Napoleon Iii of France and Monarchists
Why were the monarchists more successful than the republicans in unifying Italy by 1871?
The Monarchists had already assumed a position of power in Italy when the republican movement was initiated by Mazzini. This is particularly important when talking about its unification because they possessed the authority to legitimately influence important decisions. It was because Cavour decided to aim for economic development and a liberal approach at governance therefore that he could incline the opinion of Lucca, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna towards uniting themselves with Piedmont. The system of monarchy was popular in Europe throughout the 19th century, so there weren’t a lot of countries that had an objection to it in Italy. Therefore, the monarchists also faced much less repression. It was also because the monarchs opted to win over powerful entities like the Catholic Church and France. This gave them an added edge in terms of fighting Austria, which was a country largely in favor of a divided Italy. It was as a result of the alliance between Cavour and Napoleon III that the battle of Magenta and Solferino were fought and Lombardy was won back. The efforts made by different republicans weren’t entirely negligible. Mazzini managed to influence many people with his ideas including Garibaldi. He was responsible for the creation of Young Italy. However, the society’s attempts to penetrate the Sardianian army, invade Savoy and provoke a revolution in Genoa ended in a disaster. Also, Garibaldi’s expedition, more popularly known as the advent of ‘The Thousand’ yielded significant results. It was because of this that King Francis II was forced to abandon Naples. After Garibaldi had set sail, however, Cavour realized that he was succeeding and there was a high chance that he would aim at taking over Rome. This would cause problems in two ways, first because Europe would intervene and second because it would completely destroy relations Italy’s relations with
The Monarchists had already assumed a position of power in Italy when the republican movement was initiated by Mazzini. This is particularly important when talking about its unification because they possessed the authority to legitimately influence important decisions. It was because Cavour decided to aim for economic development and a liberal approach at governance therefore that he could incline the opinion of Lucca, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna towards uniting themselves with Piedmont. The system of monarchy was popular in Europe throughout the 19th century, so there weren’t a lot of countries that had an objection to it in Italy. Therefore, the monarchists also faced much less repression. It was also because the monarchs opted to win over powerful entities like the Catholic Church and France. This gave them an added edge in terms of fighting Austria, which was a country largely in favor of a divided Italy. It was as a result of the alliance between Cavour and Napoleon III that the battle of Magenta and Solferino were fought and Lombardy was won back. The efforts made by different republicans weren’t entirely negligible. Mazzini managed to influence many people with his ideas including Garibaldi. He was responsible for the creation of Young Italy. However, the society’s attempts to penetrate the Sardianian army, invade Savoy and provoke a revolution in Genoa ended in a disaster. Also, Garibaldi’s expedition, more popularly known as the advent of ‘The Thousand’ yielded significant results. It was because of this that King Francis II was forced to abandon Naples. After Garibaldi had set sail, however, Cavour realized that he was succeeding and there was a high chance that he would aim at taking over Rome. This would cause problems in two ways, first because Europe would intervene and second because it would completely destroy relations Italy’s relations with