The Creation of Italy

Your Playlist:

Description

The Battle of Solferino: 1859In 1858, Italy as a country did not exist; its territory had been divided at the Congress of Vienna into eight separate states, which provided strong motive for an independence movement at the very time when waves of nationalism and patriotic insurrection were sweeping a Europe in the throes of Romanticism. Enter Napoleon III, eager for France to reassert a leading role in European events and pleased to nettle the enemy, Austria. The first phase of the Italian fight for independence was thus instigated by the French. This program details the onset of that fight, the intrigues and secret deals before and after, the characters of Cavour and Garibaldi, the climactic Battle of Solferino, and Napoleon's pay-off-Nice and the Savoy. It would take another 10 years for the unification of Italy to be accomplished.