Mass Politics and Nationalism (^) ‹ 157
• In 1859, Cavour goaded the Austrians into attacking Piedmont by mobilizing forces and
refusing an ultimatum to disarm. French and Piedmontese troops defeated the Austrians
at the Battles of Magenta and Solferino, driving the Austrians out of Lombardy. Further
gains by Piedmont were thwarted by Napoleon III’s abrupt signing of the Treaty of
Villafranca with the Austrians.
• By 1860, inspired by the Piedmontese victory over Austria, the majority of the northern and
north-central duchies shook off their Austrian rulers and voluntarily united with Piedmont.
Garibaldi and Victory in the South
The success of northern Italians in throwing off Austrian domination inspired their south-
ern counterparts. A series of peasant revolts, tinged with anti-Bourbon sentiment, arose
in the south. Southern Italian nationalists found a different kind of leader in Giuseppe
Garibaldi and, in 1860, launched a series of popular uprisings, which put all of southern
Italy under his control. The southern nationalist movement differed from its northern
counterpart in several significant ways:
• Garibaldi was a Romantic nationalist who had been an early supporter of Mazzini.
• The southern movement was a genuine revolt of the masses, rather than the political
maneuverings of a single kingdom.
• Garibaldi hoped to establish an Italian republic that would respect the rights of individu-
als and improve the lot of the peasants and workers.
In May 1860, Garibaldi raised an army of 1,000 red-shirted Italian patriots and landed
in Sicily to aid a peasant revolt underway there. In a few short months, Garibaldi and his
red-shirts provided leadership to a nationalist revolt that took control of most of southern
Italy and set its sights on Rome.
The Kingdom of Italy and the Completion of Italian Unification
Cavour publicly condemned Garibaldi’s conquests but secretly aided them. When
Garibaldi’s troops began to threaten Rome, Cavour persuaded Napoleon III, who had
sworn to protect the pope, to allow the Piedmontese army to invade the Papal States in
order to head off Garibaldi. By September 1860, Piedmont controlled the Papal States and
set up a ring around Rome.
When Piedmontese forces, led by King Victor Emmanuel II, met Garibaldi and his
forces outside Rome in September 1860, Garibaldi submitted and presented all of south-
ern Italy to Victor Emmanuel; in the end, Garibaldi’s dream of a unified Italy was stronger
than his commitment to the idea of a republic. In March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was
formally proclaimed. It was a constitutional monarchy under Victor Emmanuel II with a
parliament elected by limited suffrage. It consisted of all of the Italian peninsula, except
the city of Rome (which was still ruled by the pope and protected by French troops) and
the province of Venetia (which was still occupied by Austrian troops). The unification of
Italy was completed when Venetia became part of the Kingdom of Italy during the Austro-
Prussian War of 1866 and Rome (with the exception of Vatican City) followed during the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
The Unification of Germany
Forces Against Unity in Germany
Unlike Italy, Germany in the middle of the nineteenth century was free of direct foreign
domination. It existed as a loose confederation of independent states. Within that loose
confederation, several forces worked against national unity:19_Bartolini_Ch19_153-164.indd 157 27/04/18 1:55 PM