The Unification of Italy

In the early 1800s, Italy was united under the control of Napolean. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, Italy’s states were handed back to their former rulers. Only Piedmont-Sardinia stayed independent.

Of the Italians states’ foreign rulers, Austria was the most powerful. During the 1820s, opposition to foreign rule grew. The ‘Risorgimento’ movement encouraged people to campaign for an independent and united Italy. Revolutions broke out in many Italian states in 1858, Piedmont-Sardinia allied itself with France and defeated Austria. This was followed in 1860 by a successful revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his army of ‘Redshirts’.

Garibaldi conquered Sicily, then Naples. Meanwhile, the northern states had joined up with Piedmont-Sardinia and accepted Victor Emmanuel II as their new king. Garibaldi handed Naples and Sicily to him in November 1860 and, in 1861, Italy was declared a kingdom.