Unification of Germany:

1. It started with liberal Nationalist movement of 1848 with the formation of Frankfurt Parliament however the attempts failed

2. Then the initiative was taken by Prussia and the responsibility was handed over to the Chief Minister Otto Von Bismarck.

3. Bismarck led three wars over a period of seven years with Austria, Denmark & France that ended up with Prussian Victory.

4. Finally, Germany got unified in January 1871.

5. The Prussian king, William I, was proclaimed German Emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.

Political Situation of Italy before Unification

1. Like Germany, Italy too had a long history of fragmentation.

2. Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multinational Habsburg Empire.

3. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Italy was divided into seven states of which only one Sardinia-Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian Princely house.

4. The North was under Austrian Habsburg, the centre was ruled by the Pope and the Southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.

5. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and still had many regional and local variations.

Unification of Italy:

1. The initial attempts were made through Liberal Nationalist revolutions by Giuseppe Mazzini however the attempts failed.

2.  The mantle now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II to unify the Italian states through war.

3. He handed over the responsibility to his Chief Minister Cavour who made a tactful diplomatic alliance with France and defeated the Austrian forces in 1859.

4. Later, South Italy and Kingdom of two Sicilies were captured with the help of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860

5. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of united Italy.

Three Leaders of Unification Of Italy - Giuseppe Mazzini, Garibaldi and cavour

Giuseppe Mazzini

1. •He was an Italian revolutionary.

2. •He was born in Genoa in 1807.

3. •He became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari.

4. •As a young man of 24, he was sent to exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria.

5. •He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states.

6. •Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind.

7. •So Italy could not continue to be a patchwork of small states and kingdoms.

8. •It had to be forged into a single unified republic within a wider alliance of nations.

9. •This unification alone could be the basis of Italian liberty.

10. •Following his model, secret societies were set up in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.

11. •Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics frightened the conservatives. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order’

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82)

• He is the most celebrated Italian freedom fighter.

• His family was engaged and coastal trade.

• He was a sailor in the Merchant Navy.

• He met Mazzini, joined 'Young Italy' and participated in republican uprising.

• In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi helped to drive out the Spanish from South Italy and the Kingdom of the two Sicilies.

• In 1867, Garibaldi led an army of volunteers to Rome to fight the last obstacle to the unification of Italy, the papal States, which became part of Italy in 1870 when France withdrew its troops from Rome.

Cavour

• Cavour was the Chief Minister of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont.

• He led the movement to unify the regions of Italy.

• He was neither a diplomat nor a democrat.

• He was an Italian elite who spoke French much better than he did Italian.

• He engineered a tactful diplomatic alliance with France and defeated the Austrian forces in 1859.