of Vienna in 1815, Austria ruled the
Italian provinces of Venetia and
Lombardy in the north, and several
small states. In the south, the Spanish
Bourbon family ruled the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies.
between 1815 and
1848, increasing numbers of Italians
were no longer content to live under
foreign rulers.
In 1832, an Italian named Giuseppe Mazzini
organized a nationalist group
called Young Italy.Mazzini briefly headed a republican government at Rome. He believed that
nation-states were the best hope for social justice, democracy, and peace in Europe. rebellions 1848 in Italy as they did elsewhere in Europe. The former rulers of the Italian states drove Mazzini and other nationalist leaders into exile.
In 1852, Sardinia’s King Victor Emmanuel II named Count Camillo di Cavour as his prime minister. Cavour’s major goal was to get control of northern Italy for Sardinia. He
carefully went about achieving this territorial goal through diplomacy and cunning. Cavour realized that the greatest roadblock to annexing northern Italy was Austria. To
help him expel the Austrians from the north, Cavour found an ally in France. In 1858,the French emperor Napoleon III agreed to help drive Austria out of the northern provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. Cavour soon after provoked a war with Austria. A combined French-Sardinian army won two quick victories against Austria. Sardinia succeeded in taking over all of northern Italy, except Venetia.