Venice and Rome and the Extent of Unification by 1870 » The Roman Question and the Taking of Rome

Why was Rome a problem?

After 1866 the biggest piece of Italy still missing was Rome and the land around it, which the Pope still ruled. Remember, parliament had already named Rome as the future capital. Italian nationalists could not imagine their country without it. But three things stood in the way.

So the government was trapped. It wanted Rome, but it dared not fight France. Its only hope was slow diplomacy. Garibaldi had no patience for that.

Key terms:

• Roman Question: the argument over who should rule Rome, the Pope or the Kingdom of Italy.
• Temporal power: the Pope's power as the ruler of a state with land, laws and an army, as well as being head of the Church.
• September Convention: the 1864 agreement between Italy and France about the French soldiers in Rome.

Garibaldi's failures, 1862-67

The spec calls this 'the failure of Garibaldi's diplomacy'. It means his attempts to settle the Roman Question himself, by force, while the government tried to do it by talking. He tried twice and failed twice.

Aspromonte, 1862

In the summer of 1862 Garibaldi went back to Sicily and raised about 2,000 volunteers. Their slogan was 'Rome or death'. The prime minister, Rattazzi, did little to stop him at first, and many people thought the king secretly approved. Then Napoleon III protested, and the government panicked. When Garibaldi crossed to the mainland, the Italian army was sent to stop him.

The two sides met on the mountain of Aspromonte on 29 August 1862. Garibaldi told his men not to fire on fellow Italians. The fight lasted only minutes. Garibaldi was shot in the foot, arrested and held in prison for a few weeks before he was pardoned. Italians were shocked that their own army had shot the country's greatest hero. Rattazzi's government fell before the end of the year.

The September Convention, 1864

The government now tried diplomacy. On 15 September 1864 it signed the September Convention with Napoleon III:

• France would take its soldiers out of Rome within two years.
• Italy promised not to attack the Pope's land, and to stop anyone else attacking it.
• Italy would move its capital from Turin to Florence.

To the French, the move to Florence showed that Italy had given up on Rome. To many Italians it was only a step nearer. In Turin, people rioted at losing the capital, and dozens were killed when troops fired on the crowds. The capital moved to Florence in 1865, and the last French soldiers left Rome in December 1866. The Pope was now guarded only by his own small army, which included Catholic volunteers from abroad.

Mentana, 1867

With the French gone, Garibaldi tried again. Rattazzi, prime minister once more, behaved just as he had in 1862. In September 1867 Garibaldi was arrested and sent home to Caprera. In October he escaped, joined his volunteers and invaded the Pope's land. He expected the people of Rome to rise in revolt. They did not.

Napoleon III said Italy had broken the September Convention and sent his soldiers back. On 3 November 1867, at Mentana, near Rome, the Pope's army and the French beat Garibaldi's volunteers. The French had new, fast-firing Chassepot rifles. Garibaldi was arrested again and sent back to Caprera.

The Franco-Prussian War and the taking of Rome, 1870

As with Venetia, the answer came from a war between great powers. (The spec says 'Piedmont and the Franco-Prussian War', but by 1870 the state was the Kingdom of Italy.) In July 1870 France declared war on Prussia. Napoleon III needed every soldier he had, so in August he called the garrison home from Rome.

The Italian government still hesitated. Then, on 1-2 September, the French army was crushed at Sedan and Napoleon III was taken prisoner. His empire collapsed and France became a republic. The man who had protected the Pope was gone, and the new France was fighting for its life.

• Early September: Victor Emmanuel II wrote to Pius IX asking him to let Italian soldiers enter Rome peacefully. The Pope refused.
• 11 September: about 50,000 Italian soldiers under General Cadorna crossed into the Pope's land.
• 20 September 1870: Italian cannon blew a hole in the walls of Rome near the gate of Porta Pia. Pius IX had ordered his soldiers to put up only a short fight, to show that he gave in to force and not by choice. Fewer than 70 men were killed on both sides.
• 2 October: a plebiscite in Rome and the land around it gave about 134,000 votes for union with Italy and about 1,500 against.

Rome became the capital of Italy in 1871. But Pius IX never accepted it. He shut himself inside the Vatican, called himself a 'prisoner' and refused to recognise the Kingdom of Italy. Italy had its capital, but had made an enemy of the head of its people's Church. You will weigh this up in the lesson 'How United Was Italy in 1870?'.

Exam-style question

Explain two effects of the Franco-Prussian War on Italy. [8 marks]