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Unlock This CourseBy October 1860 Garibaldi held Sicily and Naples, and the king's army held Umbria and the Marches. The next question was how these lands should join Piedmont.
The democrats around Garibaldi, such as Francesco Crispi, wanted each region to elect an assembly first. An assembly could bargain and set conditions, such as keeping some local self-rule. Cavour wanted a plebiscite instead: a quick vote, yes or no, with no conditions. Garibaldi gave way and chose the plebiscite.
On 21 October 1860 all adult men in Naples and Sicily could vote. They were asked if they wanted Italy 'one and indivisible' with Victor Emmanuel as constitutional king. On the mainland about 1.3 million voted yes and about 10,000 voted no. In Sicily about 432,000 voted yes and fewer than 1,000 voted no. On 4-5 November Umbria and the Marches voted to join by similar huge majorities.
Voting was done in public, in front of officials, so it took courage to vote no. The only choice was annexation or nothing. Nobody could vote for a federal Italy or for self-rule. Many peasants could not read and had little idea what they were voting for. Many voters did want to be rid of the Bourbons, but the figures make support for the new Italy look stronger than it was.
The results mattered. Cavour could tell the great powers that these lands had not been conquered. Their people had chosen to join.
Key terms:
One job was left in the south. Francis II and the main part of his remaining army still held the fortress of Gaeta. The Piedmontese army besieged it, and it surrendered on 13 February 1861. Francis II went into exile in Rome. The Bourbon kingdom was finished.
In January 1861 elections were held for the first Italian parliament. It met in Turin on 18 February. It voted to give Victor Emmanuel II, and his heirs after him, the title King of Italy. The law was signed on 17 March 1861. This was the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
The new kingdom had about 22 million people. For the first time since the Roman Empire, most of the peninsula had one ruler.
The new Italy was not built from scratch. In most ways it was Piedmont made bigger.
Victor Emmanuel kept the number 'II' from his Piedmontese title. He did not become Victor Emmanuel I of Italy. Even the parliament of 1861 was counted as the eighth, carrying on from Piedmont's seven.
Piedmont's Statuto became the constitution of all Italy. So Italy was a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament and the king choosing ministers. The franchise was narrow. Only about 2 per cent of the people, all of them better-off men who could read, had the vote.
The capital was Turin and Cavour was the first prime minister. Italy became a unitary state, not a federation of regions. A plan to give the regions some self-rule was dropped in 1861.
Why was it done this way? Cavour and the moderates were in a hurry. They feared that Austria might attack, that the Bourbons might return and that the democrats might take control of the south. A single strong government, using laws that already worked in Piedmont, seemed the safest and quickest answer. It also meant that Mazzini's dream of a democratic republic made by the people had lost. Italy had been made from above, by a king, his army and his prime minister.
Recognition came slowly. Britain accepted the new kingdom within two weeks, on 30 March 1861, and France followed in June. Austria and the Pope refused. Cavour himself died on 6 June 1861, less than three months after the proclamation. The problems this kind of state caused are covered in the lesson 'Obstacles to Unity After 1861 and Piedmontisation'.
Austria still ruled Venetia, in the north-east, including the city of Venice. Its army there was protected by the strong fortresses of the Quadrilateral. Italy was not strong enough to drive Austria out without help from a great power.
The Pope still ruled Rome and the land around it, guarded by French soldiers. An attack on Rome meant war with France. Yet on 27 March 1861 the parliament in Turin declared that Rome should one day be the capital of Italy.
So the kingdom of 1861 was unfinished. To nationalists, an Italy without Venice and Rome was not yet a whole Italy. Winning them shaped Italian policy for the next ten years.
'The main reason for the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 was Garibaldi's conquest of Sicily and Naples.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own.
Garibaldi's conquest of the south was the main reason the Kingdom of Italy was created in 1861, although his victories alone could not have made it.
Garibaldi's conquest was vital because it brought half the peninsula into play. In spring 1860 Piedmont had no plan to take the south. Garibaldi landed at Marsala in May with about 1,000 volunteers, won at Calatafimi and took Palermo, where about 20,000 Bourbon troops were forced to ask for a truce. By the end of July he held Sicily. He entered Naples on 7 September. Without this, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies would still have been ruled by the Bourbons in 1861. He then chose to hand it all to Victor Emmanuel II at Teano, so his conquests became part of one kingdom.
However, the Piedmontese invasion of the Papal States was also important. Cavour sent the army south on 11 September 1860, and it beat the Pope's forces at Castelfidardo. This won Umbria and the Marches, which joined the north to the south. It also stopped Garibaldi marching on Rome, which would have meant war with France and could have wrecked everything. The invasion put the king, not Garibaldi, in control of the final settlement.
A third reason was the attitude of the great powers. Britain refused to join a blockade of the Strait of Messina, so Garibaldi could cross. Napoleon III accepted the invasion at Chambéry, and Austria, weakened by its defeat in 1859, did nothing. If one of these powers had stepped in, neither Garibaldi nor Cavour could have succeeded. The plebiscites of October and November 1860 then let Cavour claim that the people had chosen union, which made the new state easier for the powers to accept.
Overall, I mostly agree. The best test is which factor made the others happen. Cavour only invaded the Papal States because Garibaldi had already taken Naples, and the great powers only had to react because of what Garibaldi had done. His conquest was the trigger. But it was Cavour's invasion and the powers' acceptance that turned a daring conquest into a lasting kingdom, proclaimed on 17 March 1861.
What lifts it to the top level: it covers three reasons, one of them not in the bullets, backs each with exact facts, and reaches a judgement using a clear test (which factor set off the others).
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level. Before you write, jot down a third reason of your own, such as the great powers here. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson 'Paper 1 Question (c): The 16-Mark How Far Do You Agree Essay'.