Questions+on+Italian+Unification

Why did a united Italy make sense to those who favored unification?
The Big Five: Austrian Empire, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France, wanted to establish a secure balance of power to prevent future wars. It means that they want an equal balance of social, political, and economic strength, which will stop one nation from going against their will or inferring the will of another nation or group.

One of the obstacles in the way of Italian unification is, people associated themselves with the city-state before the nationality. Vienna ignored the nationalists who hoped to end centuries of foreign rule and achieve unit, all Vienna wanted to do was take over different parts of Italy. These obstacles made unification difficult because the City states would not cooperate and unite. Mazzini was trying to get the point across that all the city-states have the same heritage and are all a part Italy.

Mazzini founded young italy because he feels that the nations should unite because everyone has the same heritage and speaks the same language. Cavour the minister wanted to first reform Sardina's economy. He also improved agriculture had railroads built and encouraged commerce by supporting free trade. Garibaldi wanted to create an Italian republic he accepted help from the monarchist Cavour. Garibaldi and The Red Shirts went to south sicily with two boats and won it over. It took alot of war and over ruling to unite italy.

Explain the viewpoint the liberals and the conservatives with regards to Italian unification.
Conservatives from the early 1800’s wanted things to return the way it used to be before 1789. They also believed that if people had national rights and constitutional government could only lead to chaos. Liberals wanted governments to be based on written constitutions and separations of powers. They also saw the role of government as limited to protecting regular rights such as freedom of thought, speech and religion. They believed it as only male property owners or others with a good financial state should have the right to vote.

What nationalist groups were formed and created in order to strengthen the unification movement?
In the 1830’s the nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini founded young Italy. The goal for his secret society was to constitute Italy. In 1849, Mazzini helped set up a revolutionary republic in Rome but the French forces soon after toppled it. Mazzini also spent the rest of his life plotting for a united Italy. Nationalists reminded Italians of the glorious memories of ancient Rome. To others unity made economic sense but it would end trade barriers among Italy. The nationalist groups that were formed from Piedmont, Nice, Savoy and the island of Sardinia, to strengthen the unification movement of the Risorgimento. Also the monarch, Victor Emmanuel II hoped to join other states to his own, hoping to increase his power.

What military steps were taken in order to free Italian people from the oppressive rule?
In 1852 Victor Emmanuel made count Camillo Cavour his prime minister. Once Cavour was in office he improved agriculture, built railroads, and encouraged commerce by supporting free trade. Cavour favored the liberals goals. His long term goal was to end Australian power in Italy and annex the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. In 1855, Sardinia, led by Cavour, joined Britain and France against Russia in the Crimean War. Next, attention shifted to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. There, Guiseppe Garibaldi, a longtime nationalist and a partner of Mazzini, was ready for action.By 1860, Garibaldi had recruited a force of 1,000 red-shirted volunteers. Cavour provided weapons and allowed two ships to take Garibaldi and his "Red Shirts" south to Sicily. With surprising speed, Garibaldi’s forces won control of Sicily, crossed to the mainland, and marched triumphantly north to Naples.

Napoleon's first role of the unification of italy was that he was the commander of the Italian army. He fought and took the Australian army out of italy and all the way back to their capital; Vienna. Then on March 25, 1802 he made the Treaty of Amiens, which finally put france to peace after 10 years. But the peace didnt last long, so then Austria, Russia, and Britian were all on the same side against France. He defeated Austria and Russia during battle but for Britian he had to have an economic war with them, he made up the Continental System; which forbade any of the nations of europe to trade with the British. That didnt work though so he had to invade them, but then when the harsh Russian winter set in he had to retreat because they had no shelter or supplies to survive in it. Then the british gained custody of Napoleon and then sent him away to an island called Saint Helena all by himself. Stuck there he died on May 5, 1821.

How does Nationalism unify the people of the Italian States?
Nationalism; or devotion to one's national group was very important in Europe in the 1800s. One of the main reasons was because of Europe's political boundaries, most of the nations did not share a common language or culture. The larger empires usually included a lot of people with different backgrounds. Some Europeans thought that people of the same background should form separate nation-states. Then Guiseppe Mazzini formed a nationalist group that was called Young Italy. This group had a lot of supporters of who wanted to fight for the unification of the Italian States. Camillo di Cavour was a leader of the Italian unification movement. He believed that the Italian nationalist movement was definitely strong enough to unite Italy. In 1848 some Italian states declared themselves republics because of all the nationalist uprisings in France and Britain. In Piedmont, the king declared war on Austria, it was a loss, but it was important because it made the leaders of the Italiam states realize that they needed to unite to defeat the Austrian rule. Guiseppe unified the southern Italian states and joined them to the north, they formed the Kingdom of Italy.

====In the following years after Italy became a unified state they faced many challenges. The people in the south didn't like that the government was located in the north. Then Rome became the new capital of Italy in 1871. The Catholic church did not think of Italy as a nation, so as a result catholics were forbidden to vote. The voting rights increased and most Italian men could vote by the late 1800s. Within 50 years of the unification about 4.5 million Italians left Italy because there was a lot of poverty. So the working class Italians began to fight for change in a growing labor movement. In result the working conditions and production increased. Finally in 1882 Italy formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany, they were known as the Triple Alliance. Then other alliances that were formed brought most of Europe to war in 1914. In result of Italy trying to expand its influence in other parts of the world, in 1911 Italy started a war with the Ottoman Empire and won territory in Africa.====