Assess the effect of foreign influences on Italian unification.

I. Introduction

a. One of the most important lessons learned from the 1848 revolutions was that

Austria could not be ejected from Italy without the help of foreign allies

b. Influence – pressure or persuasion to sway things in a certain way

c. Throughout the course of the Italian unification movement, few foreign nations

exercised influence: Sardinia, France, Austria, and possibly Prussia and the

German states

d. When analyzing foreign influence on unification, split into two parts:

process/events and result

e. Foreign nations had a great impact on the process

f. Sardinia had only major lasting effect on result

II. Sardinia

a. Sardinia had a great interest in the unification of Italy

i. Many Sardinians were ethnically Italian

ii. Count Camillo Benso di Cavour wished to free Italy of foreign domination

and bring about political transformation on the peninsula (nationalist)

b. Cavour

i. Became PM in 1852

ii. One of his goals was to strengthen Sicily

iii. Publicized Italian problem at Paris peace conference for Crimean War

c. Sardinia was the only nation to gain a diplomatic advantage from the Crimean

war – European nations supported Sardinia against Austria

III. France

a. Four years after the Crimean War, Sardinia succeeded in forming an alliance with

Louis Napoleon of France

b. France had interest in central Italian states

c. Plombières Alliance – July 20, 1858

i. Secret agreement between Cavour and Louis Napoleon at a spa

ii. Napoleon promised to join war to drive Austria out of Italy, as long as it

could be justified in the eyes of diplomacy

iii. Reorganized as confederation of four states – upper, central, papal, Two

Sicilies

iv. Nice and Savoy were given to France

v. Sardinia needed only provoke a war with Austria

IV. War with Austria

a. Cavour provoked war with Austria by sheltering Austrian deserters and

encouraging Austria’s Italian provinces to revolt

b. April 23, 1859 – Austria sends ultimatum to Sardinia, war begins four days later

c. France was becoming less confident about alliance

i. After two battles, Austria had still not been decisively defeated

ii. War stirred anti-French sentiment in Prussia and German states

d. France made peace with Austria at Villafranca – July 11, 1859

i. Armistice between France and Austria

ii. Austria gave up most of Lombardy, but kept Venetia

iii. France gave Lombardy along with Nice and Savoy back to Sardinia

iv. Italian nationalists angry that Austria kept Venetia

e. Treaty of Turin – March 24, 1860

i. France regained Nice and Savoy in exchange for consent for Sardinia to

annex central Italian states

f. Rest of events leading to unification were conducted entirely by Sardinia on

peninsula

V. Subtle foreign influences on process/events

a. Paris peace conference for Crimean War caused European powers (Britain,

Russia, Prussia) to support Sardinia but not actually join in war with Austria

i. Austria was kept mostly isolated, which helped in its defeat

b. Garibaldi wanted to attack Venetia, but the thought of war with Austria and/or

France influenced Cavour keep military forces on the peninsula

VI. Foreign influences on results

a. Result of movement – unified Italian kingdom under rule of Victor Emmanuel II

b. The only parts of the peninsula that were not unified was Rome, which was left

to the Pope, and Venetia

i. Prussia gave Venetia to Italy in 1866

ii. Italy gained Rome on September 20, 1870, after withdrawal of French

troops

c. France did not succeed in gaining central Italian states

d. Austria lost all Italian provinces

e. Sardinia had a major influence on unification, but annexed Italy, so it might not

be considered a “foreign nation”

VII. Conclusion

a. Although foreign nations (Sardinia, France, Austria, Prussia, German states) had

great effect on process leading up to unification, only Sardinia had a lasting

effect on the results

b. However, the foreign nations helped in a way that decisively shaped the process

c. It is unclear whether Italian unification would have been achievable without

influence of foreign nations