History April Essay Flashcards
Intro
. Inevitable than the Piedmont government would come face to face with obstacles to full national unity of Italy, however they arguably created more problems than solved
. Piedmont was not willing to accept southern culture and VEII even kept kept the title “the second” rather than VEI of Italy
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. Piedmont’s sheer force and determination to achieve unification and the rapidness at which they attained it meant that the overall feelings of the south were ignored
. The voting systems of the plebiscites…
. Politicians had very little understanding of the South. Its backwardness and poverty meant it was unsuitable for unification with Piedmont. An example of this was in 1859 when the Casati Law…
. Garibaldi’s invasion had promised land reform and improved living standards, but these weren’t forthcoming.
. Electorate
. The new government in Turin decided to impose Piedmont’s systems over the whole peninsula. Italy became Piedmontised at an almost indecent rate.
. Rapidness example
. Ignorance
. The south became a drain on the north and Piedmont had neither the resources or manpower to administer the region well.
. Historian Mack Smith
. Even though geographical unification was successful, the unification between the people in the north and south was not as strong and this feeling of betrayal would lead to further issues
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. The rapidness of Piedmontisation and dissatisfaction across the peninsula with Piedmont culminated in the Brigands War from 1861 to 1865
The introduction of conscription by Piedmont took young men from their families, where they were needed on farms
. Tax
. Brigand amount
. Although it is true Piedmont motivated the behaviour, it was Piedmont who created a solution to this by ending the war
. Piedmont troop amount
. End of war
. Therefore, Piedmont solved this issue and without their forces southern behaviour potentially could have spiralled out of control
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. However, another problem caused by Piedmont the destructive relationship between the new state and the church
. The beginning of the feud
. The Church ignored Cavour and so
. The response of the Papacy was to create the Syllabus of Errors which claimed that: it would not accept progress and modern civilisation, it criticised Liberalism, it attacked religious toleration, freedom of expression and thought and said the church will control all education, culture, science
. Piedmont worsened the relationship through the dissolution of 2382 monasteries and convents which then deprived areas of charitable institutions , which the state didn’t replace and upset religious feelings.
. Culmination
. The Pope did not officially recognise the Kingdom until 1929 highlighting how damaging Piedmont was to the relationship
. This caused more problems than it solved as over 90% of Italians were Catholic and the Pope highlighted that by supporting unification they were going against him causing a greater divide between the people
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. Piedmont is largely to thank for overcoming the obstacles of national unity and accomplishing full unification by 1870
. Piedmont caused standardisation to happen across Italy which although was met with some resentment it allowed easier trade across the peninsula and a sense of Italian identity to emerge
. A single criminal legal code was adopted except for Tuscany and a civil law code was in the whole of Italy from 1865.
. A unified Italian army was formed and modernised under Prussian guidance.
. A unified navy was formed.
. By the end of 1860 only Austrian controlled Venetia and Rome with French occupation were left to join the new state
. In 1866 Otto van Bismarck offered VEII to form an alliance with Prussia within the Austro-Prussian War and in exchange Prussia would allow Italy to annex Venetia
. It would Piedmont who persuaded Bismarck by planning to open up a second front in order to distract the Austrians
. Despite Italy’s badly organised military involvement, Prussia’s victory gave Venetia to Italian unification
. Whilst Piedmont may have got Venice anyway due to the secret French treaty it was Cavour who built Piedmont’s relationship up with the French
. In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War was declared and the French abandoned their positions in Rome enabling Italy to gain Rome from French, opportunistic
. Therefore, Piedmont’s valuable decision to ally with Prussia was crucial for completing full unity and Piedmont was to thank for achieving geographical unification
Conclusion
. Between 1861 and 1870, Piedmont did create more problems than solutions for national unity due to their lack of organisation, patience, and knowledge on the south
. However, their short term solutions such as deploying armies to put an end to the Brigands and allying with reassigned resulted in long term successful consequences and unification
. Left over issues like papal opposition and economic issues
Voting
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. Plebiscites in 1860 which were used as evidence by the north to prove the south favoured unification were corrupt as slips which said ‘no’ were no brought to voting stations and those who voted ‘yes’ were unsure what the vote meant, people voted against the tyranny of rulers not for unification
Little understanding of south example
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. E.g. in 1859 when the Casati Law made primary education compulsory, yet it didn’t happen in the South as the majority were illiterate.
Electorate
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. Parliament was elected by a narrow electorate which made up 2% of the population (literate, male taxpayers from northern Italy). It was totally unrepresentative of the masses. There were 443 members of parliament elected by a mere 150000 voters.
Rapidness
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. The legal system of Naples, for example, was changed by 53 decrees in just 2 days, in February 1861
Ignorance + Historian
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. Cavour had ever traveled further south than Tuscany
. Historian Mack Smith says that Piedmontisation “reinforced the impression that one region had virtually conquered the rest”
Brigands war date
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. From 1861 to 1865
Taxes
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. Paying increased taxes like the Grist Tax in 1868 as 2.5 billion lire of debt had been accumulated which was mostly a result of Piedmont expansion and wars led by Piedmont
Amount of Brigands
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. 1862 it was estimated that there were 82,000 Brigands in the Neapolitan provinces
Piedmont army
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. An army of 12,000 were deployed by Piedmont and by 1863 90,000 troops were engaged in peace keeping
