Through a focus on Italy. explain how Italy was unified.
Answers
Italian unification,also known as Risorgimento was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
•However, some of the terre irredente did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918 after Italy defeated Austria–Hungary in World War I. For this reason, sometimes the period is extended to include the late 19th-century and the First World War (1915–1918), until the 4 November 1918 Armistice of Villa Giusti, which is considered the completion of unification.
Answer:
The failure of revolutionary uprisings both in 1831 and 1848 meant that the mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler. King Victor Emmanuel II, to unify the Italian states through war. Chief Minister Cavour who led the movement to unify the regions of Italy was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. By a tactful diplomatic alliance with France engineered by Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. Regular troops and a large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into South Italy and the Kingdom of the two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the support of the local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed the king of United Italy.