French rule and Congress of Vienna (1796-1815)
The French Republic annexed Savoy and Nice in 1792, immediately after its proclamation. In 1796 General Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Lombardy, but in 1797 in the Peace of Campoformio left Austria the Republic of Venice east of the Adige.
In the rest of Italy he founded the Cisalpine (1796/97: including Lombardy, western Veneto, papal Romagna), the Ligurian (1797: Republic of Genoa), the Roman (1798: rest of the Papal States) and the Parthenopean Republic (1799: Kingdom of Naples). These state structures failed in 1799 in the absence of Bonaparte because of the Austro-Russian advance on land, the British intervention from the sea, and partly (especially in Naples) because of the patriotic-peasant, anti-revolutionary and church-loyal resistance of the lower classes (Fra Diavolo) and went in the new “Italian Republic”, for which the Italian notables elected the First Consul Bonaparte as President in Lyon in 1802. Since 1804 Emperor of the French, crowned In 1805 Napoleon I with the Iron Crown of Lombardy became king of the »Kingdom of Italy«, which was enlarged to include Veneto. In 1802 he annexed Piedmont as French departments, 1805 Genoa / Liguria, 1808 Parma and briefly Tuscany, which had been the Bourbon “Kingdom of Etruria” since 1801, and finally Rome in 1809 as the “second city” of the empire, of which he was king in 1811 born son made. E. Beauharnais, Napoleon’s, officiated as viceroy over around 7 million Italians Stepson and son-in-law of the Bavarian king. The excellent administration and the efficient tax system, the reforms in the education system and the role of the troops deployed here in the wars of the French emperor were praised. Later, an early national opposition to Beauharnais’ loyal policies developed in the Napoleonic ruling association; In 1814 she carried out the coup in Milan before the arrival of Austrian troops. Napoleon gave, among other things, to family members the Kingdom of Naples, first to his brother Joseph Bonaparte in 1806, then to his brother-in-law J. Murat in 1808 which was able to initiate some of the necessary reforms. Only on the islands, protected by the British navy, did the Savoy in Sardinia and the Neapolitan Bourbons in Sicily hold out. In the north in particular, the centralization of bureaucracy and the modernization of the educational system along the lines of the French model, the introduction of the Napoleonic Code and infrastructure improvements had a lasting effect. For more articles about Italy and Europe, please follow Militarynous.
Despite the collapse of French rule in Upper and Central Italy in 1814, Murat, who had distanced himself from Napoleon, was executed. The Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 restored the Papal States and the larger monarchies of Italy on the basis of the Peace of Paris of 1814: The Kingdom of Sardinia received Nice back and was enlarged to include the area of the old Republic of Genoa; Lombardy was united with old Venice to form the “Lombardy-Venetian Kingdom”, which fell to Austria and was effectively ruled from Vienna; the Habsburg-Lorraine secondary school in Tuscany was re-established; Modena, Lucca as well as Parma and Piacenza were ruled by the Habsburgs, in 1847 after the death of Napoleon’s widow who initially able to hold the Kingdom of Naples; his attempt to conquer all of Italy when Napoleon returned from Elba in 1815, taking up national-Italian motifs (Rimini Manifesto, March 30, 1815), but failed because of Austria’s intervention (battle near Tolentino, May 3, 1815). After an attempt to regain the throne, Murat was reinstated at the behest of Ferdinand IV. Habsburg-friendly Bourbons, Archduchess Marie Louise. In the south, the Bourbon Ferdinand IV. Naples and Sicily in 1816 to the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies”. Overall, the monarchical restoration carried out by Prince Metternich strengthened Austrian hegemony over Italy, even if his plan for a “Lega Italica” based on the example of the German Confederation on Sardinia-Piedmont and the Papal States failed.
Age of the Risorgimento (1815-1870)
In the educated bourgeoisie and progressive aristocrats, the far-reaching reforms of the 18th century in some parts of the country and especially the Napoleonic era, the desire for political participation rights and national independence (“Risorgimento”, national “resurrection”, title of a late 1847 in Turin by C Benso Graf Cavour co-founded magazine), which was provoked even more precisely because of the refusal of participation in general by repression of any kind of opposition movement in the face of economic stagnation and social immobility in most Italian states. Secret societies (e.g. the Carboneria) fought against Restoration and Austrian hegemony. First open resistance in 1820/21, after the Spanish Revolution, in Naples and Sardinia-Piedmont and in 1831, after the French July Revolution, in the Papal States, in Modena and Parma, was suppressed by Austrian intervention.
