During the next few years order reigned in Italy, save for a few unimportant outbreaks in the Papal States; there was, however, perpetual discontent and agitation, especially in Romagna, where misgovernment was extreme. The Papal States. Under Pius VII. and his minister Cardinal Consalvi oppression had not been very severe, and Metternich’s proposal to establish a central inquisitorial tribunal for political offences throughout Italy had been rejected by the papal government. But on the death of Pius in 1823, his successor Leo XII. (Cardinal Della Genga) proved a ferocious reactionary under whom barbarous laws were enacted and torture frequently applied. The secret societies, such as the Carbonari, the Adelfi and the Bersaglieri d’America, which flourished in Romagna, replied to these persecutions by assassinating the more brutal officials and spies. The events of 1820-1821 increased the agitation in Romagna, and in 1825 large numbers of persons were condemned to death, imprisonment or exile. The society of the Sanfedisti, formed of the dregs of the populace, whose object was to murder every Liberal, was openly protected and encouraged. Leo died in 1829, and the mild, religious Pius VIII. (Cardinal Castiglioni) only reigned until 1830, when Gregory XVI. (Cardinal Cappellari) was elected through Austrian influence, and proved another Revolutions of 1830. zelante. The July revolution in Paris and the declaration of the new king, Louis Philippe, that France, as a Liberal monarchy, would not only not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, but would not permit other powers to do so, aroused great hopes among the oppressed peoples, and was the immediate cause of a revolution in Romagna and the Marches. In February 1831 these provinces rose, raised the red, white and green tricolor (which henceforth took the place of the Carbonarist colours as the Italian flag), and shook off the papal yoke with surprising ease.[11] At Parma too there was an outbreak and a demand for the constitution; Marie Louise could not grant it because of her engagements with Austria, and, therefore, abandoned her dominions. In Modena Duke Francis, ambitious of enlarging his territories, coquetted with the Carbonari of Paris, and opened indirect negotiations with Menotti, the revolutionary leader in his state, believing that he might assist him in his plans. Menotti, for his part, conceived the idea of a united Italian state under the duke. A rising was organized for February 1831; but Francis got wind of it, and, repenting of his dangerous dallying with revolution, arrested Menotti and fled to Austrian territory with his prisoner. In his absence the insurrection took place, and Biagio Nardi, having been elected dictator, proclaimed that “Italy is one; the Italian nation one sole nation.” But the French king soon abandoned his principle of non-intervention on which the Italian revolutionists had built their hopes; the Austrians intervened unhindered; the old governments were re-established in Parma, Modena and Romagna; and Menotti and many other patriots were hanged. The Austrians evacuated Romagna in July, but another insurrection having broken out immediately afterwards which the papal troops were unable to quell, they returned. This second intervention gave umbrage to France, who by way of a counterpoise sent a force to occupy Ancona. These two foreign occupations, which were almost as displeasing to the pope as to the Liberals, lasted until 1838. The powers, immediately after the revolt, presented a memorandum to Gregory recommending certain moderate reforms, but no attention was paid to it. These various movements proved in the first place that the masses were by no means ripe for revolution, and that the idea of unity, although now advocated by a few revolutionary leaders, was far from being generally accepted even by the Liberals; and, secondly, that, in spite of the indifference of the masses, the despotic governments were unable to hold their own without the assistance of foreign bayonets.
On the 27th of April 1831, Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix on the throne of Piedmont. Shortly afterwards he received a letter from an unknown person, in which he was exhorted with fiery eloquence to place himself at the Mazzini and “Young Italy.” head of the movement for liberating and uniting Italy and expelling the foreigner, and told that he was free to choose whether he would be “the first of men or the last of Italian tyrants.” The author was Giuseppe Mazzini, then a young man of twenty-six years, who, though in theory a republican, was ready to accept the leadership of a prince of the house of Savoy if he would guide the nation to freedom. The only result of his letter, however, was that he was forbidden to re-enter Sardinian territory. Mazzini, who had learned to distrust Carbonarism owing to its lack of a guiding principle and its absurd paraphernalia of ritual and mystery, had conceived the idea of a more serious political association for the emancipation of his country not only from foreign and domestic despotism but from national faults of character; and this idea he had materialized in the organization of a society called the Giovane Italia (Young Italy) among the Italian refugees at Marseilles. After the events of 1831 he declared that the liberation of Italy could only be achieved through unity, and his great merit lies in having inspired a large number of Italians with that idea at a time when provincial jealousies and the difficulty of communications maintained separatist feelings. Young Italy spread to all centres of Italian exiles, and by means of literature carried on an active propaganda in Italy itself, where the party came to be called “Ghibellini,” as though reviving the traditions of medieval anti-Papalism. Though eventually this activity of the Giovane Italia supplanted that of the older societies, in practice it met with no better success; the two attempts to invade Savoy in the hope of seducing the army from its allegiance failed miserably, and only resulted in a series of barbarous sentences of death and imprisonment which made most Liberals despair of Charles Albert, while they called down much criticism on Mazzini as the organizer of raids in which he himself took no part. He was now forced to leave France, but continued his work of agitation from London. The disorders in Naples and Sicily in 1837 had no connexion with Mazzini, but the forlorn hope of the brothers Bandiera, who in 1844 landed on the Calabrian coast, was the work of the Giovane Italia. The rebels were captured and shot, but the significance of the attempt lies in the fact that it was the first occasion on which north Italians (the Bandieras were Venetians and officers in the Austrian navy) had tried to raise the standard of revolt in the south.
Romagna had continued a prey to anarchy ever since 1831; the government organized armed bands called the Centurioni (descended from the earlier Sanfedisti), to terrorize the Liberals, while the secret societies continued their “propaganda by deeds.” It is noteworthy that Romagna was the only part of Italy where the revolutionary movement was accompanied by murder. In 1845 several outbreaks occurred, and a band led by Pietro Renzi captured Rimini, whence a proclamation drawn up by L. C. Farini was issued demanding the reforms advocated by the powers’ memorandum of 1831. But the movement collapsed without result, and the leaders fled to Tuscany.
Side by side with the Mazzinian propaganda in favour of a united Italian republic, which manifested itself in secret societies, plots and insurrections, there was another Liberal movement based on the education of opinion and on economic development. Liberalism and economic development. In Piedmont, in spite of the government’s reactionary methods, a large part of the population were genuinely attached to the Savoy dynasty, and the idea of a regeneration of Italy under its auspices began to gain ground. Some writers proclaimed the necessity of building railways, developing agriculture and encouraging industries, before resorting to revolution; while others, like the Tuscan Gino Capponi, inspired by the example of England and France, wished to make the people fit for freedom by means of improved schools, books and periodicals. Vincenzo Gioberti (q.v.) published in 1843 his famous treatise Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani, a work, which, in striking contrast to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues. His political ideal was a federation of all the Italian states under the presidency of the pope, on a basis of Catholicism, but without a constitution. In spite of all its inaccuracies and exaggerations the book served a useful purpose in reviving the self-respect of a despondent people. Another work of a similar kind was Le Speranze d’Italia (1844) by the Piedmontese Count Cesare Balbo (q.v.). Like Gioberti he advocated a federation of Italian states, but he declared that before this could be achieved Austria must be expelled from Italy and compensation found for her in the Near East by making her a Danubian power—a curious forecast that Italy’s liberation would begin with an eastern war. He extolled Charles Albert and appealed to his patriotism; he believed that the church was necessary and the secret societies harmful; representative government was undesirable, but he advocated a consultative assembly. Above all Italian character must be reformed and the nation educated. A third important publication was Massimo d’Azeglio’s Degli ultimi casi di Romagna, in which the author, another Piedmontese nobleman, exposed papal misgovernment while condemning the secret societies and advocating open resistance and protest. He upheld the papacy in principle, regarded Austria as the great enemy of Italian regeneration, and believed that the means of expelling her were only to be found in Piedmont.
Besides the revolutionists and republicans who promoted conspiracy and insurrection whenever possible, and the moderates or “Neo-Guelphs,” as Gioberti’s followers were called, we must mention the Italian exiles who were learning the art The Italian exiles. of war in foreign countries—in Spain, in Greece, in Poland, in South America—and those other exiles who, in Paris or London, eked out a bare subsistence by teaching Italian or by their pen, and laid the foundations of that love of Italy which, especially in England, eventually brought the weight of diplomacy into the scales for Italian freedom. All these forces were equally necessary—the revolutionists to keep up agitation and make government by bayonets impossible; the moderates to curb the impetuosity of the revolutionists and to present a scheme of society that was neither reactionary nor anarchical; the volunteers abroad to gain military experience; and the more peaceful exiles to spread the name of Italy among foreign peoples. All the while a vast amount of revolutionary literature was being printed in Switzerland, France and England, and smuggled into Italy; the poet Giusti satirized the Italian princes, the dramatist G. B. Niccolini blasted tyranny in his tragedies, the novelist Guerrazzi re-evoked the memories of the last struggle for Florentine freedom in L’Assedio di Firenze, and Verdi’s operas bristled with political double entendres which escaped the censor but were understood and applauded by the audience.
On the death of Pope Gregory XVI. in 1846 Austria hoped to secure the election of another zealot; but the Italian cardinals, who did not want an Austrophil, finished the conclave before the arrival of Cardinal Gaysrück, Austria’s Election of Pius IX. mouthpiece, and in June elected Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti as Pius IX. The new pope, who while bishop of Imole had evinced a certain interest in Liberalism, was a kindly man, of inferior intelligence, who thought that all difficulties could be settled with a little good-will, some reforms and a political amnesty. The amnesty which he granted was the beginning of the immense if short-lived popularity which he was to enjoy. But he did not move so fast in the path of reform as was expected, and agitation continued throughout the papal states.[12] In 1847 some administrative reforms were enacted, the laity were admitted to certain offices, railways were talked about, and political newspapers permitted. In April Pius created a Consulta, or consultative assembly, and soon afterwards a council of ministers and a municipality for Rome. Here he would willingly have stopped, but he soon realized that he had hardly begun. Every fresh reform edict was greeted with demonstrations of enthusiasm, but the ominous cry “Viva Pio Nono solo!” signified dissatisfaction with the whole system of government. A lay ministry was now demanded, a constitution, and an Italian federation for war against Austria. Rumours of a reactionary plot by Austria and the Jesuits against Pius, induced him to create a national guard and to appoint Cardinal Ferretti as secretary of state.
Events in Rome produced widespread excitement throughout Europe. Metternich had declared that the one thing which had not entered into his calculations was a Liberal pope, only that was an impossibility; still he was much disturbed by Pius’s attitude, and tried to stem the revolutionary tide by frightening the princes. Seizing the agitation in Romagna as a pretext, he had the town of Ferrara occupied by Austrian troops, which provoked the indignation not only of the Liberals but also of the pope, for according to the treaties Austria had the right of occupying the citadel alone. There was great resentment throughout Italy, and in answer to the pope’s request Charles Albert declared that he was with him in everything, while from South America Giuseppe Garibaldi wrote to offer his services to His Holiness. Charles Albert, although maintaining his reactionary policy, had introduced administrative reforms, built railways, reorganized the army and developed the resources of the country. He had little sympathy with Liberalism and abhorred revolution, but his hatred of Austria and his resentment at the galling tutelage to which she subjected him had gained strength year by year. Religion was still his dominant passion, and when a pope in Liberal guise appeared on the scene and was bullied by Austria, his two strongest feelings—piety and hatred of Austria—ceased Revolutionary agitation, 1847. to be incompatible. In 1847 Lord Minto visited the Italian courts to try to induce the recalcitrant despots to mend their ways, so as to avoid revolution and war, the latter being England’s especial anxiety; this mission, although not destined to produce much effect, aroused extravagant hopes among the Liberals. Charles Louis, the opera-bouffe duke of Lucca, who had coquetted with Liberalism in the past, now refused to make any concessions to his subjects, and in 1847 sold his duchy to Leopold II. of Tuscany (the successor of Ferdinand III. since 1824) to whom it would have reverted in any case at the death of the duchess of Parma. At the same time Leopold ceded Lunigiana to Parma and Modena in equal parts, an arrangement which provoked the indignation of the inhabitants of the district (especially of those destined to be ruled by Francis V. of Modena, who had succeeded to Francis IV. in 1846), and led to disturbances at Fivizzano. In September 1847, Leopold gave way to the popular agitation for a national guard, in spite of Metternich’s threats, and allowed greater freedom of the press; every concession made by the pope was followed by demands for a similar measure in Tuscany.
Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies had died in 1825, and was succeeded by Francis I. At the latter’s death in 1830 Ferdinand II. succeeded, and although at first he gave promise of proving a wiser ruler, he soon reverted to the traditional Bourbon methods. An ignorant bigot, he concentrated the whole of the executive into his own hands, was surrounded by priests and monks, and served by an army of spies. In 1847 there were unimportant disturbances in various parts of the kingdom, but there was no anti-dynastic outbreak, the jealousy between Naples and Sicily largely contributing to the weakness of the movement. On the 12th of January, however, a revolution, the first of the many throughout Europe that was to make the year 1848 memorable, broke out at Palermo under the leadership of Ruggiero Settimo. The Neapolitan army sent to crush the rising was at first unsuccessful, and the insurgents demanded the constitution of 1812 or complete independence. Disturbances occurred at Naples also, and the king, who could not obtain Austrian help, as the pope refused to allow Austrian troops to pass through his dominions, on the advice of his prime minister, the duke of Serracapriola, granted a constitution, freedom of the press, the national guard, &c. (January 28).
The news from Naples strengthened the demand for a constitution in Piedmont. Count Camillo Cavour, then editor of a new and influential paper called Il Risorgimento, had advocated it strongly, and monster demonstrations Revolutions of 1848. were held every day. The king disliked the idea, but great pressure was brought to bear on him, and finally, on the 4th of March 1848, he granted the charter which was destined to be the constitution of the future Italian kingdom. It provided for a nominated senate and an elective chamber of deputies, the king retaining the right of veto; the press censorship was abolished, and freedom of meeting, of the press and of speech were guaranteed. Balbo was called upon to form the first constitutional ministry. Three days later the grand-duke of Tuscany promised similar liberties, and a charter, prepared by a commission which included Gino Capponi and Bettino Ricasoli, was promulgated on the 17th.
In the Austrian provinces the situation seemed calmer, and the government rejected the moderate proposals of Daniele Manin and N. Tommaseo. A demonstration in favour of Pius IX. on the 3rd of January at Milan was dispersed with unnecessary severity, and martial law was proclaimed the following month. The revolution which broke out on the 8th of March in Vienna itself and the subsequent flight of Metternich (see [Austria-Hungary]: History), led to the granting of feeble concessions to Lombardy and Venetia, which were announced in Milan on the 18th. But it was too late; and in spite of the exhortations of the mayor, Gabrio Casati, and of the republican C. Cattaneo, who believed that a rising against 15,000 Austrian soldiers under Field-Marshal Radetzky was madness, the famous Five Days’ revolution began. It was a popular outburst of pent-up hate, unprepared by leaders, although leaders such as Luciano Manara soon arose. Radetzky occupied the citadel and other points of vantage; but in the night barricades sprang up by the hundred and were manned by citizens of all classes, armed with every kind of weapon. The desperate struggle lasted until the 22nd, when the Austrians, having lost 5000 killed and wounded, were forced to evacuate the city. The rest of Lombardy and Venetia now flew to arms, and the Austrian garrisons, except in the Quadrilateral (Verona, Peschiera, Mantua and Legnano) were expelled. In Venice the people, under the leadership of Manin, rose in arms and forced the military and civil governors (Counts Zichy and Palffy) to sign a capitulation on the 22nd of March, after which the republic was proclaimed. At Milan, where there was a division of opinion between the monarchists under Casati and the republicans under Cattaneo, a provisional administration was formed and the question of the form of government postponed for the moment. The duke of Modena and Charles Louis of Parma (Marie Louise was now dead) abandoned their capitals; in both cities provisional governments were set up which subsequently proclaimed annexation to Piedmont. In Rome the pope gave way to popular clamour, granting one concession after another, and on the 8th of February he publicly called down God’s blessing on Italy—that Italy hated by the Austrians, whose name it had hitherto been a crime to mention. On the 10th of March he appointed a new ministry, under Cardinal Antonelli, which included several Liberal laymen, such as Marco Minghetti, G. Pasolini, L. C. Farini and Count G. Recchi. On the 11th a constitution drawn up by a commission of cardinals, without the knowledge of the ministry, was promulgated, a constitution which attempted the impossible task of reconciling the pope’s temporal power with free institutions. In the meanwhile preparations for war against Austria were being carried on with Pius’s sanction.