The revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, part of the wider revolutions of 1848 in Europe, were organized revolts in the states of the Italian Peninsula and Sicily, led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control. During this time, Italy was not a unified country, and was divided into many states, which, in Northern Italy, were ruled directly or indirectly by the Austrian Empire. A desire to be independent from foreign rule, and the conservative leadership of the Austrians, led Italian revolutionaries to stage revolution in order to drive out the Austrians. The revolution was led by the state of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Some uprisings in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, particularly in Milan, forced the Austrian General Radetzky to retreat to the Quadrilateral fortresses.Priscilla Robertson, Revolutions of 1848: A Social History (1952) pp 311-401
King Charles Albert, who ruled Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849, aspired to unite Italy with the endorsement of Pope Pius IX, head of the Papal States, which comprised a large territory in the center of the Italian Peninsula. He declared war on Austria in March 1848 and launched a full-out attack on the Quadrilateral. Lacking allies, Charles Albert was no match for the Austrian army and was defeated at the Battle of Custoza on 24 July 1848. He signed a truce and withdrew his forces from Lombardy, and thus Austria remained dominant in a divided Italy until the Second Italian War of Independence.
The rebellion
After witnessing the liberal friendly events that were occurring in Rome, the people of other states started to demand similar treatment. It commenced on 12 January in Sicily, where the people began to demand a Provisional Government, separate from the government of the mainland. King Ferdinand II tried to resist these changes; however, a full-fledged revolt erupted in Sicily and a revolt also erupted in Salerno and Naples. These revolts drove Ferdinand and his army out of Sicily, and forced him to allow a provisional government to be constituted. During those months, the constitution was quite advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unified Italian confederation of states. The revolt's failure was reversed 12 years later as the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies collapsed in 1860–61 with the unification of Italy.
On 11 February 1848, Leopold II of Tuscany, first cousin of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, granted the Constitution, with the general approval of his subjects. The Habsburg example was followed by Charles Albert of Sardinia (Albertine Statute; later became the constitution of the unified Kingdom of Italy and remained in force, with changes, until 1948) and by Pope Pius IX (Fundamental Statute). However, only King Charles Albert maintained the statute even after the end of the riots.
Notwithstanding the events in Rome and Naples, the states still were under a conservative rule. Italians in Lombardy-Venetia could not enjoy these freedoms. The Austrian Empire of this region had tightened their grip on the people by further oppressing them with harsher taxes. Tax gatherers were sent out along with the 100,000 man army standing in place, and letting their presence be known.
These revolts in Sicily helped to spark revolts in the northern Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. Revolutions in the Lombard city of Milan, which marked the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence, forced about 20,000 of Austrian General Radetsky's troops to withdraw from the city. Eventually General Radetsky was forced to completely withdraw his troops from the two states, however, with his expertise, he was able to keep the Quadrilateral fortresses of Verona, Peschiera, Legnago and Mantua. Through his skillful tactics he brought his men that had been withdrawn into the key forts. Meanwhile, the Italian insurgents were encouraged when news of Prince Metternich's resignation in Vienna spread, but were unable to completely eject Radetsky's troops.
In the Quadrilateral General Radetsky and his men were plotting a counterattack in order to regain their lost ground. However, they were interrupted by Charles Albert, who had by then taken the forefront of the attack, and had launched an attack against the Quadrilateral. Charles Albert charged the fortress from all sides aided by 25,000 reinforcements, who came in assistance of the nationalist cause. While journeying to the fortress preparing for the attack, Charles Albert garnered the support of princes of other states. His fellow princes responded by sending reinforcements to his aid: Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany sent 8,000, Pope Pius contributed 10,000, and Ferdinand II sent 16,050 men on the advice of general Guglielmo Pepe. They attacked the fortresses and on 3 May 1848 succeeded in winning the Battle of Goito and capturing the fortress of Peschiera.
At that point, Pope Pius IX became nervous about defeating the Austrian Empire and withdrew his troops, citing that he could not endorse a war between two Catholic nations. King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies also called his soldiers back. However, some of them did not comply with the order and continued on under the guidance of Generals Pepe, Durando and Giovanni until defeat at the Battle of Custoza. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of Lombardy–Venetia save Venice itself, where the Republic of San Marco was proclaimed under Daniele Manin. A year later, Charles Albert launched another attack, but, due to the lack of troops, he was defeated in the Battle of Novara.
In the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, Duke Francis V attempted to respond militarily to the first attempts at armed revolt, but faced with the approach of Bolognese volunteers to support the insurgents, in order to avoid bloodshed he preferred to leave the city promising a constitution and amnesties. On 21 March 1848 he left for Bolzano. A provisional government was established in Modena. The municipalities of Menton and Roquebrune, at the time part of the Principality of Monaco, united and obtained independence as the Free Cities of Menton and Roquebrune.
Aftermath
Despite the fact that Pius had abandoned the war against the Austrians, many of his people had still fought alongside Charles Albert. The people of Rome rebelled against Pius' government and assassinated Pellegrino Rossi, Pius' minister. Pope Pius IX then fled to the fortress of Gaeta, under the protection of King Ferdinand II. In February 1849, he was joined by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, fleeing the radical democrats who set up the short-lived Tuscan Republic (1849). Piedmont was also defeated by the Austrians in 1849 and Charles Albert had to abdicate leaving his son, Victor Emmanuel II, to rule.
In Rome, the authority that did take over passed popular legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes and give work to the unemployed. Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini came to build a "Rome of the People," and the short-lived Roman Republic was proclaimed. The republic aimed to inspire the people to build an independent Italian nation. It also attempted to improve economically the lives of the underserved by giving some of the Church's large landholdings to poor peasants. It also made prison and insane asylum reforms, gave freedom to the press, provided secular education, but shied away from the "Right to Work", having seen this fail in France.Denis Mack Smith, Mazzini (1996) pp 49-76
However, the many reforms instituted by the new Republic combined with its lowering of taxes brought about monetary problems which the republic then compounded by simply printing more money.Raffaele de Cesare, Last Days of Papal Rome 1850-1870, Houghton Mifflin, 1909, p. 28. Runaway price inflation doomed the economy of the republic. In addition sending troops to defend Piedmont from Austrian forces put Rome at risk of attack from Austria. Moreover, Pope Pius appealed to Louis Napoleon for help in restoring his temporal power. The French President saw this as an opportunity to gain Catholic support. The French army arrived by sea under the command of General Charles Oudinot, and, despite an early loss to Garibaldi, the French, with the help of the Austrians, eventually defeated the Roman Republic. On July 12, 1849 Pope Pius IX was escorted back into Rome and ruled under French protection until 1870.
Riots and the Italian tricolour
The Italian tricolour flag was a symbol of the revolutions of 1848. In March 1848, the Five Days of Milan, an armed insurrection which led to the temporary liberation of the city from Austrian rule, were characterised by a profusion of flags and Italian tricolour cockades. On 20 March, during furious fighting, with the Austrians barricaded in the Castello Sforzesco and within the defensive systems of the city walls, the patriots Luigi Torelli and Scipione Bagaggia managed to climb on the roof of the Milan Cathedral and hoist the Italian flag on the highest spire of the church, the one on which the Madonnina stands. At the moment of the appearance of the Italian tricolour on the spire of the Madonnina, the crowd below greeted the event with a series of enthusiastic "Hurray!" This historic flag is kept inside the Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan. The patriot Luciano Manara then managed to hoist the Italian tricolour, amidst the Austrian artillery shots, on the top of Porta Tosa. The abandonment of the city by the Austrian troops of field marshal Josef Radetzky, on 22 March, determined the immediate establishment of the provisional government of Milan chaired by the podestà Gabrio Casati, who issued a proclamation that read:
The process of transforming the flag of Italy into one of the Italian national symbols was completed, definitively consolidating itself, during the Milanese uprisings.
The following day King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia assured the provisional government of Milan that his troops, ready to come to his aid by starting the First Italian War of Independence, would use an Italian tricolour defaced with the Savoyan coat of arms superimposed on the white as a war flag. In his proclamation to the Lombard–Venetian people, Charles Albert said:See Lawrence, D. H. (ed. Philip Crumpton) Movements in European History (p. 230) Cambridge University Press, 1989 for an overview
As the arms, blazoned gules a cross argent, mixed with the white of the flag, it was fimbriated azure, blue being the dynastic colour, although this does not conform to the heraldic rule of tincture.Lo Statuto Albertino Art. 77, dato in Torino addì quattro del mese di marzo l'anno del Signore mille ottocento quarantotto, e del Regno Nostro il decimo ottavo (given in Turin on the fourth of the month of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, and of Our Reign the eighteenth) The rectangular civil and state variants were adopted in 1851.
A makeshift Italian tricolour consisting of redshirts, green displays and a white sheet was hoisted on the flagpole of the ship that brought Giuseppe Garibaldi back to Italy from South America shortly after the outbreak of the First Italian War of Independence. The patriots who had gathered at the port of Genoa to welcome her return gave Anita Garibaldi, in front of 3,000 people, an Italian tricolour to be given to Giuseppe Garibaldi so that he could plant it on Lombard soil.