Europe in an Age of Nationalism, 1848–70 499small central Italian states. Allied armies entered Lom-
bardy in June 1859 and forced the Austrians to retreat
after the battle of Magenta (a village near Milan),
which gave its name to a purplish-red color as a result
of the quantity of blood spilled there. After another
bloody but inconclusive battle, at Solferino in eastern
Lombardy, the Austrian army retreated into a defensive
complex of fortresses known as the Quadrilateral, and
Napoleon III (who had seen battle for the first time)
withdrew in nausea. More than seventy-five thousand
soldiers were killed in less than two months of fighting,
forty thousand of them in a single day at Solferino, and
Napoleon III was not the only person horrified at the
spectacle of industrialized armies slaughtering each
other. J. Henri Dunant, a wealthy Swiss banker travel-
ing in northern Italy, witnessed the battle of Solferino.
The sight of the wounded, left to die in piles on the
battlefield, so shocked Dunant that he devoted himself
to creating an international organization to care for
wounded soldiers. His efforts led to an international
conference at Geneva and the (first) Geneva Conven-
tion (1864) in which twelve European states accepted
Dunant’s proposed relief society, the International Red
Cross. In one of the final tragedies of Solferino, Dunant
spent his entire fortune on this effort and lived there-
after in poverty, although he shared the first Nobel
Peace Prize in 1901.
After the battle of Solferino, Napoleon III sought
peace with the Austrians without consulting Victor
Emmanuel II. Napoleon and Franz Joseph met privately
at Villafranca (a village in Venetia) in July 1859 and
agreed upon terms: Austria would keep Venetia but
cede Lombardy to France, which could, in turn, give it
to Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel accepted this agree-
ment, despite the fury of Cavour, and yielded Nice and
Savoy to France after plebiscites in the central states
(Parma, Modena, Romagna, and Tuscany) made it clear
that they would join Lombardy in merging with Pied-
mont. Before this new Italian state could be organized,
another uprising began in Sicily. Garibaldi, as impetu-
ous and idealistic as he had been in 1848, seized the
initiative. With the connivance of Cavour, he raised a
volunteer army of 1,067 men, dressed them in red
woolen shirts, and launched an invasion of Sicily (see
document 25.5). Garibaldi’s red-shirts (also known as
“the 1000”) evaded the Neapolitan navy, trekked over-
land across Sicily, and were received as liberators in
Palermo after defeating the Neapolitan army and set-
ting up a provisional government. Garibaldi next
crossed to the mainland, where the Neapolitan army
dissolved, allowing the red-shirts to enter Naples.
Garibaldi planned to continue his march northward to
take Rome, believing that “[t]he Vatican is a dagger in
the heart of Italy,” and an uprising to support him be-
gan in the papal states in September 1860.
Cavour seized the opportunity provided by
Garibaldi’s victories to unite northern and southern
Italy. Using the Roman rebellion as an excuse to inter-
vene, Cavour sent Piedmontese armies into the papal
states where they won rapid victories. After plebiscites
in Sicily, southern Italy, and central Italy favored union
with the north, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in
March 1861. Victor Emmanuel became the first king of
Italy, and the Statutoprovided the basis of an Italian
constitution, including a parliamentary government
elected by limited suffrage (2 percent of the popula-
tion). The new kingdom did not include Venetia
(which was still Austrian) or Rome (where the French
army remained). Garibaldi attempted another uprising
in 1862 to annex Rome as the natural capital of Italy,DOCUMENT 25.5
Garibaldi Calls Italians
to Arms, 1860
Italians! The Sicilians are fighting against the ene-
mies of Italy, and for Italy. It is the duty of every
Italian to succour them with words, money, arms,
and, above all, in person.
The misfortunes of Italy arise from the indif-
ference of one province to the fate of others.
The redemption of Italy began from the mo-
ment that men of the same land ran to help their
distressed brothers.
Left to themselves, the brave Sicilians will
have to fight, not only the mercenaries of the
Bourbon [of the government of Naples], but also
those of Austria and the Priest of Rome.
Let the inhabitants of the free provinces lift
their voices in behalf of their struggling brethren,
and impel their brave youth to the conflict.
To arms! Let me put an end, once and for all,
to the miseries of so many centuries. Prove to the
world that it is no lie that Roman generations in-
habited this land.
The Annual Register: 1860.London: J. G. and F. Rivington, 1861.