Clash of Monarchies: The First War of Italian Independence
The idea of some sort of a unification of the Italian peninsula was one
that long predated the series of wars for Italian independence. Indeed,
unification and independence were not the same thing and might not
necessarily have been linked. After the downfall of Napoleon and the
re-drawing of the map of Europe by the Congress of Vienna, most of
northern Italy was handed over to the Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs
and their cadet branches of the family. Central Italy was restored to
the Pope and the south of Italy was returned to the junior branch of the
Spanish Royal Family. However, from the very beginning, there was
trouble in the south and Austrian troops had to be dispatched to keep
the King of the Bourbon Two-Sicilies on his throne. Between the north
and the south, this meant that, fairly early on, Austria was forced to
maintain a military force of over 100,000 soldiers on the Italian
peninsula to maintain the existing power structure.
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| Metternich |
The Austrian statesman, Prince Clemens von Metternich, knew this was
unsustainable in the long-term and so proposed to the allies the
creation of an Italian federation under the leadership of the King of
Lombardy-Venetia, who not coincidentally happened to be the Emperor of
Austria. The allies rejected this proposal and the unrest continued,
particularly in the south. Metternich feared that this tendency toward
rebellion would spread and threaten those areas recently placed under
Habsburg rule. In response, he produced the “Troppau Protocols” in 1821
in which Austria, Prussia, France and Russia agreed that any outbreak of
revolution would be met by concerted military force to suppress it. It
was unlikely that such cooperation was to be forthcoming but Metternich
hoped that the statement alone would be enough to convince potential
rebels of the hopelessness of their cause and bolster the King in Naples
in particular. To his frustration, however, such hopes by Metternich
were dashed.
That same year, rebellions broke out in both Piedmont-Sardinia and the
Two-Sicilies and Austrian troops were dispatched to both to suppress
them. In Turin, the rebels did not try to bring down the monarchy but
demanded a constitution, which Prince Carlo Alberto gave them, as he had
taken control of the government when King Vitttorio Emanuele I
abdicated in favor of his brother King Carlo Felice who was out of the
country at the time. King Carlo Felice, with his loyal regiments and the
Austrians, regained control of the country and restored the absolute
monarchy, exiling Prince Carlo Alberto to France. In Naples, Austrian
troops suppressed the rebels and restored King Ferdinando IV to power.
This, however, only strengthened the hand of the radicals who argued
against constitutional monarchy and in favor of radical republicanism.
This faction was led by Giuseppe Mazzini who had no use for kings at all
and would make great use in his propaganda for every time a monarch on
the Italian peninsula granted a constitution at a time of weakness only
to revoke it once they had an Austrian army behind them.
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| King Carlo Alberto & Kaiser Franz Joseph |
This set the stage for the wars of Italian unification and independence.
The momentum was toward that goal but the question remained whether it
would be the radical republicans or the constitutional monarchists who
reached the finish line first. The two most prominent monarchs involved
would be the King of Piedmont-Sardinia, firstly King Carlo Alberto who
came to the throne in 1831 and the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph who
would come to the throne in 1848. King Carlo Alberto, despite his
earlier reputation, was a monarch of very traditional leanings and had
fought, during his exile, for the legitimist cause in Spain as well as
supporting other such legitimist causes elsewhere on the continent. He
would give Piedmont-Sardinia (and by extension Italy as a whole in due
time) her only monarchial constitution but it would be one that reserved
considerable authority to the monarch. Nonetheless, once given, it
would not be revoked and that garnered the House of Savoy a great deal
of popularity. King Carlo Alberto also had a vision for a united Italy,
independent of the Austrians but which would consist of a confederation
of Italian princely states under the leadership of the Pope. However,
the events of 1848 changed the situation and it became, again, a
competition between the Italian nationalists who favored a republic and
the Italian nationalists who favored a monarchy. King Carlo Alberto knew
that if he did not succeed, Mazzini and his cohorts would.
1834 and 1838 had seen revolutionary outbreaks across Italy but in 1848
revolution began to sweep across multiple countries throughout Europe.
In January the Sicilians rose up and overthrew the authority of the king
in Naples, by March the Austrian Empire was engulfed in rebellion with
uprisings in Milan, Venice, Budapest, Cracow, Prague and even Vienna
itself. The regime of Kaiser Ferdinand was suddenly threatened by
independence movements by the Hungarians in the east and the Italians in
the west. In Milan, after five days of bitter struggle, the Austrian
authorities were driven out while at the same time the Austrians were
expelled from Venice in an uprising led by Daniele Manin. The Habsburg
Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Habsburg Duke of Modena, the Bourbon King of
the Two Sicilies and the Bourbon Duke of Parma were all forced by
popular uprisings to grant constitutions. Likewise, in Rome, political
reforms were demanded of Pope Pius IX who had initially favored the
nationalist cause, to the point of liberating from prison and appointing
to high office a succession of revolutionaries whom his predecessor,
Pope Gregory XVI, had arrested.
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| Graf Radetzky |
In Turin, King Carlo Alberto granted a constitution and was urged to
take the lead in supporting the independence movement and driving the
Austrians from Italian soil. He was very popular with the nationalists
though the radical republicans of Mazzini’s faction naturally opposed
him as the last thing they wanted was for a king of the most venerable
Italian royal house to be the one to secure the unity and independence
of Italy. Meanwhile, in Vienna, the Habsburg government was paralyzed
and in need of leadership. Kaiser Ferdinand, handicapped from birth, was
simply not up to the challenge. Moreover, the strength of the Austrian
military had recently been reduced and now, suddenly, there were
disasters in practically every part of the empire that needed to be
dealt with so that Austrian military strength was severely
overstretched. The one bit of good fortune the Austrians did have was
the person of their commander on the ground in Italy; Field Marshal
Joseph Graf von Radestky. He may not have been the most brilliant
general but he was experienced, extremely competent and, most
importantly, unflappable. He kept a cool head in the crisis when panic
had gripped everyone around him.
So it was that with only 68,000 troops at his disposal and no immediate
prospect for reinforcement for Radetzky that the Italian nationalists
saw their chance and men such as Camillo di Cavour, Cesare Balbo and
Massimo d’Azeglio urged King Carlo Alberto to take the lead and attack
the Austrians before the republicans took control of the uprising. The
King agreed and on March 29 led his small but highly proficient army of
28,000 men across the Ticino River with the aim of moving on Milan. With
so many of their forces tied down all across Lombardy-Venetia trying to
suppress rebellion, for the time being, the Austrian and Piedmontese
forces would be about evenly matched. Further, as soon as word came that
King Carlo Alberto had crossed the frontier, nationalist support for
the Savoy monarchy erupted all across the Italian peninsula. Not wanting
King Carlo Alberto to claim all the glory of liberating Italy for
himself, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany and King Ferdinando II of the
Two-Sicilies likewise dispatched forces to join him in a joint
war-effort against the Austrians. Even Pope Pius IX sent his support.
The vision of independence and unification by way of a coalition of the
princes of Italy seemed to be coming true.
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| Uprising in Milan |
Brigadier General Guglielmo Pepe, a veteran of the Peninsular War and
the Battle of Tolentino, commanded the Neapolitan contingent and, even
more surprisingly, the Piedmontese and former Mazzinian General Giovanni
Durando was given command of the Papal army by Pius IX. Altogether, a
combined force of 100,000 Italian soldiers was moving or set to move
against the beleaguered Austrians in the north. With such a force
arrayed against them, the Austrian position seemed doomed. Any other
commander would likely have lost his nerve but not Graf Radestky. He
ordered his subordinates to fall back even as he pulled out of Milan.
Yet, this was no disorderly retreat. Austrian commanders threatened
horrific retaliation to remote areas of Lombardy-Venetia if any
disturbances occurred, frightening most into taking no action. Radestky
concentrated his forces in the Quadrilateral, the area within the
fortresses of Verona, Mantua, Legnano and Peschiera. This would permit
the Italian coalition no weak area to exploit. Thanks to the calm
determination of Radetzky, the Austrians would soon discover that their
position was not so vulnerable as it seemed.
On March 29, to great public fanfare, King Carlo Alberto entered Milan
at the head of his troops. He marched on and his army pushed the
Austrian rearguard across the Mincio River. The Austrian withdrawal
caused the Piedmontese to push ahead before their allies from the south
had arrived. Durando and the Papal Army was still south of the Po, Pepe
and the Neapolitans were further north and the division from Tuscany was
still on the march. King Carlo Alberto, seeing the Austrians retract,
was determined to keep up the pressure on them and push forward,
crossing the Mincio in mid-April toward Verona. On April 30 he met the
Austrians at the Battle of Pastrengo and won a solid victory. Peschiera
was besieged and the King was still pushing forward toward Verona. Graf
Radetzky was finally compelled by this to take action and do something
to take the initiative away from the Italians. An Austrian contingent
was ordered to strike out from the city and on May 6 they administered a
sharp sting at Santa Lucia that forced King Carlo Alberto to divert to
the southwest of Verona, to Villafranca, to wait for further Piedmontese
reinforcements and his allies from the south to join him.
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| Princely solidarity |
At first, pan-Italian support only seemed to grow as the fight was
underway. Nationalist sentiment in Parma and Modena forced their dukes
to join the war effort. However, at this same critical moment, the
expected help from the more significant states began to fall away.
Tuscany remained pledged to the Italian cause but seemed unwilling to
actually engage. Pope Pius IX suddenly sent an order to Durando
forbidding him to cross the Po River, causing considerable bewilderment
and likewise the commitment of King Ferdinando II of the Two-Sicilies
seemed to fade away as April passed. A republican coup tried to unseat
the King in Naples and disrupt the royal coalition. They failed at the
first goal but succeeded in the second. King Ferdinando retracted the
constitution he had earlier granted and recalled his army. General Pepe
refused to go but most of the Neapolitan troops abandoned him. The
remainder joined with the forces from Tuscany standing watch around
Mantua. As for the Papal Army, General Durando argued with the Pope over
his sudden about-face and finally simply disregarded the order and took
his army across the Po anyway in an effort to cut off Radetzky from
Venice.
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| Sardinian Grenadiers at Goito |
Unfortunately for the Italians, Durando did not coordinate with King
Carlo Alberto in these operations but the Austrian response of Graf
Radetzky was, by contrast, extremely well coordinated. Field Marshal
Lieutenant Count Nugent was dispatched with 16,000 men to stop the
Italian advance in Venetia, hitting Durando at Cornuda and forcing him
back to Vicenza. Throughout June, Durando and the Papal Army would
remain there, surrounded by Austrian forces. This allowed Radetzky
freedom to maneuver and while the Piedmontese remained at Villafranca,
the Austrians flanked them with a march to Mantua. On May 29 they
defeated the small contingent of troops from Tuscany and the 2,000
Neapolitan soldiers who had not abandoned Pepe at Curtatone-Matanara.
Radetzky then moved his men from Mantua along the west bank of the
Mincio with the aim of cutting off King Carlo Alberto from Piedmont.
Unfortunately for the Austrians, King Carlo Alberto spotted this move
and immediately grasped the enemy plan. He moved quickly to attack the
Austrians while they were on the march and at the Battle of Goito on May
30, the Italians were victorious. Peschiera fell on the same day.
The Savoy star was still shining brightly, however, the situation was
far from favorable. What little support that had been available from
Tuscany, Naples and the Papal States was now completely gone and even
with the many volunteers from across Lombardy and reinforcements from
Piedmont, King Carlo Alberto had only 75,000 men which would be
insufficient to launch a major offensive into Venetia or to mount a
proper siege of the fortress cities of Mantua or Verona. King Carlo
Alberto had no option but to remain at Villafranca and watch. At the
same time, unflustered as usual, Graf Radetzky was methodically carrying
on and was also finally receiving reinforcements from the rest of the
Austrian Empire. The window of opportunity of Austrian weakness had
closed on the Italians and Radetzky was able to launch a serious
offensive of his own, descending on the Italians with two armies at the
Battle of Custozza .
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| Austrian attack at the Battle of Custozza |
This was the climactic engagement of the war, 33,000 Austrians against
22,000 Italians and the Italians fought valiantly against superior
forces for three days from July 23-25. However, in the end, the Italians
were forced to retreat. Yet, it was a fighting retreat, the Italians
fell back in good order, continued to give resistance until disengaged,
abandoned no equipment or anything of the sort. They had also inflicted
considerably higher losses on the Austrians than they had suffered and
the Austrians had not been able to decisively destroy the Piedmontese
army. All the same, King Carlo Alberto would not waste the lives of his
men needlessly and knew that without the whole of Italy standing
together, he could not defeat the Austrians who would only grow stronger
as his own forces grew weaker. The King had seen a chance but that
chance was now gone and on August 9 he agreed to an armistice with the
Austrians. In due course the Piedmontese abandoned Lombardy, returning
to their own territory and the First War of Italian Independence came to
an end. The following year, King Carlo Alberto did, briefly, attempt
another effort but it was a short-lived disaster and, proud man that he
was, this resulted in his abdication in favor of his son who became King
Vittorio Emanuele II.
For the Austrians, the war had been one crisis among many. They had
gained a new monarch in the young and determined Kaiser Franz Joseph,
more laurels for a genuine war hero in Graf Radetzky and though they had
come close enough to disaster to look it directly in the eye, that
disaster had been averted and the Austrian Empire would survive, though
ultimately concessions would be made to the Hungarians. Nothing of the
sort would be forthcoming for the Italians however who continued to be
ruled in the same manner that they had been before. The Kaiser even
became somewhat cross with his younger brother, Archduke Ferdinand
Maximilian, when, as Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, he attempted to win
over the Italians rather than flog them into submission. There was even
talk that the Archduke himself entertained thoughts of uniting the
Italian peninsula himself. He was soon put in his place and made no more
than a ceremonial figure so that he began to look toward Mexico for a
place to prove himself. In short, despite coming so close to defeat, the
Austrians were determined to change nothing in regards to Italy.
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| Abdication of King Carlo Alberto |
As for the Italians, the First War of Independence was a major turning
point. It represented the one and only time that the monarchs of the
existing Italian states, no matter how enthusiastically, came together
in common cause as one Italian people. The fact that this fell apart
almost as soon as it came together meant that the vision of the more
traditional nationalists of an Italian confederation of princely states
would not come to be. Going forward, it would be the republicans or the
House of Savoy alone who would have to see foreign rule ended on the
Italian peninsula. The Savoy would take the lead, initially quite
reluctantly, to prevent the republican vision from becoming reality and
in the end even many republican nationalists would be swayed to the
monarchist side because the Savoy had a record of success and the
republicans had only a succession of failures. It would take at least
two more wars before Italy was completely independent of foreign rule
but the First War of Italian Independence clearly illustrated who would
lead them and how they would be fought.
