Italy After the Revolution of 1848.
The discussion of Italian politics from 1815 to 1840 will be determined in part by the plan which the teacher has adopted for the treatment of this period in its general European aspect. Whatever line of treatment has been pursued, 1840 marks the real point of departure for presenting the facts connected with the formation of the kingdom of Italy. This date affords an opportunity for summing up the condition of the peninsula and for pointing out some of the lessons taught by the February Revolution. The next ten years constitute “the period of preparation.” Ten more were consumed before the hopes of the advocates of unity had been fully realized—if indeed they can be said to have been altogether realized. One of the first problems confronting the makers of modern Italy was the welding together of the widely scattered territories, occupied by diversified elements and possessing but few interests in common, which were known as the kingdom of Sardinia. (Read Seignobos, p. 346.) If Sardinia was to lead in the movement for unity and independence she must be thoroughly organized and prepared to assume the financial and military burdens involved. Not the least of her problems was that of “convincing all Italian Liberals that she could be trusted;” that she was their Heaven-sent leader. The task was all the more difficult because of the humiliation she had so recently undergone at the hands of Austria. Piedmont, however, had “failed heroically,” and, in spite of Novara, still remained “the center of nationalist hopes.” Two things were patent to the keen student of affairs, first, that Sardinia alone could not drive out the foreigner, and second, that any attempt at union must not be imperiled in the future by differences of opinion as to the nature thereof.