CSI HS for International Studies NAME ______

10th Grade Global History Block ______Date ______

HW # 23 Italian Unification

Use the reading on the back of this diagram as well as your learning in class to complete the organizer on Italian Unification

OBSTACLES King Victor Emmanuel

Cavour vs. Garibaldi

Visual/Drawing/Diagram

In the mid-19th century, King Victor-Emmanuel II of Piedmont- Sardinia and his Prime Minister Cavour hatched a scheme to unite all of Italy that involved arranging a secret deal with the French Emperor Napoleon III. Napoleon III agreed to help Piedmont- Sardinia annex Lombardy and Venetia from the Austrians in exchange for being given Nice and Savoy. These two parts of Victor Emmanuel’s kingdom were separated from the rest of it by the Alps mountain range and were more ethnically French than Italian anyway. Cavour did not completely trust Napoleon, but he knew that the French and the Austrians were old enemies.

In 1859 French and Piedmontese troops poured over the border into Lombardy and annexed it. Before they could also seize Venice, however, Napoleon III changed his mind on the whole deal and withdrew his troops. Cavour was outraged. He would not give over Nice and Savoy to France until France finished the rest of the deal.

Soon after, however, Cavour received an unexpected piece of good news. The Italian kingdoms of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany had all risen in revolt against their Hapsburg monarch when they heard about Piedmont’s annexation of Lombardy. Now they were asking to be annexed by Piedmont. Cavour quickly agreed, and Piedmont took over the center of Italy. To get Napoleon III’s agreement, they gave France Nice and Savoy after all.

In the south of Italy during all this time, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was yet another prominent Italian Nationalist leader preaching revolution against foreign rulers. Like Giuseppe Mazzini before him, Garibaldi wanted to unify Italy under a republican government. He approached Cavour for help. At a meeting in Piedmont, Cavour agreed to give Garibaldi weapons, equipment and ships if he would try to overthrow the French ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Cavour eyed Garibaldi suspiciously. Cavour was a wealthy Italian nobleman. Garibaldi was a tough, crude Italian peasant and their goals were not exactly the same. Nevertheless, Cavour decided to give Garibaldi a shot. Garibaldi sailed to Sicily and recruited a small army of 1,000 peasant volunteers. The members of his new army were told to wear red shirts as a uniform. This small Red Shirt army then launched a blazing insurrection that not only toppled the French king, but succeeded in occupying the Papal States as well.

Cavour became alarmed. He had not expected Garibaldi to be as successful as he was. Thousands of peasants were now rallying to Garibaldi – not Victor Emmanuel- as their leader. Cavour quickly sent Garibaldi a note asking him his intentions. Garibaldi replied that since he did not want to see Italians fighting other Italians, he would give the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to Victor Emmanuel. This left only Rome itself and Venetia. In 1866, after Prussia defeated Austria in a war, Victor Emmanuel seized Venetia. Later his troops occupied Rome as well and made that city the new capital of a unified Italy. Unfortunately, Cavour did not live long enough to see it happen. He died in 1861.