Key Events in Italian History

Napoleonic Italy 1796 - 1814

French General Napoleon campaigned successfully through Italy in 1796, and by 1798 there were French forces in Rome. Although the republics which followed Napoleon collapsed when France withdrew troops in 1799, Napoleon’s victories in 1800 allowed him to redraw the map of Italy many times, creating states for his family and staff to rule, including a Kingdom of Italy. Many of the old rulers were restored after Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, but the Congress of Vienna, which redrew Italy yet again, ensured Austrian domination.

Mazzini Founds Young Italy 1831

The Napoleonic states had helped the idea of a modern, united Italy coalesce. In 1831 Guiseppe Mazzaini founded Young Italy, a group dedicated to throwing out Austrian influence and the patchwork of Italian rulers and creating a single, united state. This was to be il Risorgimento, the "Resurrection/ Resurgence". Highly influential, Young Italy influenced numerous attempted revolutions and caused a reshaping of the mental landscape. Mazzini was forced to live in exile for many years.

The Revolutions of 1848 - 49

A series of revolutions broke loose in Italy in early 1848, prompting many states to implement new constitutions, including the constitutional monarchy of Piedmont/Sardinia. As revolution spread across Europe, Piedmont tried to take the nationalist imitative and went to war with Austria over their Italian possessions; Piedmont lost, but the kingdom survived under Victor Emanuel II, and was seen as the natural rallying point for Italian unity. France sent troops to restore the Pope and crush a newly declared Roman Republic partly ruled by Mazzini; a soldier called Garibaldi became famous for Rome’s defence and the revolutionary’s retreat.

Italian Unification 1859 – 70

In 1859 France and Austria went to war, destabilising Italy and allowing many – now Austrian free – states to vote to merge with Piedmont. In 1860 Garibaldi led a force of volunteers, the "red-shirts", in the conquest of Sicily and Naples, which he then gave to Victor Emanuel II of Piedmont who now ruled the majority of Italy. This led to him being crowned King of Italy by a new Italian parliament on March 17 1861. Venice and Venetia were gained from Austria in 1866, and the last surviving Papal States were annexed in 1870; with a few small exceptions, Italy was now a unified state.

Italy in World War 1 1915 - 18

Although Italy was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary, the nature of their entry into the war allowed Italy to remain neutral until worries about missing out on gains, and the secret Treaty of London with Russia, France and Britain, took Italy into the war, opening a new front. The strains and failures of war pushed Italian cohesion to the limit, and socialists were blamed for many problems. When the war was over in 1918 Italy walked out of the peace conference over their treatment by the allies, and there was anger at what was considered a deficient settlement.

Mussolini Gains Power 1922

Violent groups of fascists, often ex-soldiers and students, formed in post-war Italy, partly in response to the growing success of socialism and the weak central government. Mussolini, a pre-war firebrand, rose to their head, supported by industrialists and landowners who saw facists as a short term answer to the socialists. In October 1922, after the March on Rome by Mussolini and black shirted fascists, the king gave into pressure and asked Mussolini to form a government. Opposition was crushed in 1923.

Italy in World War 2 1940 – 45

Italy entered World War 2 in 1940 on the German side, unprepared but determined to gain something from a swift Nazi victory. However, Italian operations went badly wrong and had to be propped up by German forces. In 1943, with the tide of war turning, the king had Mussolini arrested, but Germany invaded, rescued Mussolini and set up a puppet fascist Republic of Salò in the north. The rest of Italy signed an agreement with the allies, who landed on the peninsula, and war between allied forces supported by partisans against German forces supported by Salò loyalists followed until Germany was defeated in 1945.

The Italian Republic Declared 1946

King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated in 1946 and was replaced briefly by his son, but a referendum that same year voted to abolish the monarchy by 12 million votes to 10, the south voting largely for the king and the north for the republic. A constituent assembly was voted in and this decided upon the nature of the new republic; the new constitution came into effect on January 1st 1948 and elections were held for parliament.