4 - Obstacles to unity after 1861

Question 1

what did d’Azeglio say about unification

Answer 1

‘we have made Italy, now we must make Italians’

Question 2

what was the september convention

Answer 2

1864 meeting where the French agreed to evacuated Rome within 2 years

Question 3

by 1861, France still..

Answer 3

had troops occupying Rome in defence of the pope
Emperor Louis Napoleon was not prepared to withdraw his support until papal power had been assured

Question 4

what did Louis Napoleon propose in late 1860

Answer 4

if the Marches and Umbria were returned to papal control and the Abruzzi (which had been part of Naples) was included, the French would withdraw.
VE refused.

Question 5

in 1861, the Austrians had no intention of

Answer 5

quitting Venice, where they maintained a large army

Question 6

by 1861, the Italians knew that Austria’s position was

Answer 6

supported by the British, and other countries, who believed that a strong Austria was essential for stability in Europe.

Question 7

efforts to destabilise the Austrian empire

Answer 7

during the Franco-Austrian war in 1859, Cavour had been in touch with Hungarian revolutionary leaders to discuss the possibility of uprisings within the empire.
such schemes came to nothing as Austria was too powerful.

Question 8

Austria and France: the reality was that in 1861..

Answer 8

they were both diplomatically and militarily more powerful than Italy

Question 9

why did the Church refuse to recognise Italy’s existence?

Answer 9

it lost 2/3 of its land to the new state
and the pope was threatened by the belief of most Italians that Rome was the natural capital

Question 10

hostility of the church was significant in causing divides as..

Answer 10

most people were Catholic so were forced to choose a side

Question 11

destruction of the papacy’s temporal power

Answer 11

had been one of the most significant aspects of the Risorgimento, and in 1861 Cavour hoped to persuade the Church to give up its last vestige by surrendering Rome

Question 12

1861 cavour speech to the Church

Answer 12

promised a ‘free church in a free state’
the church were unresponsive, which began the period of fractious co-habitation

Question 13

Church’s spiritual supremacy under attack

Answer 13

from the advance of scientific thought and theory
Charles Darwin’s evolution theory in 1859 and French Catholic Ernest Renan in the early 1860s that the Bible should not be treated as a completely accurate history of events.

Question 14

why did the papacy release the Syllabus of Errors in 1864

Answer 14

as a response to the loss of spiritual supremacy

Question 15

Syllabus of Errors

Answer 15

1864
claimed Church control over education, rejected religious tolerance and asserted the idea of continuing temporal power.
direct criticism of liberalism

Question 16

impact of Syllabus of Errors

Answer 16

provoked an outburst of anti-clericalism from Church enemies such as Mazzini
disappointed the more liberal Catholics who had hoped that Pius IX was still capable of Church modernisation

Question 17

what did the new Italian state force the Church to do

Answer 17

• close monasteries/convents to pay for schools
• increase taxation to the state
• in 1866, a law was passed demanding that most religious orders should hand over all property to the state

Question 18

what was pius’s concern in the early 1860s

Answer 18

that, in an age of the developing nation state, Catholics would be forced to choose between the nation state and the papacy.
this caused the summoning of a Council of the Church (the first since the 1500s)

Question 19

when did the Vatican Council meet and what was proclaimed?

Answer 19

1869
agreed the dogma of papal infallibility which was subsequently proclaimed in july 1870

Question 20

Dogma of Papal Infallibility

Answer 20

the pope’s pronouncements on matters relating to faith/morals are indisputable
not a new concept - goes back as far as AD 519

Question 21

election of January 1861

Answer 21

significant victory for Cavour’s centre right group - now called ‘La Destra’ (The ‘Right’)
in opposition was the centre left led by Rattazzi

Question 22

piedmontisation

Answer 22

laws, taxation system, currency and civil service were to be based on Piedmont’s existing sytem.
reinforced the belief that unification was imposed and without consent

Question 23

why was piedmontisation unpopular

Answer 23

• Italy was a country rich in local tradition, so this centralised state was unpopular as it was essentially Piedmont writ large
• the constitution allowed only 2.2% to vote

Question 24

piedmontisation of the army - Garibaldi

Answer 24

his army was disbanded. In April 1861, he appeared in the Chamber of Deputies, furies at the treatment of his soldiers.
his 7000 officers had not been incorporated into the Piedmontese army as he had hoped.

Question 25

piedmontisation of the army - Bourbon soldiers

Answer 25

the 2191 officers were offered commissions in the new Italian army as they would be useful to put down unrest in the south BUT the foot soldiers were initially herded into prisoner-of-war camps and then released. this caused many to take to the hills of Sicily as brigands.

Question 26

why was the south unsuitable for unification with piedmont based on piedmontese laws?

Answer 26

its poverty, backwardness and distinct economy many politicians, including cavour, had very little understanding of the south

Question 27

cultural differences between north and south

Answer 27

huge seen in primary school education - in 1859 the Casati Laws were introduced (2 years of compulsory free primary education) but not for the South where the vast majority were illiterate

Question 28

both sicily and naples had a long tradition

Answer 28

of regional autonomy

Question 29

october 1860 unrest in the south

Answer 29

- bourbon agents led thousands of peasants in pitched battles against the pro-Garibaldi national guards, their aim being to seize strategically important towns. - in sicily, there was quick disenchantment with Garibaldi and no enthusiasm for piedmont. - Cavour despatched Farini to the south with orders to crush opposition militarily.

Question 30

impact of the collapse of Bourbon rule in the south

Answer 30

vacuum of law and order King Francis II, the deposed Bourbon king, stirred up unrest in the face of unpopular taxes. this cause the re-emergence of brigandage

Question 31

when was the brigands war and how many died

Answer 31

1861-65 claimed more lives than the wars of unification

Question 32

brigands themselves

Answer 32

convicts, ex Bourbon soldiers, unemployed badly managed and disorganised robbed, murdered and assassinated

Question 33

fighting the brigands - number of forces

Answer 33

piedmontese deployed an army some 120,000 strong - half the army in 1862, there were 82,000 brigands

Question 34

by 1865, the brigand war

Answer 34

had subsided and leaders such as Carmine Crocco had fled this did not prevent occasional outbursts such as in 1866 in Palermo (3 days of street fighting and the murder of government officials)

Question 35

public debt 1861

Answer 35

2,450 million lire 4 years later it was more than double this

Question 36

income increasing between 1860 and 1866

Answer 36

480 million to 600 million main problem was they needed to fix debt but maintain the armed forces (Brigands War and incase of war for Venice/Rome)

Question 37

south was not the source of much wealth

Answer 37

piedmontese visiting officials said the finances of the region were ‘exhausted’

Question 38

taxes to increase income - salt and tobacco

Answer 38

proved counter productive as the sale of both goods fell

Question 39

january 1869 tax

Answer 39

macinato/grist tax a tax on the milling of corn was so unpopular that 250 had been killed and 1000 had been wounded in riots within 2 weeks of reintroduction

Question 40

other than taxes, what did the state do to increase revenue

Answer 40

sale of land mainly church land (from 1867 onwards - as an act was passed that began this process)

Question 41

sale of church land - between 1867 and 1876..

Answer 41

half a million acres were sold in the north, peasant farmers bought the land. in central and southern italy, land was mainly bought by the MC and those who had capital. peasants who bought land often couldn’t afford the interest payments.

Question 42

transport system by 1860

Answer 42

extremely poor cavour had encouraged canals in piedmont, but generally there was a lack of interest due to Italy’s topography and lack of excess water

Question 43

transport - milan

Answer 43

linked to a number of european cities by roads

Question 44

in 1861, how many km of railway did italy have

Answer 44

2773 km

Question 45

in 1857, what happened with railway systems

Answer 45

venetian and lombard railway systems had been linked together

Question 46

after unification, lack of railways where?

Answer 46

sardinia and sicily none at all this hindered agricultural/industrial development such as in Apulia - where the olive oil industry was stunted

Question 47

railways in 1865

Answer 47

transferred into private hands the state was still forced to provide a significant amount of capital for construction.

Question 48

mount cenis tunnel completed

Answer 48

1871 meant that the italian rail network was linked to france meant increased trade and the development of engineering/iron/steel industries

Question 49

little investment in road building

Answer 49

before 1860 but after 1860, state investment was concentrated on railways. a large number of roman roads were still able to be taken advantage of