Militarism went hand-in-hand with Italian unification, because the unification was secured through a series of wars. The first was a war between the kingdom of Sardinia and Austria. France, under Napoleon III, sided with the Sardinians. This war resulted in the defeat of Austria, which gave control of Lombardy and Piedmont, two regions in modern northwest Italy, to the king of Sardinia. A revolutionary leader named Giuseppe Garibaldi launched a series of military conflicts that brought about the unification of most of the rest of modern Italy. This new land became known as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and it consisted of the island of Sicily and most of the southern Italian peninsula. Garibaldi and a military force known as the "Red Shirts" united this region under independent control, and the Sardinian minister Cavour, the political architect of unification, gained control of the Papal States around Rome through a military campaign. Another war with Austria added the vital city of Venice to Italy, unifying the nation under an Italian monarch. So, while diplomacy and political maneuvering played a role in the unification of Italy, militarism was also crucial.
No comments:
Post a Comment