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The revolution of 1848 in Italy
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In the Italian peninsula there were far-reaching developments
based to some extent on aspirations which had been definitely
stirring since shortly after the time of the election in June
1846, as Pope Pius IX, of a Cardinal who followed policies which
led to his being perceived as holding liberal views. Prior to his
demise in 1846 the previous Pope, Gregory XVI, backed by a sure
reliance on Prince Metternich's Austria for support, had been
responsible for establishing a pervasively repressive
administration where spies and informers could ensure that
liberals, nationalists, and intellectuals, were often harassed
and routinely subjected to punishments that were not actually within the laws. The more radical
amongst the population of the States of the Church, and indeed
the Italian Peninsula in general, for their part tending to be
involved in secret political or revolutionary societies such as
the Carbonari. By the authority of the incoming Pope there was a declaration, on July 17th 1846, of an amnesty. Amnesties, as such, were usually declared after Papal elections, (and indeed were traditional in association with changes of sovereign in several European states), but this amnesty was unusual in being extended to many sentenced for political crimes. As a result some two thousand persons convicted of offences deemed political were, after promising good behaviour, released from imprisonment or allowed to return from foreign exile. The Papal States, recently remarkable for political repression, now saw a degree of political freedom and a relaxation of previously strict censorship. Opinion amongst the informed public in the Italian peninsula had been stirred by several aspirational publications and notably so by one written by Vincenzo Gioberti entitled "On the Civil and Moral Primacy of the Italians". This work, (first published in 1843 and which sold to the extent of some eighty-thousand copies by 1848), considered the past greatness of Italia and her present virtues, deemed that Italians were capable of resuming leadership of the civilised world, and looked to Sardinia-Piedmont and its army to stand up to the Austrian Empire. Pope Pius IX was familiar with the content of this publication that favoured the formation of a league of Italian rulers under the political and moral authority of the Papacy. The incoming Pope had in fact, prior to his election, brought copies of several such works to the Conclave of Cardinals at which he himself was somewhat unexpectedly elected Pope with the view of keenly recommending them to whosoever was returned to the Papal dignity. During his first few months in office Pope Pius followed progressive policies such as the promotion of railways, of gas-lighting, of an Agricultural Institute, and of some form of lay consultation in the administration of the States of the Church, all of which lent credibility, in many people's eyes, to the wider political authority of his papacy.
On July 17th 1847, (the first anniversary of the papal amnesty), Field Marshal Radetzky, the Austrian commander in Lombardy, decided to very publicly reinforce the Austrian garrison in Ferrara, a town just within the northern borders of the territories of the church. Although an Austrian garrison was present in the Citadel of Ferrara in line with the provisions of the treaties framed at the close of the Napoleonic Wars the public nature and the timing of this process of reinforcement was seen as provocative by Italian opinion. After the Austrians moved to secure several strategic points outside the Citadel "to protect their men from insult" Pope Pius personally protested to the European powers. This protest was welcomed and supported by many in the Italian Peninsula. In January 1848 there were 61 fatalities during so-called "tobacco riots" in Milan as people demonstrated against high taxes imposed by Lombardy's Austrian authorities who maintained a state monopoly on tobacco sales. On 12th January there was a rising in Palermo on the island of Sicily, then a notably populous city, and a principal seaport, against the absolutist King Ferdinand, with outcomes including a Sicilian declaration of independence and the awardance, by King Ferdinand, of a Constitution to his realms, (the Two Sicilies or Sicily and Naples), on the 29th of January. This was rejected by Sicily, as there was a powerful local movement supportive of an actual independence, but came into force in Naples. On the 11th of February Grand Duke Leopold II awarded a Constitution to Tuscany. On March 4th Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont issued a conservative constitutional document known as the Statuto which envisaged one of the two proposed legislative chambers being elected by persons who had an adequate level of literacy and also paid a certain amount in taxes. Whilst Pope Pius himself seemed to hope to somehow reconcile the Church and Liberalism without diminishing the Church's authority, the people increasing sought to gain the Church's support for democratic reforms and for Italian nationalism. On 14th March the States of the Church centred on Rome were awarded a Constitution, known as the Fundamental Statute, which had been drawn up by a commission of Cardinals. This constitution allowed for some participation of elected deputies in legislation. There were to be restrictions on voting rights. The Ministry of the States of the Church, previously exclusively clerical, now featured many lay persons. After mid-March when news of recent serious civil unrest in Vienna, (including the fall from power of Metternich - much disliked by liberals in the italian peninsula), reached Milan there was civil turmoil where an estimated ten thousand persons actively sought the the freedom of the press, the replacement of the existing police force by a newly formed civil guard and the convening of a national assembly. The Austrian commanders were initially somewhat unprepared to meet the protests head-on and, after an attack on the government offices which resulted in fatalities amongst the guards placed there, a captured Austrian administrator made concessions to the protestors including the signing of proclamations of the establishment of a Provisional Government and of a National Guard. The Austrian military commander Radetzky, however, continued to attempt to regain control with the result that over some two or three days of intense combat Austrian forces attempted to suppress those opposed to the Austrian hold over that city. In the event Radetzky's forces, estimated at 13,000, suffered from a significant number of desertions whilst there was a real threat that the Sardinian-Piedmontese Kingdom, with its tens of thousands strong armed forces, could intervene against the Austrian interest. Also of concern was the many attacks being suffered by Austrian forces in the Milanese countryside threatening the mobilty of outlying groups of soldiers and the availability of food supplies being able to reach Milan to feed Radetzky's forces. Given these considerations Austrian forces in Lombardy were withdrawn from the city. Austrian History archives record that on March 22 Radetzky wrote:- It is the most frightful decision of my life, but I can no longer hold Milan. The whole country is in revolt. I am pressed in the rear by the Piedmontese. All the bridges behind me can easily be cut, and I have no timber for replacing them. Similarly I have very little transport. What is going on in my rear I just do not know. I shall withdraw toward Lodi to avoid the large towns and while the countryside is still open.Also on March 22, 1848, revolution broke out in Venice and a Venetian Republic was re-established. Austrian military withdrawals continued and resulted in a movement of the bulk of the army basing itself upon a formidable group of fortresses known as the Quadrilateral.
On 24th March King Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont , significantly motivated by the hope of acquisitions of territory to extend his realms, but also to some considerable extent fearing domestic unrest centred upon the traditionally radical seaport of Genoa that might have entailed a challenge to his continued rule if he did not join in with the increasingly vocal opposition to Austrian influence, authorised the movement of his forces into Lombardy and published a proclamation promising his help to the Lombards. Two days later his troops entered Milan. (Whilst publicly identifying himself with the cause of "Italia" Charles Albert, in notes sent to other european powers, maintained that his intervention was intended to deter the revolt in Milan from becoming republican in its policies and actions. In Milan a situation emerged where local conservatives were somewhat inclined to accept some sort of fusion with Piedmont whereas local radicals tended to prefer the formation of some form of Lombard Republic.) Other armed contingents which it seemed might be used against the Austrian interest marched north from Naples, from Tuscany, and from Rome. The participation of the Roman forces had been somewhat reluctantly consented to by Pope Pius against a background of nationalistic and liberal passions being expressed in Rome. They were only authorised to proceed north to defend Papal territory. Early in April, the general in charge of the papal forces, a Piedmontese officer named Durando, unilaterally told his men that Pope Pius "has blessed your swords" and that the conflict they were engaged in was intended "to exterminate the enemies of God and of Italy .... Such a war is not merely national, but highly Christian". Such statements reached the ears of Austrian catholics, Austrian churchmen and Habsburg family members themselves, and threatened to provide the basis for a schism away from papal authority. Later in April, Durando, again acting on his own initiative, ordered his forces to cross the northern borders of the States of the Church with the intention of bringing active aid to Charles Albert. On 29th April, however, Pope Pius in an Allocution addressed to the College of Cardinals expressed a policy that inherently compromised the role in which he had been cast by many as the potential figurehead of Italian nationalism. " ...Seeing that some at present desire that We too, along with the other princes of Italy and their subjects, should engage in war against the Austrians, We have thought it convenient to proclaim clearly and openly, in this our solemn Assembly, that such a measure is altogether alien from our counsels ...."
Many persons who had welcomed the Papacy's apparent support for Italian national aspirations were disappointed by this speech of Pope Pius. But, from a broader perspective, by adopting a non-partisan position Pope Pius avoided - (as Benedetto Croce has pointed out) - being "marked with the stamp of nationality and thus being deprived of a universal character as head of the Catholic Church above all national states." Other rulers in the Italian peninsula, whilst caught up by the nationalistic enthusiams of the spring of 1848, were perhaps unwilling to see Piedmont aggrandised as a result of the on-going turmoils. In the the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies events following on from the awardance of a constitution early in 1848 featured demands being made by Sicilian interests for greater independence and even an unilateral declaration being made by such interests that they regarded the Sicilian throne as being "vacant". In Naples meanwhile local radical interests insisted on a yet more liberal revision of the constitution and even planned a coup intended to secure such a revision. It happened that the forces of King Ferdinand, over several days up to the 15th May, accomplished a counter revolution in Naples. The Constitution awarded some weeks earlier was retained but the local assembly was suspended pending new elections - from which known radicals were excluded. The Neapolitan forces that had been sent north against Austria, during the more radical phase of recent developments, were now recalled - but some 1,000 of their number, including their commander, disobeyed this order. Similarly general Durando opted to remain in northern Italy with a modest portion of his original command when the Papal forces were similarly ordered to withdraw. In the Duchy of Tuscany liberals and conservatives had vied for the control of the levers of power for several months but, after the threat of a radical rising caused the Duke to leave Florence, moderate liberals moved towards the conservative position and were able to achieve a constitutional settlement that favoured the return of the Duke and an associated lessening of Tuscan support for the campaign against Austria. During May, and into June, Lombardy, Parma, Modena and the Venetian mainland all separately voted for annexation by Piedmont in the hope of securing military aid. In early July the previously independence-minded city of Venice, (where a Republic of St. Mark had been proclaimed), itself voted for such annexation as it then being blockaded by the Austrian navy and generally felt itself to be seriously threatened by an evident resurgence in Austrian power. The forces that Radetzky had been able to call upon in March 1848 had stood at some 20,000 men in Milan, and its environs. These were reinforced with some 30,000 fresh soldiers that crossed the Alps in May. Details of subsequent developments are to be found on our The Monarchs recover power 1848-1849 page.
Other Popular European History pages
The preparation of these pages was influenced to some degree by a particular "Philosophy
of History" as suggested by this quote from the famous Essay "History" by Ralph Waldo Emerson:-
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