Before the Congress of Vienna the French occupation had far reaching affects on Italy. The power of the Church and the Pope was reduced, changes were made in landownership and land was redistributed. A new middle class began to appear. Agriculture was improved and the peasants were freed from their old feudal ties and obligations. Then when Napoleon was defeated and the restoration of the old regime and monarchs was started, Italy again became a country divided into eleven independent states, excluding the tiny principalities and the Republic of San Marino. So Italy was not unified after the Congress of Vienna due to a number of reasons, such as the foreign influence of the Central European Powers, parochialism within the states, the lack of a common language and a strong economy coupled with the poor geography that separated Italy from itself and the rest of Europe.
One of the major factors that contributed to Italy not being unified after the congress of Vienna was the impact of foreign influence. Before the restoration of the old regime in Italy state boundaries were rearranged a number of times, ending up with a division of the peninsula into only three parts instead of eleven states. One third, including Piedmont, was annexed to France, one third became the Kingdom of Italy, and Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, as the Kingdom of Naples, ruled the remainder. Yet at the restoration of the old regime in Italy after the Congress of Vienna, the Pope was among those who regained their positions. During the Napoleonic occupation successive Popes had been taken into exile in France, and the temporal power of the Pope as ruler of an Italian state had been declared at an end. But when the Pope returned he was intent on restoring temporal, as well as spiritual, control. The Papal States were divided into seventeen provinces, five of which were under the authority of Papal Legates, or Cardinals, who acted as provincial governors. The remainder, which were nearer Rome, were controlled by priests known as Delegates. The whole administration of the Papal States was in the hands of the clergy. The lay people had no part in government, apart from a few lay members of advisory bodies called ‘congregations’. Politically, Italy was fragmented. Further, half the states were governed by kings or dukes who already occupied or hoped soon to inherit the thrones of the non-Italian countries.
Ginsborg P (1990). ‘A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics: 1943-1980’ Published by Penguin; Reprint edition (27 Sep 1990).
Multiple historians have touched on the change in government during Fascist Italy’s reign in World War II. In Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development, Alexander De Grand clarifies the many promises Benito Mussolini fabricated for the Italian people in order to get them to join his cause such as the improvement on poverty with the rise of a new Roman Empire. De Grand also gives an opposite view, with some citizens seeing Fascism as a “model of efficiency.” In Melton S. Davis’ Who Defends Rome?, t...
So, I read and reviewed five volumes that I found to be representative of the recent scholarship on Renaissance Imperial power structures in Italy, the works span a range of imperial topics from Italian Cardinals and the Papacy, to the absolutist rulers of Italian cities like Milan and Florence. The works themselves are of course: Jane Black’s Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: A Plenitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329-1535, Charles Stinger’s The Renaissance in Rome, Gerard Noel’s The Renaissance Popes: Statesmen, Warriors, and the Great Borgia Myth, Margaret Ann Zaho’s Imago Triumphalis: The Function and Significance of Triumphal Imagery for Italian Renaissance Ruler’s, and finally K.J.P. Lowe’s Church and Politics
Italy achieved her unification in 1870. She had a constitutional monarchy like that of Great Britain, but democratic society failed to develop in Italy because the government was controlled by corrupt politicians, called the party bosses. They controlled the elections by bribing the voters. Once they were in power, they were more interested in achieving personal gains for themselves than in solving the social and economic problems of the people. As a result of this political corruption, Italy remained a poor country. Industrial progress was slow. Italy was poor in natural resources and lack of fertile land. Many of the farm laborers were landless and were often unemployed, so millions of Italians were forced to emigrate.
To begin with, this is determined by Italy's weak and foreign expansion policy. In 1871, the long-torn apartness of Italy achieved unity, providing favorable conditions for the development of capitalism. But the reunification is completed from top to bottom, retaining a large number of feudal remnants, which seriously hindered the further development of the Italian economy, resulting in the backwardness of Italy, mainly in three aspects: First, backward agriculture, food production is extremely
During the late 1800's Italy became one of the most overcrowded countries in Europe. Many Italians began to consider the possibility of leaving Italy to escape the new low wages and high taxes. For centuries the entire Italian peninsula was divided into quarreling states, with foreign powers often controlling several states. In this chaotic situation, the feudal system ruled above the economic system, leaving money only in the hands of a select few (Wikepedia.com, 2007).
The key issues over which the Italian Wars were fought were primarily financial incentives for Charles VIII of France. He declared that he intended to use Naples as a base to drive the Ottomans out of Europe and liberate Constantinople. In actual truth his main motivation was self-glory and the mouth-watering prospect of acquiring some exquisite prizes of war. On the way he would acquire rich cities and portable pieces of art. It seems that this invasion had been planned for two years prior since Charles had already bought off potential rivals like Henry VII of England, Ferdinand and Macsimilion. He had also enlisted the support of Genoa and Milan, both within Italy. The regent of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, needed allies and his invitation in 1594 seemed to Charles’ plans perfectly. He accepted and the Italian wars began. Also, the Cardinal of Genoa resented the current Pope, Alexander VI. He invited Charles to come in, depose him and spark off the eagerly awaited church reform.
Despite intense feelings of nationalism, when Italy’s opportunity came to unify in early 1848 the leaders and the people became hopelessly divided.
Why did Italy enter into World War I if the majority of Italians were Against it? On the 28th of June 1914, the heir to the Austro – Hungarian throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was killed in Sarajevo by a Serbian Nationalist. This assassination, perceived as an internal threat by Austria – Hungary, led to the nearly immediate outbreak of the war. As members of the Triple Alliance, Germany declared war alongside Austria – Hungaria whereas Italy, even though it had been a member since 1882, declared its neutrality on the 4th of August justifying her position by the fact that “ the character of the Alliance is purely defensive”1 and that, therefore, she can only provide military support in the case of a defensive war. From 1914, Italians divided into two opposite groups, the Neutralists and the Interventionists respectively formed by the Socialits, Catholics and the Giolittian on one hand and the Futurists, Nationalists, some Socialits and the North of the country on the other. Italian interventionists glorified the war as the motor to modernity and the solution to territorial expansion whereas Neutralists qualified it as a “useless slaughter”2 and denied Italy's ability to fight or to gain any economical or territorial advantages.
The map of Europe was redrawn after World War I such that the countries that desired independence had their own self-governing nation. This caused the German Empire, for instance, to grow smaller and not encompass the small countries that had previously been a part of the empire. Although these territorial changes were seemingly beneficial to some, they ultimately did not work in practice for various reasons. The countries that achieved independence were not successful for reasons such as their failure to establish diplomatic relations with other countries and weak infrastructure; these reasons combined resulted in a weak country.
This new Republican government, which was administered by the consuls, was not the easiest to transform. Because of the expansion in Italy, the government began to initiate political institutions. These institutions enforced laws and provided authority which were very similar to imperium. “The Romans had a clear concept of executive authority, embodied in their word imperium, or “the right to command” (Spielvogel 117). Since the Romans were very sensible in their actions, they made and implemented them only as needed. The most essential positions held were the few elected magistrates and the two consuls who were “chosen annually, administered the government and led the Roman army into battle” (Spielvogel 117). If the consul was otherwise occupied, either a dictator or praetor would assume responsibility for the time being.
the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy or to work with it. He
During this period of Italian history, Catholicism was the dominant religion, and reigned supreme among others. Advancement in the Catholic faith was used as a means to secure political power in a divided region. With religion and politics being strongly interconnected, the Pope was often seen as the most influential political f...
Renaissance Italy was full of famous powerful families: The Medici who ruled Florence, the Sforza ruled Milan and Forli. But out of all of them, the Borgia Family were the most famous and infamous that have ever graced the pages of history. The Borgia’s are a fascination to study because history is so divided over them. They used the power of the Catholic Church for their own personal fortune and political power. They were rumored to have committed every sin and vice under the sun. Many in their time period believed that they were mass poisoners. Yet at the same time, their sins paralleled those of most the nobility and royalty of that age, including previous popes. The Borgia’s presided over some of the most important events of the times; the Bonfire of the Vanities, the Spanish inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the Italian Wars, and, Treaty of Tordesillas. They can also be traced to the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. This paper tells of the Borgia’s rise and fall in the Papacy and their deeds and impact on the world at the time.
Even in recent times the action of war has been useful in condensing scattered elements of nationality, and in liberating subject populations. United Italy was formed directly or indirectly by the war of 1859, 1866, and 187O. The last war realised the dreams of German poets, and united the Teutonic nations more closely than the shrewdest statesmen could have conceived to be possible a few years ago. That same war, so calamitous for France, will yet regenerate that great country, and make her more prosperous than she has ever been. Th...