112-458: Francesco Crispi (4 October 1818 – 11 August 1901) was an Italian patriot and statesman. He was among the main protagonists of the Risorgimento , a close friend and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi , and one of the architects of Italian unification in 1860. Crispi served as Prime Minister of Italy for six years, from 1887 to 1891, and again from 1893 to 1896, and was
224-632: A Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, a regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies , commanded by Guglielmo Pepe , a Carbonaro (member of the secret republican organization), mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, Ferdinand I , agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, although, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of
336-574: A Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the pope in his 1842 book Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians . Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism. Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic , which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position
448-746: A constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On 23 February 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris , and the Second French Republic was proclaimed. By the time the revolution in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions—four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state. Meanwhile, in Lombardy, tensions increased until
560-640: A letter repudiating the aggrandizement of Piedmont in the Italian unification . He proclaimed himself a republican and a partisan of national unity. He travelled around Italy under various disguises and with counterfeit passports. Twice in that year he went the round of the Sicilian cities in disguise preparing the insurrectionist movement of 1860. Crispi briefly visited Greece in October 1859. He helped persuade Giuseppe Garibaldi to sail with his Expedition of
672-613: A long time experienced a privileged status but was not converted into a province . Under Augustus , the previous differences in municipal and political rights were abolished and Roman Italy was subdivided into administrative regions ruled directly by the Roman Senate. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and after 568 was disputed between
784-594: A major banking scandal and fell from power in 1896 after the devastating loss of the Battle of Adwa , which repelled Italy's colonial ambitions over Ethiopia. Due to his authoritarian policies and style, Crispi is often regarded as a strongman and seen as a precursor of the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini . Crispi's paternal family came originally from the small agricultural community of Palazzo Adriano , in south-western Sicily . It had been founded in
896-446: A move until the end of the war. Cavour's envoy, Giuseppe La Farina , was arrested and expelled from the island. He was replaced by the more malleable Agostino Depretis , who gained Garibaldi's trust and was appointed as pro-dictator. During the dictatorial government of Garibaldi, Crispi secured the resignation of the pro-dictator Depretis, and continued his fierce opposition to Cavour. In Naples , Garibaldi's provisional government
1008-598: A movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals and were strongly anticlerical. The Carbonari movement spread across Italy. Conservative governments feared
1120-534: A new political society called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy) , whose mottos were " Dio e Popolo " ('God and People') and " Unione, Forza e Libertà " ('Union, Strength and Freedom"), which sought the unification of Italy. Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of Piedmont ), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America, although, spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning
1232-653: A number of political figures including the Neapolitan liberal activist and poet, Carlo Poerio . In 1842 Crispi wrote about the necessity to educate poor people, about the huge damage caused by the excessive wealth of the Catholic Church and regarding the need for all citizens, including women, to be equal before the law. In 1845 Crispi took up a judgeship in Naples , where he distinguished himself for his liberal and revolutionary ideas. On 20 December 1847, Crispi
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#17327758019301344-412: A parliamentary assembly. This proposal was also supported by the federalist Carlo Cattaneo . Garibaldi announced that the decision would have been taken by the two pro-dictators of Sicily and Naples, Antonio Mordini and Giorgio Pallavicino, who both opted for the plebiscite. On 13 October Crispi resigned from the government of Garibaldi. The general election of 1861 took place on 27 January, even before
1456-826: A political rally held in the Apollo Theater, a young Roman priest, the Abbé Carlo Arduini , had made a speech in which he had declared that the Temporal power of the Holy See was a "historical lie, a political imposture, and a religious immorality". In early March 1849, Giuseppe Mazzini arrived in Rome and was appointed Chief Minister. In the Constitution of the Roman Republic, religious freedom
1568-404: A reformer, but conflicts with the revolutionaries soured him on the idea of constitutional government. In November 1848, following the assassination of his Minister Pellegrino Rossi , Pius IX fled just before Giuseppe Garibaldi and other patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a Roman Republic on 9 February. On 2 February 1849, at
1680-593: A reformist leader, but his political style provoked many protests from his opponents, who accused him of being an authoritarian Prime Minister and a strongman . True to his initial progressive leanings he moved ahead with stalled reforms, abolishing the death penalty, revoking anti-strike laws, limiting police powers, and reforming the penal code and the administration of justice with the help of his Minister of Justice Giuseppe Zanardelli , reorganising charities and passing public health laws and legislation to protect emigrants that worked abroad. He sought popular support for
1792-463: A revolutionary conspirator and continued his close friendship with Mazzini, involving himself in the exile politics of the national movement, abandoning Sicilian separatism. On 10 January 1856, he moved to Paris , where he continued his work as a journalist. On 22 August, he was informed that his father had died and that three years earlier also his mother had died, but that news had been hidden by his father who did not want to increase his sorrows. On
1904-408: A short fight, the whole band was taken prisoner and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of Calabrians who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. The Bandiera brothers and their nine companions were executed by firing squad; some accounts state they cried " Viva l'Italia! " ('Long live Italy!') as they fell. The moral effect was enormous throughout Italy, the action of the authorities
2016-523: A struggle began between Garibaldi's government and the emissaries of Cavour on the question of timing of the annexation of Sicily by Italy. It established a Sicilian Army and a fleet of the Dictatorship Government of Sicily. The pace of Garibaldi's victories had worried Cavour, who in early July sent to the provisional government a proposal of immediate annexation of Sicily to Piedmont . Garibaldi, however, refused vehemently to allow such
2128-468: A success and concluded with a plebiscite that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia , the last territorial conquest before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861. The sea venture was the only desired action that was jointly decided by the "four fathers of the nation" Giuseppe Mazzini , Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II , and Camillo Cavour , pursuing divergent goals. Crispi utilized his political influence to bolster
2240-546: A supporter of the House of Savoy . Pallavicino immediately stated that Crispi was unable and inappropriate to hold the office of Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Cavour stated that Southern Italy would not accept anything but the unconditional annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia by plebiscite. Crispi, who still had the hope to continue the revolution to rescue Rome and Venice , strongly opposed this solution, proposing to elect
2352-592: A system of city-states . Southern Italy was governed by the long-lasting Kingdom of Sicily or Kingdom of Naples , which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the pope as a temporal kingdom known as the Papal States . This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period . Italy, including
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#17327758019302464-475: A unitary monarchy. Moreover, during his term as minister, Crispi tried to unite the many factions which were part of the Left , at that time. On 9 January 1878, the death of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and the accession of King Umberto enabled Crispi to secure the formal establishment of a unitary monarchy, the new monarch taking the title of Umberto I of Italy instead of Umberto IV of Savoy. On 7 February 1878,
2576-559: A willingness to give the French whatever they wanted in return for essential military intervention. As a result of this France received Nice and Savoy in 1860. Secondly, the patriots realized that the pope was an enemy, and could never be the leader of a united Italy. Thirdly, they realized that republicanism was too weak a force. Unification had to be based on a strong monarchy, and in practice that meant reliance on Piedmont (the Kingdom of Sardinia ) under King Victor Emmanuel II (1820–1878) of
2688-468: The Austrian Empire , as they directly controlled the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia and indirectly the duchies of Parma , Modena and Tuscany . With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes , the Italian tricolour went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of
2800-713: The Great Eastern Crisis Crispi was offered Albania as possible compensation by Bismarck and the British Earl of Derby if Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia , however, he refused and preferred the Italian Alpine regions under Austro-Hungarian rule. In December 1877 he replaced Giovanni Nicotera as Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Depretis. Although his short term of office lasted just 70 days, they were instrumental in establishing
2912-614: The Holy Alliance . Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to Paris . In Milan , Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli organized several attempts to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned. Denis Mack Smith argues: Few people in 1830 believed that an Italian nation might exist. There were eight states in
3024-569: The Holy Alliance . Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many supporters of revolution in Sicily , including the scholar Michele Amari , were forced into exile during the decades that followed. The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in Piedmont was Santorre di Santarosa , who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under
3136-508: The House of Savoy . Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810–1861) provided critical leadership. He was a modernizer interested in agrarian improvements, banks, railways and free trade. He opened a newspaper as soon as censorship allowed it: Il Risorgimento called for the independence of Italy, a league of Italian princes, and moderate reforms. He had the ear of the king and in 1852 became prime minister. He ran an efficient active government, promoting rapid economic modernization while upgrading
3248-551: The House of Savoy . The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria , where troops adopted the green, white, and red tricolore of the Cisalpine Republic . King Victor Emmanuel I abdicated in response, and the regent for the new king, Prince Charles Albert , approved a new constitution to appease the revolutionaries, but when King Charles Felix returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from
3360-431: The Italian unification project. The various groups participated in the expedition for a variety of reasons: for Garibaldi, it was to achieve a united Italy; for the Sicilian bourgeoisie, an independent Sicily as part of the kingdom of Italy, and for the mass farmers, land distribution and the end of oppression. After the fall of Palermo, Crispi was appointed First Secretary of State in the provisional government; shortly
3472-600: The Kingdom of Sardinia ) in a family of farmers. In 1849, he moved to Turin , the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia, where he worked as a journalist. During this period he became a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini , a republican politician, journalist and activist. In 1853 Crispi was implicated in the Mazzini conspiracy and was arrested by the Piedmontese policy and sent to Malta . Here, on 27 December 1854, he married Rose Montmasson. Then he moved to London where he became
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3584-605: The Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire , losing its unity for centuries. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire , the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor ; however, the emperor was an absentee German -speaking foreigner who had little interest in governing Italy and indeed never controlled the entire peninsula. As a result, Italy gradually developed into
3696-554: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . His small force landed on the island of Ponza . It overpowered guards and liberated hundreds of prisoners. In sharp contrast to his hypothetical expectations, there was no local uprising and the invaders were quickly overpowered. Pisacane was killed by angry locals who suspected he was leading a Romani band trying to steal their food. The Second War of Italian Independence began in April 1859 when
3808-917: The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under the direct or indirect control of the Spanish Habsburgs . The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg , which ruled the Spanish Empire , continued to rule southern Italy and the Duchy of Milan until the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Following this war
3920-604: The Republic of San Marco was proclaimed under Daniele Manin . While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy–Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters took a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March came into conflict with their constitutional ministers. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX. Initially, Pius IX had been something of
4032-479: The Risorgimento ( / r ɪ ˌ s ɔːr dʒ ɪ ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ / , Italian: [risordʒiˈmento] ; lit. ' Resurgence ' ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian Peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of Sardinia , resulting in the creation of the Kingdom of Italy . Inspired by
4144-652: The Treaty of Rapallo in 1920. Some historians see the Risorgimento as continuing to that time, which is the view presented at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at Altare della Patria in Rome. Italy was unified by the Roman Republic in the latter part of the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a de facto territorial extension of the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire , and for
4256-604: The Tricolour Day . The Italian national colours appeared for the first time on a tricolour cockade in 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag , which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in 1796. After Napoleon fell (1814), the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by
4368-545: The campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–97 when a series of client republics were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last Roman-German Emperor , Francis II , after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz . French rule destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of
4480-569: The "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in Italia Mia . Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince , which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the barbarians ". The Italian Wars saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with Charles VIII's invasion of Naples in 1494. However,
4592-708: The Albanian question, Crispi stated he was "an Albanian by blood and heart" and an Italo–Albanian from Sicily. At the age of five, he was sent to a family in Villafranca , where he could receive an education. In 1829, at 11 years old, he attended a seminary in Palermo , where he studied classical subjects. The rector of the institute was Giuseppe Crispi , his uncle. Crispi attended the seminary until 1834 or 1835, when his father, after becoming mayor of Ribera , encountered major difficulties in health and finances. In
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4704-833: The Austrian Habsburgs struggled for dominance with the Spanish Bourbons until the end of the War of the Austrian Succession . A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in Gian Rinaldo Carli 's Della Patria degli Italiani , written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. " 'Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian', he explained." The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with
4816-663: The Austrian troops. Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centred in Modena faded. At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal Legations of Bologna , Ferrara , Ravenna , Forlì , Ancona and Perugia . These successful revolutions, which adopted the tricolore in place of the Papal flag , quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed
4928-547: The Austrians besieged Venice, which was defended by a volunteer army led by Daniele Manin and Guglielmo Pepe , who were forced to surrender on 24 August. Pro-independence fighters were hanged en masse in Belfiore , while the Austrians moved to restore order in central Italy, restoring the princes who had been expelled and re-establishing Papal control over the Legations. The revolutions were thus completely crushed. Morale
5040-604: The Austrians retreated. Oreto River The Oreto is a 22-kilometre (14 mi) river in Sicily . Its source is located between Altofonte and Monreale , a few kilometers from Palermo . It gives the name to the Oreto Valley and crosses the south-east portion of the city before flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea . Called " Wādī al-ʿAbbās " during the Islamic period , the river has had an important role in
5152-528: The Austrians ten days later. There remained the Roman and Venetian Republics. In April, a French force under Charles Oudinot was sent to Rome. Apparently, the French first wished to mediate between the pope and his subjects, but soon the French were determined to restore the pope. After a two-month siege, Rome capitulated on 29 June 1849 and the pope was restored. Garibaldi and Mazzini once again fled into exile—in 1850 Garibaldi went to New York City . Meanwhile,
5264-518: The Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its 8 million inhabitants, seemed aloof and indifferent: Sicily and Naples had once been ruled by Spain, and it had always been foreign to the rest of Italy. The common people in each region, and even the intellectual elite, spoke their mutually unintelligible dialects, and lacked the least vestiges of national consciousness. They wanted good government, not self-government, and had welcomed Napoleon and
5376-514: The Carbonari, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members. Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III (who, as a young man, had fought on their side) to death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858, when Felice Orsini , Giovanni Andrea Pieri , Carlo Di Rudio and Andrea Gomez threw three bombs at him. Many leaders of
5488-405: The Chamber of Deputies . During the autumn of 1877, as President of the Chamber, he went to London , Paris and Berlin on a confidential mission, establishing cordial personal relationships with British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone and Foreign Minister Lord Granville and other English statesmen, and with Otto von Bismarck , by then Chancellor of the German Empire . In 1877 during
5600-566: The French as more equitable and efficient than their native dynasties, many of which had died out in the 18th century. After 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula. The Duke of Modena , Francis IV , was an ambitious man, and he hoped to become king of northern Italy by increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that he would not act against those who subverted opposition toward
5712-455: The Garibaldian invasion of the papal states, foreseeing the French occupation of Rome and the disaster of Mentana . By methods of the same character as those subsequently employed against himself by Felice Cavallotti , he carried on the violent agitation known as the Lobbia affair, in which sundry conservative deputies were, on insufficient grounds, accused of corruption. On the outbreak of the Franco-German War , he worked energetically to impede
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#17327758019305824-422: The Interior in the Depretis cabinet. Following Depretis's death on 29 July 1887 Crispi, abandoned the Dissident Left and became the leader of the Left group; he was also appointed, by the King, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs . On 29 July 1887 , Francesco Crispi was sworn in as the new prime minister. He was the first one from Southern Italy . Crispi immediately distinguished himself, for being
5936-404: The Italian people towards freedom and independence. The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the Cittadella of Alessandria , during the revolutions of 1820s , after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes. An important figure of this period was Francesco Melzi d'Eril , serving as vice-president of
6048-462: The King of Sardinia (who ruled Piedmont and Savoy ), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria ( First Italian Independence War ). After initial successes at Goito and Peschiera , he was decisively defeated by Radetzky at the Battle of Custoza on 24 July. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of Lombardy–Venetia save Venice itself, where
6160-453: The Milanese and Venetians rose in revolt on 18 March 1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the Austrian garrison after five days of street fights—18–22 March ( Cinque giornate di Milano ). An Austrian army under Marshal Josef Radetzky besieged Milan, but due to the defection of many of his troops and the support of the Milanese for the revolt, they were forced to retreat to the Quadrilatero fortresses. Soon, Charles Albert ,
6272-401: The Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death. Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; Vittorio Alfieri , Francesco Lomonaco and Niccolò Tommaseo are generally considered three great literary precursors of Italian nationalism , but
6384-400: The Napoleonic era , in 1797, the first official adoption of the Italian tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic , a Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France , took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national self-determination . This event is celebrated by
6496-496: The Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the major powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire (including Austria ), Spain , and France . Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League , in 1454, and the 15th century foreign policy of Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici . Leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante , Petrarch , Boccaccio , Machiavelli and Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that
6608-425: The Sardinian Prime Minister Count Cavour found an ally in Napoleon III . Napoleon III signed a secret alliance and Cavour provoked Austria with military maneuvers and eventually led to the war in April 1859. Cavour called for volunteers to enlist in the Italian liberation. The Austrians planned to use their army to beat the Sardinians before the French could come to their aid. Austria had an army of 140,000 men, while
6720-401: The Sardinians had a mere 70,000 men by comparison. However, the Austrians' numerical strength was outweighed by an ineffectual leadership appointed by the Emperor on the basis of noble lineage, rather than military competency. Their army was slow to enter Piedmont, taking almost ten days to travel the 80 kilometres (50 mi) to Turin . By this time, the French had reinforced the Sardinians, so
6832-399: The Thousand , which disembarked on Sicily on 11 May 1860. The Expedition was formed by a corps of volunteers led by Garibaldi, who landed in Sicily in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , ruled by the Bourbons . The project was an ambitious and risky venture aiming to conquer, with a thousand men, a kingdom with a larger regular army and a more powerful navy. The expedition was
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#17327758019306944-399: The administration of the army and the financial and legal systems. He sought out support from patriots across Italy. In 1855, the kingdom became an ally of Britain and France in the Crimean War , which gave Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers. In 1857, Carlo Pisacane , an aristocrat from Naples who had embraced Mazzini's ideas, decided to provoke a rising in
7056-636: The art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848. Many of the key intellectual and political leaders operated from exile; most Risorgimento patriots lived and published their work abroad after successive failed revolutions. Exile became a central theme of the foundational legacy of the Risorgimento as the narrative of the Italian nation fighting for independence. The exiles were deeply immersed in European ideas, and often hammered away at what Europeans saw as Italian vices, especially effeminacy and indolence. These negative stereotypes emerged from Enlightenment notions of national character that stressed
7168-401: The author of the lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia , from its opening line . On 5 January 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy , as citizens stopped smoking cigars and playing the lottery , which denied Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this, revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples . In Sicily the revolt resulted in
7280-404: The borders of the Kingdom of Italy, planting the seeds of Italian irredentism . Italy celebrates the anniversary of the unification on 17 March (the date of proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy ). Some of the states that had been envisaged as part of the unification process ( terre irredente ) did not join the Kingdom until after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in World War I , culminating in
7392-421: The carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor and empress were unhurt. Orsini himself was wounded on the right temple and stunned. He tended his wounds and returned to his lodgings, where police found him
7504-444: The constitution of 1812, which included the principles of representative democracy and the centrality of Parliament in the government of the state. Vincenzo Fardella was elected president of Sicilian Parliament . The idea was also put forward for a confederation of all the states of Italy . The constitution was quite advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of an Italian confederation of states. Crispi
7616-401: The creation of a united Italian nation. The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired similar activity in the Duchy of Parma , where the tricolore flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess Marie Louise left the city during the political upheaval. Insurrection provinces planned to unite as the Italian United Provinces , which prompted Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against
7728-423: The death of Pope Pius IX necessitated a conclave , the first to be held after the unification of Italy. Crispi, helped by Mancini and Cardinal Pecci (afterwards Leo XIII ), persuaded the Sacred College to hold the conclave in Rome, establishing the legitimacy of the capital. The statesmanlike qualities displayed on this occasion were insufficient to avert the storm of indignation of Crispi's opponents when he
7840-411: The evening of 14 January 1858, as the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie de Montijo were on their way to the theatre in the Rue Le Peletier , the precursor of the Opera Garnier , to see, rather ironically, Rossini 's William Tell , the Italian revolutionary Felice Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage. The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of
7952-492: The first prime minister from Southern Italy . Crispi was internationally famous and often mentioned along with world statesmen such as Otto von Bismarck , William Ewart Gladstone , and Lord Salisbury . Originally an Italian patriot and democrat liberal, Crispi went on to become a bellicose authoritarian prime minister and an ally and admirer of Bismarck. He was indefatigable in stirring up hostility toward France. His career ended amid controversy and failure: he got involved in
8064-513: The fledgling revolutionary movement. In 1844, two brothers from Venice , Attilio and Emilio Bandiera , members of Young Italy , planned to make a raid on the Calabrian coast against the Kingdom of Two Sicilies in support of Italian unification. They assembled a band of about twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives and set sail on their venture on 12 June 1844. Four days later they landed near Crotone , intending to go to Cosenza , liberate
8176-538: The formal birth of the Kingdom of Italy , which took place on 17 March. Francesco Crispi was elected as a member of the Historical Left , in the constituency of Castelvetrano ; he would retain his seat in all successive legislatures until the end of his life. Crispi acquired the reputation of being the most aggressive and most impetuous member of his parliamentary group. He denounced the Right for "diplomatising
8288-629: The government, and who would now be elected by the electors, in the municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants and in all the provincial capitals. The law also introduced the office of the prefect. The reform was approved by the Senate in December 1888 and entered into force in February 1889. Risorgimento Timeline The unification of Italy ( Italian : Unità d'Italia , Italian: [uniˈta ddiˈtaːlja] ), also known as
8400-493: The influence of the environment and history on a people's moral predisposition. Italian exiles both challenged and embraced the stereotypes and typically presented gendered interpretations of Italy's political "degeneration". They called for a masculine response to feminine weaknesses as the basis of national regeneration and fashioned their image of the future Italian nation firmly in the standards of European nationalism. In 1820, liberal Spaniards successfully revolted , demanding
8512-579: The intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after the First French Empire collapsed in 1814. The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleon Bonaparte 's choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail,
8624-594: The later fifteenth century by Orthodox Christian Albanians ( Arbëreshë ), who settled in Sicily after the Ottoman conquest of Albania . His grandfather was an Arbëreshë Orthodox priest; the parish priests were married men, and Arbëreshë was the family language down to the lifetime of the young Crispi. Crispi himself was born in Ribera , Sicily, to Tommaso Crispi, a grain merchant and Giuseppa Genova from Ribera; he
8736-532: The law was to give the cabinet the right to decide on the number and functions of the ministries. The prospect was also to keep the King (as well as provide the Albertine Statute ) free to decide on the organization of the various ministries. Moreover, the reform provided the establishment of secretaries, who were supposed to help ministers and, at the same time, do them as spokesmen in parliament. The reform
8848-536: The leaders of the Left, Agostino Depretis, and the Right, Marco Minghetti , formed an alliance based on a flexible centrist coalition of government which isolated the extremes of the left and the right ; these politics was known as Trasformismo . Crispi, who was a strong supporter of two-party system , strongly opposed it and founded a progressive and radical parliamentary group called Dissident Left . The group
8960-531: The most famous proto-nationalist work was Alessandro Manzoni 's I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) , widely read as thinly veiled allegorical criticism of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect , a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it. Three ideals of unification appeared. Vincenzo Gioberti ,
9072-512: The most prominent being Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi . Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could − and therefore should − be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to Marseille in France, where he organized
9184-461: The next day. Of the five conspirators, only one remained unidentified. In 1908 (seven years after Crispi's death) one of them, Charles DeRudio , claimed to have seen, half an hour before the attack, a man approaching and talking with Orsini, and recognized him as Crispi. But no evidence has ever been found regarding Crispi's role in the attack. Anyway on 7 August 1858, he was expelled from France. In June 1859 Crispi returned to Italy after publishing
9296-619: The old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors , the Italians gave to King Victor Emmanuel II the epithet of Father of the Fatherland ( Italian : Padre della Patria ). Even after 1871, many ethnic Italian-speakers ( Trentino-Alto Adigan Italians, Savoyard Italians , Corfiot Italians , Niçard Italians , Swiss Italians , Corsican Italians , Maltese Italians , Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) remained outside
9408-530: The peninsula, each with distinct laws and traditions. No one had had the desire or the resources to revive Napoleon's partial experiment in unification. The settlement of 1814–15 had merely restored regional divisions, with the added disadvantage that the decisive victory of Austria over France temporarily hindered Italians in playing off their former oppressors against each other. ... Italians who, like Ugo Foscolo and Gabriele Rossetti , harboured patriotic sentiments, were driven into exile. The largest Italian state,
9520-558: The political prisoners, and issue their proclamations. Tragically for the Bandiera brothers, they did not find the insurgent band they were told awaited them, so they moved towards La Sila . They were ultimately betrayed by one of their party, the Corsican Pietro Boccheciampe, and by some peasants who believed them to be Turkish pirates. A detachment of gendarmes and volunteers were sent against them, and after
9632-726: The proclamation of the Kingdom of Sicily with Ruggero Settimo as chairman of the independent state until 1849, when the Bourbon army took back full control of the island on 15 May 1849 by force. In February 1848, there were revolts in Tuscany that were relatively nonviolent, after which Grand Duke Leopold II granted the Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican provisional government formed in Tuscany during February shortly after this concession. On 21 February, Pope Pius IX granted
9744-482: The projected alliance with France, and to drive the Giovanni Lanza cabinet to Rome. The death of Urbano Rattazzi in 1873 induced Crispi's friends to put forward his candidature to the leadership of the Left; but Crispi, anxious to reassure the crown, secured the election of Agostino Depretis . After the general election in 1876 , in which the Left gained almost 70% of votes, Crispi was elected President of
9856-587: The rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna , the unification process was precipitated by the Revolutions of 1848 , and reached completion in 1871 after the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Individuals who played a major part in the struggle for unification and liberation from foreign domination included King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy , Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour , Giuseppe Garibaldi , and Giuseppe Mazzini . Borrowing from
9968-513: The rebels. Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe sent a naval expedition to Ancona, which restored Papal authority there and even arrested Italian patriots living in France. In early 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had revolted. This military action suppressed much of
10080-421: The revolution". Personal ambition and restlessness made him difficult to cooperate with and he earned himself the nickname of Il Solitario (The Loner). In 1864, he finally deserted Mazzini and announced he was a monarchist, because as he put it in a letter to Mazzini: "The monarchy unites us; the republic would divide us." In 1866 he refused to enter Baron Bettino Ricasoli 's cabinet; in 1867 he worked to impede
10192-500: The rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them Eugène de Beauharnais , Viceroy of Italy , and Joachim Murat , King of Naples ) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the Rimini Proclamation , which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers. During
10304-518: The same period, Crispi became a close friend of the poet and doctor Vincenzo Navarro, whose friendship marked his initiation to the Romanticism . In 1835 he studied law and literature at the University of Palermo receiving a law degree in 1837; in the same year, he fell in love with Rosina D'Angelo, the daughter of a goldsmith . Despite his father's ban, Crispi married Rosina in 1837, when she
10416-521: The state with a programme of orderly development at home and expansion abroad. One of the most important acts was the reform regarding the central administration of the State, with which Crispi strengthened the role of the Prime Minister. The bill aimed to separate the roles of the government from those of parliament, trying to untie the first by the political games of the second. The first point of
10528-404: The unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government. Although contributing some service to the cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions. Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic, two of
10640-890: The unification of Italy. Encouraged by the declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize. During the July Revolution of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced King Charles X to abdicate and created the July Monarchy with encouragement from the new French king, Louis-Philippe I . Louis-Philippe had promised revolutionaries such as Ciro Menotti that he would intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops. Fearing he would lose his throne, Louis-Philippe did not, however, intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again conquered his duchy with help from
10752-463: The war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on 23 March 1849. Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II , and Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment, brought to an end. The war ended with a treaty signed on 9 August. A popular revolt broke out in Brescia on the same day as the defeat at Novara, but was suppressed by
10864-563: Was Ruggero Settimo . On capitulating to the Bourbons, Settimo escaped to Malta where he was received with the full honours of a head of state. Unlike many, Crispi was not granted amnesty and was forced to flee the country. After leaving Sicily, Crispi took refuge in Marseille , France , where he met the woman who would become his second wife, Rose Montmasson , born five years after him in Haute-Savoie (which at that time belonged to
10976-414: Was accused of bigamy . When he remarried, a woman he had married in 1853 was still living. But a court ruled that Crispi's 1853 marriage on Malta was invalid because it was contracted while another woman he had married yet earlier was also still alive. By the time of his third marriage, his first wife had died and his marriage to his second wife was legally invalid. Therefore, his marriage to his third wife
11088-464: Was already pregnant. In May Crispi became the father of his first daughter, Giuseppa, who was named after his grandmother. It was a brief marriage: Rosina died on 29 July 1839, the day after giving birth to her second son, Tommaso; the child lived only a few hours and in December, also Giuseppa died. Between 1838 and 1839, Crispi founded his own newspaper, L'Oreteo , from the name of the Sicilian river Oreto . This experience brought him into contact with
11200-595: Was also known as "The Pentarchy", due to its five leaders, Giuseppe Zanardelli , Benedetto Cairoli , Giovanni Nicotera , Agostino Magliani , Alfredo Beccarini and Crispi. The party supported authoritarian and progressive internal policies, expansionism and Germanophile foreign policies, and protectionist economy policies. After the general elections in May 1886 , in which the Dissident Left gained almost 20% of votes, Crispi returned to office as Minister of
11312-474: Was appointed a member of the provisional Sicilian Parliament and responsible for the Defence Committee; during his tenure, he supported the separatist movement that wanted to break ties with Naples. Thus Sicily survived as a quasi-independent state for sixteen months, with the Bourbon army taking back full control of the island on 15 May 1849 by force. The effective head of state during this period
11424-510: Was baptised as a Greek Catholic . Belonging to a family of Arbëreshë descent, he spoke Italian as his third or fourth language, alongside Arbëresh (variant of Albanian ), Greek and probably Sicilian . His uncle Giuseppe wrote the first monograph on the Albanian language . A philhellene , Crispi wrote in an 1859 diary entry he was Greek due to Greek–Albanian ancestry and attributed part of his origins to Greece . In an 1885 telegram on
11536-556: Was guaranteed by article 7, the independence of the pope as head of the Catholic Church was guaranteed by article 8 of the Principi fondamentali , while the death penalty was abolished by article 5, and free public education was provided by article 8 of the Titolo I . Before the powers could respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained by the exiled Polish general Albert Chrzanowski , renewed
11648-598: Was heavily criticized by the Rightist opposition but also by the Far Left . On 9 December 1887, it was approved by the Chamber of Deputies. In 1889 Crispi's government promoted a reform of the magistracy and promulgated a new penal code , which unified penal legislation in Italy, abolished the death sentence and recognised the right to strike. The code was regarded as a great work by contemporary European jurists. The code
11760-485: Was largely controlled by Cavour. Crispi, who arrived in the city in mid-September, tried to increase his power and influence, at the expense of Cavour's loyalists. However, the revolutionary impulse that had animated the Expedition was fading, especially after the Battle of Volturnus . On 3 October 1860, to seal an alliance with King Victor Emmanuel II , Garibaldi appointed pro-dictator of Naples, Giorgio Pallavicino,
11872-479: Was named after Giuseppe Zanardelli , then Minister of Justice , who promoted the approval of the code. Another important reform was that of local government, or comuni , which was approved by the Chamber in July 1888, in just three weeks. The new reform almost doubled the local electorate, incrementing the suffrage. But the most controversial part of the law was related to the mayors, who were previously appointed by
11984-428: Was of course badly weakened, but the dream of Risorgimento did not die. Instead, the Italian patriots learned some lessons that made them much more effective at the next opportunity in 1860. Military weakness was glaring, as the small Italian states were completely outmatched by France and Austria. France was a potential ally, and the patriots realized they had to focus all their attention on expelling Austria first, with
12096-526: Was proposed by Cesare Balbo (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont . One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari , a secret political discussion group formed in southern Italy early in the 19th century. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carbonari filled with
12208-412: Was ruled valid and not bigamous. He was nevertheless compelled to resign office after only three months in March 1878, bringing down the whole government with him. For nine years Crispi remained politically under a cloud, leading the "progressive" opposition. In 1881 Crispi was among the main supporters of the universal male suffrage , which was approved by the government of Agostino Depretis . In 1883
12320-481: Was sent to Palermo along with Salvatore Castiglia, a diplomat and patriot, to prepare the revolution against the Bourbon monarchy and King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies . The revolution started on 12 January 1848, and therefore was the very first of the numerous revolutions to occur that year. Three revolutions had previously occurred on the island of Sicily starting from 1800 against Bourbon rule. The uprising
12432-438: Was substantially organized from, and centred in, Palermo. The popular nature of the revolt is evident in the fact that posters and notices were being handed out a full three days before the substantive acts of the revolution occurred on 12 January 1848. The timing was deliberately planned, by Crispi and the other revolutionaries, to coincide with the birthday of Ferdinand II. The Sicilian nobles were immediately able to resuscitate
12544-451: Was universally condemned, and the martyrdom of the Bandiera brothers bore fruit in the subsequent revolutions. In this context, in 1847, the first public performance of the song Il Canto degli Italiani , the Italian national anthem since 1946, took place. Il Canto degli Italiani , written by Goffredo Mameli set to music by Michele Novaro , is also known as the Inno di Mameli , after
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