ITALY 



3084 



ITALY 



unity and independence were crushed, as a 

 result of the reactionary policy of Austria, and 

 the various rulers proved themselves more 

 tyrannical than ever before. Indeed, Austria 

 instituted, politically speaking, a reign of ter- 

 ror, which had as its object the rooting out of 

 liberalism. However, the desire had grown too 

 strong to be suppressed. On every hand secret 

 societies came into being societies with the 

 most revolutionary purposes; and conspiracies 

 against the foreign rule were rife in every part 

 of the peninsula. 



In 1831 there came to the throne of Sar- 

 dinia a new king, Charles Albert, who proved 

 more liberal than his predecessor, and his con- 

 cessions caused the other states to look toward 

 him as the possible head of a new, united Italy. 

 The dominant spirit of the times was Mazzini 

 (which see), head of the organization known 

 as Young Italy, and his splendid eloquence 

 roused the Italians to a half-maddened atti- 

 tude of revolt. Then, in 1848 occurred a revo- 

 lution in France, and at the same time a 

 revolutionary wave swept over all of Western 

 Europe. Italy felt it keenly, and all over the 

 country insurrections took place. In Naples, 

 in Rome and in Venice the rulers were forced 

 to grant constitutional rights, and the Milanese 

 actually drove the Austrians from their city. 

 The Sicilians threw off the Bourbon yoke, and 

 Charles Albert of Sardinia went the length of 

 declaring war on Austria. But the Austrians 

 defeated him decisively at Novara in 1849, and 

 at once the reactionary forces throughout the 

 peninsula took heart and regained their su- 

 premacy. In Sardinia, however, the liberal 

 spirit continued in the ascendancy, Victor Em- 

 manuel II, who came to the throne on' his 

 father's abdication in 1849, upholding the pol- 

 icy of Italian freedom and rejecting all over- 

 tures from Austria (see VICTOR EMMANUEL II; 

 SARDINIA). Not the least of his services to 

 Italy was the choice of Cavour (which see) as 

 Prime Minister. In any list of the creators of 

 modern Italy Cavour should, perhaps, be men- 

 tioned first, for without his farsightedness, his 

 unselfishness and his broad views the achieve- 

 ment would not have been possible. 



The Unification of Italy. Cavour's great 

 ambition was to secure the aid of France in 

 throwing off the yoke of Austria, and in this 

 endeavor he was at last successful. Early in 

 1859 the French forces crossed the Alps and 

 the final struggle for a free Italy began. The 

 great victories of Magenta and Solferino com- 

 pelled Austria to give up Milan and Northern 



Lombardy, and then Cavour found to his 

 chagrin that Napoleon III was prepared to go 

 no further. He concluded with Austria the 

 Peace of Villafranca, without even asking the 

 assent of his Sardinian allies, violating his 

 pledge that he would "free Italy from the 

 Alps to the Adriatic." However, the tide had 

 set in the direction of unity, and could not be 

 turned back. Tuscany, Modena, Parma and 

 Romagna declared for annexation to Sardinia; 

 the rejoicing at this triumph was tempered by 

 grief at the surrender of Nice and Savoy, the 

 original home of the House of Savoy, to France 

 as indemnity for its share in the war. 



Then occurred that famous expedition under 

 the most adored of all Italian heroes, Gari- 

 baldi (which see). It resulted in the conquest 

 of Sicily and Naples, and in November, 1860, 

 the kingdom of the Two Sicilies was annexed 

 to the domain of Victor Emmanuel, who in the 

 next year was proclaimed king of Italy. Venice 

 and Rome were the only parts of the peninsula 

 still to be gained, and the first of these came 

 to Italy as reward for its aid to Prussia in the 

 Seven Weeks' War with Austria. Yet to be a 

 really united kingdom Italy must have its 

 ancient capital of Rome, and in 1867 Garibaldi 

 with his volunteers made an attempt to seize 

 it, but was prevented by the French. Three 

 years later, however, when the French troops 

 were withdrawn from Rome because they were 

 needed in the war against Prussia, Victor Em- 

 manuel entered the city and made it the capi- 

 tal of his dominions. 



The Modern Kingdom. After the unification, 

 Victor Emmanuel addressed himself to the 

 task of preserving peace and organizing the 

 new state, and that work was carried on 

 his successor, Humbert, who came to the throne 

 in 1878. The much-loved Humbert was 

 nated in 1900, and his son, the present 

 came to the throne as Victor Emmanuel 

 He proved himself a wise ruler, able to 

 with the distressing political and economic 

 problems which had grown out of Italy's cen- 

 turies of political extinction. Attempts tc 

 establish a colonial policy and to give Italy 

 place among the great powers of Europe, how- 

 ever, entailed a heavy burden of taxation on 

 the country. 



On December 28, 1908, there took place an 

 appalling disaster. An earthquake shook all of 

 Southern Italy and a part of Sicily, destroying 

 Messina, Reggio and a number of smaller 

 towns and resulting in the death of more than 

 150,000 people. Southern and Eastern Italy 



