Nationalism In Italy Essay, Research Paper

Nationalism in Italy

Nationalism is the recognition of shared common language, culture, and history. Many of the Italian states opposed the unification of Italy because they did not want to give up their power to one central government. While liberal revolutions were occurring, Italian nationalists led rebellions of their own. Anger over foreign domination led Italian nationalists to call for unity and independence. Nationalism has been causing a lot of conflict in the past because Italian states opposed the unification of Italy and Italian nationalists led rebellions.

Despite the failure of revolts in 1848 and 1849, Italian patriots still wanted to unify Italy. The states of Italy and the nationalists were unable to agree upon how to achieve unity in Italy. Many Italian citizens wanted a federation of states that would be guided by the pope, most of the liberals wanted a republic government, and all of the other citizens wanted a constitutional monarchy under the king.

In 1861, Italy agreed to hold elections to vote and everybody agreed to unify Italy. Our country is…no longer the field for every foreign ambition, rejoiced Victor Emmanuel. It becomes, henceforth, the Italy of the Italians. The only countries to holdout were Venetia, which still belonged to Austria, and the Papal states, where French troops supported the pope. War had broken out against Prussia and Austria. The Italians took the side of the Prussians, so Austria was defeated, and Prussia rewarded the Italian ally with Venetia. Also in 1870, war broke out between France and Prussia, so that forced the French to withdraw their troops from Rome. In the September of 1870, Italian troops entered Rome to complete the unification of Italy.

After the successful fight for the unification of Italy, liberal politicians passed laws to reduce the Catholic Church s control of education. Anti-Catholic feelings were particularly strong in the 1870 s because the papacy had opposed Italian unification and refused to extend diplomatic relations to Italy. Though liberal in orientation, Italian politicians refused to extend voting and civil rights to women. This angered the women population of Italy who had fought to unify the once nationalist country. A women s right leader Anna Mozzoni compared women s contributions with their lack of political rights. She organized Italy s first women s rights movement to expand educational, professional, and political opportunities. They politicians extended the vote to more males, passed factory laws, nationalized some industries, legalized trade unions, and helped set up agricultural cooperatives. The unification of Italy helped ensure the beginning of the 19th century by being one of the great political powers in Europe.

To date, Italy is a liberal country with many different cultures, languages, and people. Italy is a county that was controlled by different political groups at the end of the 1800 s and is now a unified country. Italy has many historical events and is now a great place to travel. Italy is one of the older countries in Europe and after its amazing past, who knows what the Italy of the future may bring us.