=Trinacria Editions |isbn=978-1-943639-18-2 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Bouchard |first1=Norma |title=Risorgimento in Modern Italian Culture: Revisiting the Nineteenth-century Past in History, Narrative, and Cinema |date=2005 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn=978-0-8386-4054-8 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Francesco |first1=Antonino De |title=The Antiquity of the Italian Nation: The Cultural Origins of a Political Myth in Modern Italy, 1796-1943 |date=2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-966231-9 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Rethinking Italy's Nation-Building 150 Years Afterwards: The New Risorgimento Historiography |journal=Past & Present |date=2012 |issue=217 |pages=247–268 |jstor=23324209 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gts028 }}
* Manenti, Luca G., "Italian Freemasonry from the Eighteenth Century to Unification. Protagonists, Metamorphoses, Interpretations", in History of the Grand Orient of Italy, edited by E. Locci (Washington D.C., Westphalia Press, 2019), pp.&nbsp;27–60.
* {{cite journal |last1=Ramm |first1=Agatha |title=The Risorgimento in Sicily: Recent Literature |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1972 |volume=87 |issue=345 |pages=795–811 |jstor=562204 |doi=10.1093/ehr/LXXXVII.CCCXLV.795 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1057/9781137455475_6 |chapter=Napoleonic Italy: Old and New Trends in Historiography |title=Napoleon's Empire |date=2016 |last1=Rao |first1=Anna Maria |pages=84–97 |isbn=978-1-349-56731-7 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Salsini |first1=Laura A. |title=Re-envisioning the Risorgimento: Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti's ''Amore mio uccidi Garibaldi'' |journal=Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies |date=March 2008 |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=83–98 |doi=10.1177/001458580804200105 }}

===Italian===
* Alio, Jacqueline. ''Sicilian Studies: A Guide and Syllabus for Educators'' (2018), 250 pp.
* Bacchin, Elena. ''Italofilia. Opinione pubblica britannica e il Risorgimento italiano 1847–1864'' (Turin, Carocci editore, 2014), 266 pp
* Banti, Alberto Mario. ''La nazione del Risorgimento: parentela, santità e onore alle origini dell'Italia unita''. Torino, Einaudi, 2000
* Banti, Alberto Mario. ''Il Risorgimento italiano''. Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2004 (Quadrante Laterza; 125)
* Ghisalberti, Carlo. ''Istituzioni e società civile nell'età del Risorgimento''. Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005 (Biblioteca universale Laterza; 575)
* Della Peruta, Franco. ''L'Italia del Risorgimento: problemi, momenti e figure''. Milano, Angeli, 1997 (Saggi di storia; 14)
* {{cite book |last1=Peruta |first1=Franco Della |title=Conservatori, liberali e democratici nel Risorgimento |date=1989 |publisher=F. Angeli |isbn=978-88-204-3562-2 }}
* De Rosa, Luigi. ''La provincia subordinata. Saggio sulla questione meridionale'', Bari, Laterza, 2004
* {{cite book|title=Controrisorgimento. Il movimento filoestense apuano e lunigianese|editor=Eclettica|date=2009|isbn=978-8890416804|last=Guerra|first=Nicola|publisher=Nicola Guerra|url=https://www.academia.edu/1957081}}
* {{cite book |last1=Guerra |first1=Nicola |title=Le due anime del processo di unificazione nazionale: La necessità di un nuovo approccio di ricerca ancora disatteso |date=2012 |publisher=GRIN Verlag |isbn=978-3-656-21576-9 }}
* Scirocco, Alfonso. ''L'Italia del risorgimento: 1800–1860''. (vol. 1 di ''Storia d'Italia dall'unità alla Repubblica''), Bologna, Il mulino, 1990
* Scirocco, Alfonso. ''In difesa del Risorgimento''. Bologna, Il mulino, 1998 (Collana di storia contemporanea)
* Tomaz, Luigi. ''Il confine d'Italia in Istria e Dalmazia'', Presentazione di Arnaldo Mauri, Conselve, Think ADV, 2008.
* Carlo Cardia, ''Risorgimento e religione,'' Giappichelli, Torino, 2011, {{ISBN|978-88-348-2552-5}}.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Italian Risorgimento}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020603114124/http://www.pirandello.com/risorg.html The Risorgimento: A Time for Reunification]
* [http://www.florin.ms/laurel.html Women of the Risorgimento]
* [https://dl.lib.brown.edu/garibaldi Garibaldi & The Risorgimento]
* [http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/italian_unification.html Cavour and the Unification of Italy]
* {{cite web|last=Arcaini|first=G.B.|title=The Italian Unification|url=http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/ItalianUnification.htm|work=History of Italy|access-date=19 March 2012|date=6 March 2005|archive-date=25 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225230621/http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/ItalianUnification.htm|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|last=Arcaini|first=G.B.|title=Italy's Unity|url=http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/ItalyUnity.htm|work=History of Italy|access-date=19 March 2012|date=30 November 2003|archive-date=28 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328011653/http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/ItalyUnity.htm|url-status=dead}}
* [https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tricolour ''In the sign of the tricolour: Italians and Hungarians in the Risorgimento''] A documentary directed by Gilberto Martinelli
* [https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/143 Finding aid for the Italian Risorgimento Collection] at the [[University of Connecticut Archives and Special Collections]] 

{{Risorgimento}}
{{National revivals}}
{{Italy topics}}
{{Great Power diplomacy}}
{{Portal bar|Italy|History}}
{{Authority control}}

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