Risorgimentos

Risorgimento, plural Risorgimenti, refers to the long series of political, military, diplomatic, and cultural events that consolidated the Italian peninsula’s fragmented states into a single nation-state in the 19th century. Used in historiography, the term covers both a political movement and a broader revival of Italian national identity, language, and culture after centuries of foreign domination and political division. The process culminated in the Kingdom of Italy (1861) and the incorporation of Rome (1870–71).

Key figures and currents varied across the peninsula. Liberal constitutionalists in Piedmont-Sardinia sought unity through state-building and diplomacy under leaders such as Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. Nationalists and republicans contributed ideas and mobilization led by Giuseppe Mazzini, while Giuseppe Garibaldi pioneered popular military campaigns, notably the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860. The movement involved cooperation and tension among monarchists, republicans, and the Catholic Church, with the Papal States initially resisting unification.

Major milestones include the 1848 revolutions across Italy, the 1859 Second Italian War of Independence in alliance with France against Austria, Garibaldi’s 1860 campaign in the south, and the subsequent annexations that completed much of northern and central Italy. In 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under Victor Emmanuel II. Venetia joined in 1866 after Prussia’s victory in the Austro-Prussian War, and Rome finally came under Italian sovereignty in 1870–71, completing the unification process.

The Risorgimento left lasting legacies and challenges, including tensions between the new state and the Catholic Church, and regional disparities that influenced Italian politics and memory into the modern era. It remains a central reference in studies of Italian national formation.