Major European Events from 1849 to 1878
Senior 6 · History
Major European Events from 1849 to 1878
Lesson 2 of 5
25 min
Read the dates on the map before the text. Lombardy carries 1859; Parma, Modena, Tuscany and the northern Papal States 1860; the whole Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 1860; Venetia 1866; Rome and the land around it 1870. Notice also the small areas marked as going "To France" in 1860: Savoy and Nice. The map answers when; this lesson explains how, and above all how much of the work was done by foreign powers.
Definition
Annexation: the formal addition of a territory to a state.
Plebiscite: a direct vote of the people on a single question, such as whether their region should join another state. In 1860 plebiscites in central and southern Italy approved union with Piedmont by very large majorities, though voting was public and pressure was common.
Great powers: the strongest states of nineteenth-century Europe: Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Diplomacy: the management of relations between states by negotiation, treaties and alliances.
| Stage | What happened | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Preparing Piedmont (1852 to 1856) | Cavour, Prime Minister from 1852, built railways, reformed finances and the army. Piedmont joined Britain and France in the Crimean War (1855), and at the peace congress in Paris (1856) Cavour raised the "Italian question". | Piedmont gained the goodwill of France and Britain. |
| 2. The deal at Plombières (July 1858) | Cavour met Napoleon III secretly. France would help Piedmont drive Austria out of northern Italy; in return Piedmont would give France Savoy and Nice. | Piedmont had a great-power ally. |
| 3. War with Austria (1859) | Austria was provoked into declaring war. French and Piedmontese armies won at Magenta (4 June) and Solferino (24 June). Napoleon III then made a separate armistice with Austria at Villafranca (11 July). | Lombardy went to Piedmont; Venetia stayed Austrian. Cavour resigned in anger, returning in 1860. |
| 4. Central Italy (March 1860) | The rulers of Tuscany, Parma and Modena had fled; plebiscites there and in the Romagna voted for union with Piedmont. Napoleon III accepted it in exchange for Savoy and Nice. | Northern and central Italy united under Victor Emmanuel. |
| 5. The Thousand (May to October 1860) | Garibaldi and about a thousand volunteers sailed from near Genoa, landed at Marsala in Sicily on 11 May, took Sicily and entered Naples on 7 September. Cavour sent the Piedmontese army south through the Papal States to stop Garibaldi marching on Rome. They met at Teano on 26 October. | The South joined by plebiscite; the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861. |
| 6. Venetia (1866) | Italy allied with Prussia against Austria. The Italians were beaten at Custoza and at sea at Lissa, but Prussia won the war. | Austria gave up Venetia, which joined Italy. |
| 7. Rome (1870) | War between France and Prussia forced Napoleon III to withdraw the French garrison that protected the Pope. Italian troops entered Rome on 20 September 1870. | Rome joined by plebiscite and became the capital in 1871. |
| Power | Role | Weight of its contribution |
|---|---|---|
| France (Napoleon III) | Fought Austria in 1859; accepted the annexation of the centre in 1860; but took Savoy and Nice, and kept troops in Rome until 1870. | Decisive in 1859; also the main obstacle to taking Rome. |
| Austria | The chief enemy: held Lombardy and Venetia and protected the rulers of the central duchies. | Its defeats in 1859 and 1866 opened the way. |
| Prussia | Allied with Italy in 1866; its victories over Austria (1866) and France (1870) delivered Venetia and Rome. | Decisive for the last two stages. |
| Britain | Sympathetic to a liberal Italy and hostile to Austrian and papal rule; did not obstruct Garibaldi and quickly recognised the new kingdom. | Diplomatic support, no troops. |
| Russia | Hostile to Austria after the Crimean War, so did not help it in 1859. | Indirect: Austria was isolated. |
Count the stages that needed a foreign war: 1859 (France), 1866 (Prussia) and 1870 (Prussia against France). Italians fought bravely in all of them, but only in 1860, with Garibaldi's campaign and the Piedmontese army's march south that followed it, did they win territory by their own arms alone.
Warning
1861 is not the end. The Kingdom of Italy proclaimed on 17 March 1861 did not yet include Venetia or Rome. Unification was completed only in 1870, and Rome became the capital in 1871. Examiners check that you date the process to 1871, not 1861.
Tip
A three-part answer for "the role of foreign powers". (1) What each power did, with dates. (2) How important it was, stage by stage. (3) What Italians did for themselves: Cavour's diplomacy that won the alliances, Garibaldi's volunteers, the plebiscites. The best answers conclude that foreign help was necessary but was obtained by Italian diplomacy.
Important
Discuss. In 1860 Piedmont gave Savoy and Nice, Garibaldi's own birthplace, to France as the price of French support. Was Cavour right to pay it? Consider what would have happened in central Italy without Napoleon III's agreement.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the analysis, the staircase diagram, the tables, the definitions and the exercises.
