Italian unification (Italian: Risorgimento [risordʒiˈmento], meaning the Resurgence) was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century.
Nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification. Reforms introduced by France into its Italian states in the Napoleonic period remained after the states were restored to their former rulers in 1815 and provided an impetus for the movement. Secret groups such as Young Italy advocated Italian unity, and leaders such as Camillo Cavour, who founded the journal Il Risorgimento (1847), Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Giuseppe Mazzini called for liberal reforms and a united Italy. After the failure of the Revolutions of 1848, leadership passed to Cavour and Piedmont, which formed an alliance with France against Austria (1859). The unification of most of Italy in 1861, followed by the annexation of Venetia (1866) and papal Rome (1870), marked the end of the Risorgimento.
The Unification of Italy – Key points
By 1870 Italy had not known political union for about 1,500 years. It was a collection of separate states.
Various states amongst these had been controlled at different points by France, Spain and Austria - Hungary. – War and foreign domination was a familiar feature.
The Southern Italian states were reactionary (opposed to modernity and individual freedom). They were economically and socially backward displaying strong echoes of medieval feudalism.
The northern states were
The Catholic Church dominated the central ‘Papal States’ (Papacy – Catholic Church).
The Risorgimento (rebirth) occurred after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. Many Italian intellectuals began to call for Italian unification and uniformity in the national language and culture. The kingdom of Piedmont in the north was the driving force behind this.
A series of military campaigns were fought which separated parts of Italy from Austria (encouraged by France) and brought all the territories together by 1870.
Rome was the last independent territory to fall to Italian troops.
Many Italian nationalists felt that the unification was incomplete; they had ambitions for more Austro – Hungarian territory in the north east and east across the Adriatic Sea. This concept of an incomplete union became known as ‘irredentism’.
What is the Bhagavad-Gita?
The Bhagavad-Gita is the eternal message of spiritual wisdom from ancient India. The word Gita means song and the word Bhagavad means God, often the Bhagavad-Gita is called
