Booklet 4, Big Question 2: How was Venetia made part of Italy? of Italy

Question 1

Piedmont’s problem?

Answer 1

• The Piedmontese government had perhaps unwillingly become involved in nationalism following its opportunist takeover of Naples in 1861
• The Piedmontese government, in the eyes of the nationalists, was going to have to be the leader in solving Rome and Venetia
• Baron Ricasoli had told nationalists upon his taking of office that “we claim Rome as our natural capital and Venetia as an integral part of our national soil”
• However, to take one of them would mean dealing with more than one Great Power at a time, when more than half of the Italian army was fighting Brigands in the south

Question 2

Garibaldi acts

Answer 2

• Garibaldi was unconcerned by diplomatic niceties so in December 1861 his “party of action”, and various working groups met to form the Italian Freedom Association. It’s met for the first time in March 1862, with Garibaldi as president. He toured Lombardy and tried to raise money for Venice
• In March 1862, Rattazzi summoned Garibaldi to Turin for a meeting to discuss possible action in Greece, Serbia and Dalmatia to destabilise the Hapsburg Empire, however, the scheme came to nothing
  In May 1862, a group of Garibaldi supporters led by Nullo was arrested on the Austrian border. He attempted to engineer an armed rising in 1862 and again in 1864, hoping that uprisings elsewhere in the Hapsburg Empire would draw Austrian troops out of Italy
• In both cases news leaked out, upsetting foreign diplomats and forcing the Italian government to intervene and stop Garibaldi’s actions
• He also visited London in 1864 to use the publicity to raise the issue of the liberation of Venice

Question 3

Foreign intervention

Answer 3

• Italy had to wait for foreign mood to be ready to support her and following the Schleswig-Holstein affair of 1866 where Austria was deemed to have violated the joint sovereignty of the region, relations between Austria and Prussia declined and Prussia and Italy now saw Austria was their common enemy
• La Mamora, the PM, preferred to avoid being a minor partner in an alliance again and offered to purchase Venetia from Austria for 1000 million lire. This failed and the Italian government was forced into negotiations with the Prussians
• In Biarritz, in 1865, the Prussian minister Bismarck met with Napoleon who promised neutrality in any war
• By April 1866, General Govone’s mission to Berlin had made a military agreement in which Italy was to receive Venetia in return for her war contribution
• On the 20th June 1866, 4 days after Prussia, Italy declared war on Austria

Question 4

The war

Answer 4

• Italy was very confident of success with 250,000 men against just 130,000 Austrians. Their fleet had 12 ironclad ships to Austria’s 7, however these advantages were outweighed by more significant factors
• The Italian general staff were inexperienced and Admiral Persano only led the fleet due to corruption an bribery
• Even below the highest levels of command, organisation was so bad that only about 25% of the army ever reached the front
• Once there, rivalry of officers and the presence of the monarch, who assumed personal control, led to poor decisions being made
• On June 24th, Italian forces fought at Custozza, but disintegrated after panic and confused orders set in. These ruined the reputations of the officers and shattered Italian military pride
• A month later in July, Persano’s fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Lissa. he lost 3 ships, including the “Re d’Italia”, the pride of the Italian navy. It was claimed at Persano’s court martial that the fleet had fired 1450 shells and not one scored one major hit
• Meanwhile, the Prussians crushed the Austrians at Sadowa on July 3rd and Prussian PM Bismarck saw that his own ends in the war had been achieved, and signed an armistice with Austria on July 26th

Question 5

The legacy of war

Answer 5

• The war had damaged the prestige of both the army, nationalists and the monarchy and Venetia had come into Italian hands through the victory of foreign powers
• There had been no Venetian uprising in support of the Italian forces
• As a result of a secret treaty between France and Austria, France had agreed to remain neutral in the war in return for Venetia. Following the war, Austria actually gave Venetia to France
• Luckily for Italy, Napoleon immediately ceded Venetia to Italy. This was largely a face-saving exercise for Austria who didn’t want to be seen as having to give an inferior nation, like Italy, land
• The plebiscite held in Venice approved annexation to Italy by 647,246 votes to 69
• There was no congress to decide peace, so Prussia dictated terms to Italy and Austria
• In October 1866, there was great rejoicing in Venice at the Austrian’s departure, yet the manner of victory had shown Italy’s lack of military independence and power
• The war was devastating for the national psyche and in August 1866 Crispi wrote “to be Italian was something that we once longed for, now, in the present circumstances it is shameful”
• The war had also caused great debt and this had to be paid for by nationalising church land in 1867 and by introducing the unpopular Grist Tax in 1868 - both of these actions increased tension in the new state