The Liberation of Italy, 1815-1870

In Short

Evelyn Lilian Hazeldine Carrington, Contessa Martinengo-Cesaresco, presents a comprehensive, single-volume history detailing the political and military campaign to forge a united Italian kingdom between 1815 and 1870. The chronicle moves systematically through early revolutionary conspiracies, the tumult of 1848, Cavour’s diplomatic manoeuvres, Garibaldi’s daring campaigns, and the final acquisition of Rome. Rather than presenting a simple triumph, the work paints a nuanced picture of an unbroken chain of cause and effect driven by contrasting personalities. It endures as an authoritative, eyewitness-informed record written by a historian with intimate, immediate access to the generation that built modern Italy.

The Story

The chronicle opens in the wake of the Napoleonic era, when the restoration of old dynasties leaves the Italian peninsula fragmented and largely dominated by Austrian influence. Early resistance takes form through secret networks like the Carbonari. In places like Romagna, this underground movement absorbs local traditions of violence, becoming an intense, secretive force. Early uprisings across Romagna, Parma, and Modena in 1831 break under the weight of foreign intervention and the false promise of French support, exposing how easily Italian patriots can be misled by European political posturing.

By the mid-1840s, the focus shifts to Piedmont and its enigmatic sovereign, Charles Albert. Dubbed "King Waverer" due to his endless hesitations and conservative domestic policies, Charles Albert nevertheless harbours a quiet obsession with driving the Austrians out of Italy. His reign lays the necessary groundwork through steady military reform and fiscal discipline. When revolution erupts across Europe in 1848, the peninsula catches fire. In Milan, citizens rise spontaneously, driving out Field-Marshal Radetsky’s Austrian forces after five days of fierce street fighting across thousands of barricades.

The initial triumphs of 1848 soon buckle under internal divisions and superior Austrian power. Venice, seized bravely by Daniele Manin without a drop of blood, eventually falls after a protracted siege. In Rome, a short-lived republic defended gallantly by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his red-shirted legionaries is betrayed and crushed by French military intervention aimed at restoring the Pope's temporal power.

The movement rebuilds its momentum through the cold pragmatism of Count Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont, and the steady leadership of Victor Emmanuel II. Cavour orchestrates an alliance with Napoleon III, securing French military aid at the bitter price of ceding Savoy and Nice. When Napoleon abruptly signs the truce of Villafranca with Austria, leaving the unification incomplete, a furious Cavour resigns in protest. Yet the impulse towards unity proves irrepressible.

In 1860, Garibaldi leads his famous "Thousand" volunteers, landing at Marsala to liberate Sicily and Naples from Bourbon rule. After sweeping through the South, Garibaldi meets Victor Emmanuel II near Teano, hailing him as King of Italy and handing over his conquests in a remarkable act of selflessness. Though the new kingdom suffers military and naval missteps—such as the tragic defeat at the naval battle of Lissa under Admiral Persano—the changing tide of broader European politics repeatedly favors the Italian cause. The process culminates in 1870, when the withdrawal of French troops allows Italian forces to enter Rome, finally establishing the historic city as the capital of a fully unified nation.

How It Unfolds

The conspirators take root Following the fall of Napoleon, secret networks like the Carbonari spread across the Neapolitan and Roman states. In Romagna, the movement takes on a violent, desperate edge, attracting figures like Lord Byron, who eagerly anticipates an Italian uprising against foreign rule.

The delusion of foreign help Rebellions erupt in 1831 across Romagna, Parma, and Modena, fueled by French assurances of non-intervention. The promises prove empty, leaving Italian exiles and revolutionaries to realize that foreign powers will readily sacrifice Italian freedom for their own political ends.

The five days of Milan In March 1848, the people of Milan erect thousands of barricades and drive Field-Marshal Radetsky’s Austrian garrison out of the city. The victory is achieved entirely by local citizens before outside military relief can arrive.

The defense of the Roman Republic Garibaldi brings his red-shirted legionaries from South America to defend a newly proclaimed Roman Republic in 1849. Despite valiant resistance, the republic is systematically dismantled by French troops sent to reinstate the Pope.

Cavour's calculus and sacrifice Count Cavour maneuvers Piedmont into European diplomacy, striking a bargain with Napoleon III to fight Austria. The strategy secures Lombardy but forces Victor Emmanuel II to yield his ancestral home of Savoy to France.

The march of the Thousand Garibaldi embarks from Quarto in 1860 with a tiny, ill-equipped force, landing in Sicily under the passive gaze of British warships. His rapid conquest of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies culminates in his meeting with Victor Emmanuel II at Teano, where he surrenders his authority to the King.

The final pieces fall Despite military setbacks at sea, such as the disastrous fleet engagement at Lissa, external geopolitical shifts continuously work in Italy's favor. The narrative closes as the national capital is finally established in Rome in 1870.

The People

• Giuseppe Garibaldi wants a free, unified Italy freed from monarchical and papal tyranny. What stands in his way is his own political naiveite, the suspicion of conservative governments, and foreign armies. He ends up sacrificing his personal ambitions and military commands to hand a unified realm over to the Sardinian Crown.
• Count Cavour wants to build a powerful, modernized Italian nation state under the House of Savoy through calculated diplomacy and institutional strength. Standing in his way are European power balances, Austria's military presence, and the erratic whims of Napoleon III. He spends his life in intense political friction, frequently driving himself to exhaustion to keep the diplomatic apparatus from collapsing.
• Victor Emmanuel II wants to preserve the honor of his dynasty while fulfilling the historic mandate of his house to rule a united Italy. He is hindered by ghostly threats of papal excommunication, personal grief, and the bitter necessity of surrendering his family's ancestral lands. He emerges as the pragmatic "Re Galantuomo," balancing the fiery demands of revolutionaries with the cold realities of statecraft.
• Charles Albert wants to expel the Austrians from Northern Italy, yet he is constantly paralyzed by his own indecision and deep religious conservatism. His wavering nature isolates him from Liberals and Jesuits alike, leaving him a tragic figure who dreams of winning victories on the battlefield but leaves his throne before seeing his dream realized.

In Its Own Voice

When evaluating the hidden forces driving the Italian movement, the text notes the sheer scale of underground enthusiasm following the return of old dynasties:

"His one lasting work was to establish Carbonarism on so strong a basis that, when the Bourbons returned, there were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Carbonari in all parts of the realm."

Describing the dramatic, unassisted street rising of 1848 that shook Austrian rule in Lombardy, the narrative highlights the sheer transformed spirit of the population:

"'The very foundations of the city were torn up,' wrote the Field-Marshal in his official report; 'not hundreds, but thousands of barricades crossed the streets.'"

Regarding the supreme territorial sacrifice demanded of the Piedmontese Crown to secure French alliance, the text captures the monarch's genuine sorrow:

"Not willingly did Victor Emmanuel incur that charge, in which the rebound from love to hate was so clearly heard; not willingly did he give up Maurienne, cradle of his race, Hautecombe, grave of his fathers."

What It's Really About

At its core, the book explores how historical momentum is built from an "unbroken chain of cause and effect" rather than sudden, isolated miracles. It examines the perpetual tension between romantic idealism and cold political realism. Figures like Garibaldi represent the pure, unselfish impulse of national resurrection, while statesmen like Cavour represent the necessary, often compromised mechanisms of international diplomacy, taxation, and military organization required to turn enthusiasm into a lasting state.

The text also interrogates the nature of foreign intervention, demonstrating how smaller nations frequently become pawns in the broader games of great European powers. Ultimately, it argues that a nation achieves true freedom only when its citizens prove willing to fight for it themselves, winning the moral right to independence through direct, collective action.

Why Read It Today

This work offers an exceptional, near-contemporary window into one of the nineteenth century's definitive political events. Written by an author who lived among the families and archives of the Risorgimento, the prose carries an immediacy that modern distance often flattens. It feels less like a dry textbook and more like an authoritative, sweeping chronicle written by a keen observer who knows every mountain pass, battleground, and political salon involved.

Readers will find a clear, measured account that avoids sensationalism while maintaining a deep respect for human courage. The book does present certain reading difficulties: it assumes a basic familiarity with nineteenth-century European geography and dynastic houses, and it occasionally drops into un-translated French phrases or regional Italian contexts. The administrative details of political loans and cabinet resignations can occasionally slow the narrative stride. Yet for anyone seeking to understand how fragmented, disparate principalities were welded into a modern European state through a blend of visionary courage and shrewd political maneuvering, this history remains an indispensable and beautifully constructed guide.