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Unlock This CourseIn March 1848 the revolutions seemed to be winning. Milan and Venice had thrown out the Austrians, and Charles Albert of Piedmont had declared war. Soldiers from the Papal States, Tuscany and Naples marched north to help. Eighteen months later, every revolution had been crushed.
The Austrian army in Italy had not been destroyed. Its commander, Marshal Radetzky, was 81 years old and very experienced. He pulled his men back into the Quadrilateral and waited for fresh troops. Charles Albert moved slowly and did not attack while Radetzky was weak.
Then the Italian side began to fall apart. On 29 April 1848 Pope Pius IX issued his Allocution. In May, King Ferdinand II won back control in Naples and called his army home. On 24-25 July Radetzky beat the Piedmontese at Custoza. Charles Albert signed an armistice and left Lombardy to the Austrians.
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After the Allocution, many people in Rome felt betrayed by the Pope. On 15 November 1848 his chief minister, Pellegrino Rossi, was stabbed to death. Crowds gathered outside the Pope's palace demanding a democratic government and war on Austria. On 24 November Pius IX fled in disguise to Gaeta, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
With the Pope gone, an assembly was elected by all adult men, which was very rare at the time. On 9 February 1849 it ended the Pope's political power and declared the Roman Republic. Giuseppe Mazzini arrived in March and became the leading member of a triumvirate that ran the city. This was his chance to show what a democratic Italian republic could be.
It allowed freedom of religion, ended Church control of the press and abolished the death penalty. It cut taxes that hit the poor and planned to share out some Church land among peasants. Mazzini ruled fairly and did not persecute priests.
From Gaeta, the Pope asked the Catholic powers to restore him. Louis Napoleon, President of France, sent an army. Giuseppe Garibaldi led the defence and beat off the first French attack on 30 April. The French came back with a much larger army and siege guns. After a month-long siege they entered Rome on 3 July 1849.
Why did France, itself a republic, destroy another republic? Louis Napoleon wanted the support of French Catholics, and he did not want Austria to be the power that put the Pope back. Mazzini went into exile. Garibaldi left the city with about 4,000 volunteers and escaped after a long retreat.
Elsewhere the story was the same. Charles Albert went back to war in March 1849 and was beaten within days at Novara (23 March). He abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II. Ferdinand II recaptured Sicily by May 1849. In Tuscany, Grand Duke Leopold II had fled in February 1849. He returned that summer, backed by Austrian troops who occupied the state. Venice, led by Daniele Manin, held out until August 1849, when Austrian shelling, hunger and cholera forced it to surrender.
Austria had a large, trained army and a skilled general in Radetzky. The Quadrilateral gave him a safe base. By the autumn of 1848 the Austrian government had regained control in Vienna and could send more troops to Italy. Custoza and Novara showed that Piedmont's army could not beat Austria on its own.
The revolutionaries did not share one aim. Charles Albert wanted a bigger Piedmont ruled by a king. Republicans in Milan, Venice and Rome did not trust him. Sicily wanted freedom from Naples, not a united Italy. There was no single leader or plan, so each revolution fought alone and Austria and its allies defeated them one by one.
The Allocution ended the dream of a Pope leading Italy. Catholics now had to choose between their Church and the national cause. It also gave other rulers an excuse to pull out of the war. From 1849 the Pope was an open enemy of the revolutions, and it was his appeal that brought the French army to Rome.
No great power helped. Charles Albert had boasted that 'Italy will do it alone', Britain gave sympathy but no soldiers, and France in the end fought against the revolution. At home, the revolutions were led by middle-class townspeople. Most Italians were peasants, and the new constitutions offered them no land and no vote, so few would fight.
These reasons are linked. Austria's army was the direct cause of most of the defeats, but it was the divisions, the Pope's withdrawal and the lack of support that left each revolution facing that army alone.
Explain two effects of Pope Pius IX's Allocution of April 1848 on the 1848 Revolutions in the Italian states. [8 marks]
One effect of the Allocution was that it weakened the war against Austria. On 29 April 1848 Pius IX said he could not fight Austria because it was a Catholic country. This took away the Church's blessing from the war, so Catholics had to choose between their faith and the national cause. It also gave other rulers an excuse to leave: in May Ferdinand II called his army back to Naples. As a result Charles Albert had less support, and in July 1848 he was beaten by Radetzky at Custoza.
A second effect was that it turned revolutionaries in Rome against the Pope. Many nationalists had hoped Pius IX would lead Italy, so they felt betrayed. Anger grew until his chief minister, Rossi, was murdered in November 1848 and the Pope fled to Gaeta. This led directly to the Roman Republic being declared in February 1849, and Mazzini became its leader in March. The Pope then asked Catholic powers for help, which brought the French army that crushed the Republic in July 1849.
What lifts it to the top level: each paragraph names one effect, backs it with exact dates, names and events, and shows step by step how the Allocution led to that effect.
Write two separate paragraphs and start each one with 'One effect was...' or 'A second effect was...'. One effect alone cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks, however well you explain it. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson 'Paper 1 Question (b): Explain Two Effects'.