Pros And Cons Of Italian Unification

The scaffolding of the Italian unification began with Mazzini, and was completed by Cavour. Through countries wars Piedmont supported Prussia, which in the end got them both Venetia and Rome. One of the main contradictions of the Italian unification was the lack of a sense of nationalism in Italy. Mazzini used nationalism, the idea that we are all Italians to motivate people to start a movement in support of Italian unification, but his revolution was suppressed and his chance at unification was lost. Cavour realised that it was necessary to use force unite Italy, which deprived this ‘movement’ of the nationalistic aura it once had. Furthermore, another contradiction in the newly unified Italy is that the king of Piedmont Emmanuel II, and his

Before Cavour’s unexpected death, he promised autonomy to several former city-states/kingdoms, however, upon his death the king of Piedmont was quick to remove the offer of the table. Therefore, Piedmont forced its culture, government, taxes, and constitution upon Italy. Italy was not the republic it is today, but rather a kingdom of Piedmont. The idea of a republic was long forgotten in Italy because of king Emmanuel’s rule. Emmanuel II believed in a more tradition system of ruling, meaning he treated Italy as a kingdom rather than the republic it should have been. Even though not granting autonomy centralised the government, it still kept cultural divisions between the people. The situation of Italy can be compared to Germany, as both nations were united by one kingdom Prussia in Germany’s case, and Piedmont in Italy’s. However, with Prussia long before unification the smaller german principalities and states looked up to Prussia and were satellites following Prussia. It could be said that the same concept stayed just under a different cover. The unified Germany was similar to its condition a hundred years prior, Prussia was the leading German state, and most of the principalities followed Prussia. This created a unification through nationalism, as

Also, the use of the word Italy is only for convenience, as it is known that the inhibitors of the peninsula regard it as Italia. One of the main contradictions of the Italian unification was the lack of a sense of nationalism in Italy. Mazzini used nationalism, the idea that we are all Italians to motivate people to start a movement in support of Italian unification, but his revolution was suppressed and his chance at unification was lost. Cavour realised that it was necessary to use force unite Italy, which deprived this ‘movement’ of the nationalistic aura it once had. Furthermore, another contradiction in the newly unified Italy is that the king of Piedmont Emmanuel II, and his successors did not provide former independent states with the ‘territorial autonomy’ they were promised by Cavour. This was because of Cavour’s unexpected death that these promises could not be kept. The main contradictions in the newly unified Italy was the non-nationalist process by which the city-states were unified, and the lack of identity and autonomy in Italy therefore making Italy into kingdom of Piedmont, rather than the unified Italy Cavour planned to