National unification from 1829 to 1871 was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1907 for an understanding
between France and Italy. He adopted the motto
In varietate unitas! which later inspired
Motto of the European Union. The
Risorgimento was the era from 1829 to 1871 that saw the emergence of a national consciousness. The Northern Italy monarchy of the
House of Savoy in the
Kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was led by
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. In the context of the
1848 liberal revolutions that swept through Europe, an unsuccessful
first war of independence was declared on
Austria. In 1855, the Kingdom of Sardinia became an ally of Britain and France in the
Crimean War, giving Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers. The Kingdom of Sardinia again attacked the Austrian Empire in the
Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of
France, resulting in liberating
Lombardy. On the basis of the
Plombières Agreement, the Kingdom of Sardinia ceded
Savoy and
Nice to France, an event that caused the
Niçard exodus, that was the emigration of a quarter of the
Niçard Italians to Italy, and the
Niçard Vespers. In 1860–1861,
Giuseppe Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily conquering the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (the
Expedition of the Thousand), while the House of Savoy troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of
Papal States. This allowed the Sardinian government to
declare a united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861. In 1866, Italy allied with
Prussia during the
Austro-Prussian War, waging the
Third Italian War of Independence which allowed Italy to annex
Venetia. After the Third Italian War of Independence (1866), when the
Veneto and
Friuli regions were ceded by the
Austrians to the newly formed
Kingdom Italy, Istria and Dalmatia remained part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise of
Italian irredentism among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the
Julian March,
Kvarner and
Dalmatia with Italy. The Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia supported the Italian
Risorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia. Finally, in 1870, as France abandoned its garrisons in Rome during the disastrous
Franco-Prussian War to keep the large Prussian Army at bay, the Italians rushed to fill the power gap by
taking over the Papal States. Italian unification was completed and shortly afterwards Italy's capital was moved to Rome. Later Italy formed the
Triple Alliance (1882) with Germany and Austria.
World War I , i.e.
Trentino-Alto Adige,
Julian March and
Dalmatia (tan), and the
Snežnik Plateau area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to
Yugoslavia. Even after 1870, after the
unification of Italy, many ethnic Italian-speakers (Italians in
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol,
Savoyard Italians,
Corfiot Italians,
Niçard Italians,
Swiss Italians,
Corsican Italians,
Maltese Italians,
Istrian Italians, and
Dalmatian Italians) remained outside the borders of the
Kingdom of Italy, planting the seeds of
Italian irredentism. Italy
entered into the World War I in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the World War I is also considered the
Fourth Italian War of Independence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the
revolutions of 1848 with the
First Italian War of Independence. Italy
defeated the Ottoman Empire in 1911–1912. By 1915, Italy had acquired in Africa a colony on the Red Sea coast (
Eritrea), a large protectorate in
Somalia and administrative authority in formerly Turkish
Libya. Outside of Africa, Italy possessed a small
concession in Tientsin in China (following the
Boxer Rebellion) and the
Dodecanese Islands off the coast of Turkey. In 1915,
Italy abrogated its alliance and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, leading to bloody conflict mainly on the
Isonzo and
Piave fronts. Britain, France and Russia had been "keen to bring neutral Italy into World War I on their side. However, Italy drove a hard bargain, demanding extensive territorial concessions once the war had been won". In a deal to bring Italy into the war, under the
London Pact, Italy would be allowed to annex not only Italian-speaking
Trentino and Trieste, but also German-speaking
South Tyrol, Istria (which included large non-Italian communities), and the northern part of Dalmatia including the areas of
Zadar (Zara) and
Šibenik (Sebenico). Mainly Italian Fiume (present-day Rijeka) was excluded. Also, Italy occupied southern
Albania and established
a protectorate over Albania, which remained in place until 1920. The Allies defeated the Austrian Empire in 1918 and Italy became one of the
main winners of the war. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Prime Minister
Vittorio Emanuele Orlando focused almost exclusively on territorial gains, but he got far less than he wanted, and Italians were bitterly resentful when they were denied control of the city of
Fiume. The conference, under the control of Britain, France and the United States refused to assign
Dalmatia and Albania to Italy as had been promised in the Treaty of London. Britain, France and Japan divided the German overseas colonies into mandates of their own, excluding Italy. Italy also gained no territory from the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire. Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Treaty of London, so this outcome was denounced as a
Mutilated victory. The rhetoric of
Mutilated victory was adopted by
Benito Mussolini and led to the
rise of Italian fascism, becoming a key point in the
propaganda of Fascist Italy. Historians regard
Mutilated victory as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel
Italian imperialism and obscure the successes of
liberal Italy in the aftermath of World War I. Italy also gained a permanent seat in the
League of Nations's executive council.
Fascism and World War II : • Green:
Nice,
Ticino and
Dalmatia • Red:
Malta • Violet:
Corsica •
Savoy and
Corfu were later claimed. The
Fascist government that came to power with
Benito Mussolini in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of
Italian irredentists. Italian Fascism is based upon
Italian nationalism and imperialism, and in particular seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of the
unification of Italy by incorporating
Italia Irredenta (unredeemed Italy) into the state of Italy. To the east of Italy, the Fascists claimed that
Dalmatia was a land of Italian culture whose Italians, including those of Italianized
South Slavic descent, had been driven out of Dalmatia and into exile in Italy, and supported the return of Italians of Dalmatian heritage. Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries, similarly to
Istria, via the
Roman Empire and the
Republic of Venice. To the south of Italy, the Fascists claimed
Malta, which belonged to the United Kingdom, and
Corfu, which instead belonged to Greece; to the north claimed
Italian Switzerland, while to the west claimed
Corsica,
Nice, and
Savoy, which belonged to France. The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the island's
italianità. The Fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic, and linguistic grounds. and holding power over the
Mediterranean Sea. In
propaganda, Fascists used the ancient Roman motto "
Mare Nostrum" (
Latin for "Our Sea") to describe the Mediterranean. For this reason the Fascist regime engaged in
interventionist foreign policy. In 1923, the Greek island of
Corfu was
briefly occupied by Italy, after the assassination of
General Tellini in Greek territory. In 1925, Italy
forced Albania to become a
de facto protectorate. In 1935, Mussolini
invaded Ethiopia and founded
Italian East Africa, resulting in an international alienation and leading to Italy's withdrawal from the
League of Nations; Italy
allied with Nazi Germany and the
Empire of Japan and strongly supported
Francisco Franco in the
Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Italy
formally annexed Albania. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. The Italians initially advanced in
British Somaliland,
Egypt, the
Balkans (establishing the
Governorate of Dalmatia and
Montenegro, the
Province of Ljubljana, and the puppet states
Independent State of Croatia and
Hellenic State), and eastern fronts. They were, however, subsequently defeated on the
Eastern Front as well as in the
East African campaign and the
North African campaign, losing as a result their territories in Africa and in the Balkans. An
Allied invasion of Sicily began in July 1943, leading to the
collapse of the Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini on 25 July. In the north, the Germans set up the
Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi
puppet state with Mussolini installed as leader after he was
rescued by German paratroopers. Some Italian troops in the south were organised into the
Italian Co-belligerent Army, which fought alongside the Allies for the rest of the war, while other Italian troops, loyal to Mussolini and his RSI, continued to fight alongside the Germans in the
National Republican Army. Also, the post-armistice period saw the rise of a large anti-fascist resistance movement, the
Resistenza. As result, the country descended into
civil war; the Italian resistance fought a
guerrilla war against the
Nazi German occupiers and
Italian Fascist forces, In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north, but was captured and
summarily executed near
Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to
Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945,
when the German forces in Italy surrendered.
Republican era ,
first republican
Prime Minister of Italy and one of the
Founding Fathers of the European Union Italy became a republic after the
1946 Italian institutional referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as
Festa della Repubblica. This was the first time that Italian women voted at the national level, and the second time overall considering the local elections that were held a few months earlier in some cities. Under the
Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947,
Istria,
Kvarner, most of the
Julian March as well as the
Dalmatian city of
Zara was annexed by
Yugoslavia causing the
Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic
Italians (
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic
Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship. Later, the
Free Territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all of its colonial possessions, formally ending the
Italian Empire. In 1950,
Italian Somaliland was made a
United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration until 1 July 1960. The Italian border that applies today has existed since 1975, when
Trieste was formally re-annexed to Italy. In 1949 Italy became a member of
NATO. The
Marshall Plan helped to revive the Italian economy which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the "
Economic Miracle". In the 1950s, Italy became one of the six founding countries of the
European Communities, following the 1952 establishment of the
European Coal and Steel Community, and subsequent 1958 creations of the
European Economic Community and
European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the former two of these were incorporated into the
European Union. ==Diplomatic relations==