First the Wordle:
Then the Worksheet:
1848 and the Risorgimeto: Italy Unification Worksheet
In making your notes from this worksheet, take into account that you need to understand the 1848-49 Revolutions (and there were many) in Italy both in the context of:
- 1848 as a Revolutionary Year in Europe, i.e. in terms of the motivation to revolt and the kinds of political ideas and governmental systems demanded (and sometimes set up) by the Revolutionaries.
- 1848 within the context of Italian National Unification, i.e. to what extent were the Revolutions part of a broader nationalist movement aimed at a united Italy free from Austrian domination?
Political Background: Pre and Post Napoleonic Italy.
- Note the main territorial changes which occurred under Napoleon.
- What were the effects of the Vienna Settlement in Italy?
- What was the legacy of Napoleon’s occupation/dominance of the Italian peninsula?
What is meant by the term Risorgimento?
The period 1815-1831 has been characterized as a period of Secret Societies in Italy.
- Why is this the case?
- What were the Secret Societies?
- How effective were they?
- What political unrest occurred in this period?
- Why were the revolts in Italy which occurred in this period unsuccessful?
Briefly summarise the main developments towards Italian unification between 1831 and 1848.
- What did Metternich mean by dismissing Italy as merely a geographical expression? He said this in 1847, to what extent was he justified?
Write a chronology of the events of 1848-49 in Italy.
Seen as part of the Risorgimento the events of 1848 can be understood in terms of different paths to Italian Unification. Describe each of the following movements.
- Mazzinian republicanism
- Liberal reformism
- Piedmontese expansionism
To what extent were the Revolutions of 1848-49:
- A failure?
- An important step on the road to Italian Unification?
- What changes in the years between 1848 and 1861 resulted in the unification of Italy?
- What was the role of Cavour in the process?
- What was the role of France and Napoleon the III?
- What was the role of Austria?
- What was the role of Garibaldi?
- What was the role of Piedmont and its King?
- What was the significance of the Crimean War and its aftermath?
- How united was Italy by 1870? What support did unification receive from the population as a whole?
Related Coursework Essays
- Why did the 1848 Revolutions fail in both Germany and Italy?
- ‘How different were the aims and methods of Cavour from those of Mazzini?