Italy And Austria: Historical Ties And Complicated Past

Yes, at various points in history, parts of Italy were under Austrian rule.

In the 16th century, the Duchy of Milan and Mantua in northern Italy, and the kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia in southern Italy fell to Austrian rule. By the Treaty of The Hague of 1720, Austria acquired the Kingdom of Sicily in exchange for Sardinia, which passed to the Duchy of Savoy. During the War of the Polish Succession, Austria lost both Naples and Sicily in 1734, but acquired the Duchy of Parma. During the War of the Austrian Succession, Austria fought against the Republic of Genoa and Duchy of Modena and Reggio, and even briefly occupied Genoa and Modena, however per the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle from 1748, the Austrians withdrew from both countries, and also lost Parma. In 1797, in accordance with the Treaty of Campo Formio, Austria lost Milan and Mantua to the newly formed Cisalpine Republic, but gained a portion of the Republic of Venice, which was partitioned between Austria and France, with the Austrian-annexed part forming the new Venetian Province. In 1803, the prince-bishopric of Trent was annexed into Austrian-ruled Tyrol. In 1805, Austria lost the Venetian Province to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, and Trento to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1810. After the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, Venice, Milan, Mantua and Trento fell again to Austria, with the former three included in the newly formed Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, and the latter reannexed into Tyrol.

Austrian rule in northern Italy created the conditions in which Italian nationalism and Austrian interests clashed in the three Wars of Italian Independence between 1848 and 1866, ultimately leading to Italian victory. The Italian struggle against Austria is mentioned in the national anthem of Italy, written in 1847. Tensions remained throughout the 1870s as continued Austrian rule over Italian-inhabited lands such as in Trentino and Istria, inflamed Italian nationalism which in turn threatened Austrian integrity; as a result, the Austrians built further fortifications along the Italian border. In 1876, the Austrian Archduke Albrecht advocated for a preventive war against Italy.

During World War I, Italy fought on the side of the Triple Entente against Austria-Hungary despite their defensive alliance signed some decades earlier, after securing support for territorial expansion in the Treaty of London in 1915. By the war's end, Italy emerged victorious and gained territories from Austria, including Trento and Trieste. Additionally, the predominantly German-speaking region of South Tyrol was annexed to Italy. During fascist rule, the German-speaking population became subject to forced Italianization attempts, which had a negative impact on the relations between the Kingdom of Italy and the newly founded Austrian Republic.

The Italian Revolts

The revolts were led by the Kingdom of Sardinia, and began in Sicily, where the people demanded a Provisional Government, separate from the government of the mainland. This revolt drove King Ferdinand II and his army out of Sicily, and forced him to allow a provisional government to be constituted.

The revolts spread to other states, including Tuscany, where Leopold II of Tuscany granted the Constitution, with the general approval of his subjects. In the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, Duke Francis V attempted to respond militarily to the first attempts at armed revolt, but faced with the approach of Bolognese volunteers to support the insurgents, in order to avoid bloodshed, he preferred to leave the city, promising a constitution and amnesties.

In the meantime, in Milan, Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli organised several attempts to weaken the hold of Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned.

The revolts in Sicily helped to spark revolts in the northern Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. Revolutions in the Lombard city of Milan, which marked the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence, forced about 20,000 of Austrian General Radetsky's troops to withdraw from the city. Eventually, General Radetsky was forced to completely withdraw his troops from the two states, however, with his expertise, he was able to keep the Quadrilateral fortresses of Verona, Peschiera, Legnago and Mantua.

In the Quadrilateral, General Radetsky and his men were plotting a counterattack to regain their lost ground. However, they were interrupted by Charles Albert, who had by then taken the forefront of the attack, and had launched an attack against the Quadrilateral. Charles Albert charged the fortress from all sides, aided by 25,000 reinforcements, who came in assistance of the nationalist cause. While journeying to the fortress, preparing for the attack, Charles Albert garnered the support of princes of other states. His fellow princes responded by sending reinforcements to his aid: Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, sent 8,000, Pope Pius contributed 10,000, and Ferdinand II sent 16,050 men on the advice of general Guglielmo Pepe. They attacked the fortresses and on 3 May 1848 succeeded in winning the Battle of Goito and capturing the fortress of Peschiera.

At that point, Pope Pius IX became nervous about defeating the Austrian Empire and withdrew his troops, citing that he could not endorse a war between two Catholic nations. King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies also called his soldiers back. However, some of them did not comply with the order and continued on under the guidance of Generals Pepe, Durando and Giovanni until defeat at the Battle of Custoza. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of Lombardy–Venetia save Venice itself, where the Republic of San Marco was proclaimed under Daniele Manin.

In Rome, the authority that did take over passed popular legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes and give work to the unemployed. Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini came to build a "Rome of the People," and the short-lived Roman Republic was proclaimed. The republic aimed to inspire the people to build an independent Italian nation. It also attempted to improve economically the lives of the underserved by giving some of the Church's large landholdings to poor peasants. It also made prison and insane asylum reforms, gave freedom to the press, provided secular education, but shied away from the "Right to Work", having seen this fail in France.

However, the many reforms instituted by the new Republic combined with its lowering of taxes brought about monetary problems which the republic then compounded by simply printing more money. Runaway price inflation doomed the economy of the republic. In addition, sending troops to defend Piedmont from Austrian forces put Rome at risk of attack from Austria. Moreover, Pope Pius appealed to Louis Napoleon for help in restoring his temporal power. The French President saw this as an opportunity to gain Catholic support. The French army arrived by sea under the command of General Charles Oudinot, and, despite an early loss to Garibaldi, the French, with the help of the Austrians, eventually defeated the Roman Republic. On 12 July 1849, Pope Pius IX was escorted back into Rome and ruled under French protection until 1870.

The Italian Question

On 18 February 1861, the deputies of the first Italian Parliament assembled in Turin. On 17 March 1861, the Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy, and on 27 March 1861, Rome was declared Capital of the Kingdom of Italy. However, the Italian Government could not take its seat in Rome because a French garrison commanded by general Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière, was defending Pope Pius IX. Following the signing of the September Convention, the seat of government was moved from Turin to Florence in 1865.

The Austrian-Italian Wars

The First Italian War of Independence was fought between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1848. The war ended in a decisive Austrian victory at the Battle of Custoza, where 70,000 Austrian troops under Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky defeated 100,000 poorly trained Italian troops under Charles Albert, King of Sardinia-Piedmont.

The Second Italian War of Independence, also known as the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the Italian War of 1859, was fought in 1859 between the Austrian Empire and the allied forces of the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war played a crucial role in the process of Italian Unification. The war ended with an Austrian defeat at the Battle of Solferino, resulting in the signing of the Armistice of Villafranca.

The Third Italian War of Independence was fought between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy in 1866 and resulted in Austria ceding the region of Venetia to France, which was later annexed by Italy.

In addition to these wars, there were several other conflicts between Austria and Italian states, including the Uskok War of 1615-1618, in which Austria and the Republic of Venice fought against each other, and various wars during the 18th century in which Austria expanded into Italy and ruled various parts of the country.

The Italian Struggle for Independence

The struggle for Italian independence was a long and arduous process, with many setbacks and defeats. The Italian Wars of Independence were a series of military campaigns fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia and various other Italian states against the Austrian Empire and her allies. The wars were a key part of the Italian unification, or Risorgimento, which ultimately led to the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The struggle for independence was also a cultural and social movement, with the Italian tricolour becoming a symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.

The first war of Italian Independence was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other conservative states from 23 March 1848 to 22 August 1849 in the Italian Peninsula. The conflict was preceded by the outbreak of the Sicilian Revolution of 1848 against the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. It was precipitated by riots in the cities of Milan (Five Days) and Venice, which rebelled against Austria and established their own governments. The Piedmontese advance towards the Quadrilateral (23 March – 7 April 1848) was initially successful, but the Piedmontese suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Custoza. The Piedmontese army was defeated again at the Battle of Novara, which was the last and bloodiest battle of the first campaign. The Piedmontese retreat towards Milan (27 July – 3 August 1848) was chaotic, with soldiers looting and pillaging. The Piedmontese army crossed the Adda and eventually reached Milan. The surrender of Milan and the Salasco armistice (4 – 9 August 1848) was greeted with great emotion in Vienna, capital of an empire that was still troubled by revolutionary movements.

The second campaign (20 – 24 March 1849) was also a failure for the Piedmontese. The Piedmontese army was defeated at the Battle of Sforzesca and the Battle of Novara. The Piedmontese suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Novara. The Battle of Novara was the last and bloodiest battle of the First Italian War of Independence. On the Piedmontese side there were 578 dead, 1,405 wounded and 409 fled or captured. On the Austrian side, 410 were dead, 1,850 wounded, and 963 were captured or fled. The Piedmontese army was in a state of disarray, with soldiers looting and pillaging. The armistice of Vignale was followed by the Peace of Milan on 6 August 1849, in which Piedmont-Sardinia was forced to pay an indemnity of 65 million francs to Austria.

The third Italian War of Independence was fought between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire in 1859. It was part of the Second Italian War of Independence, which resulted in the Kingdom of Sardinia annexing Lombardy. The fourth and final Italian War of Independence was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire in 1866. It was part of the Third Italian War of Independence, which resulted in the Kingdom of Italy annexing Venetia.

The Italian Unification

The unification of Italy was inspired by rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna. The Italian Wars saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with Charles VIII's invasion of Naples in 1494. However, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under the direct or indirect control of the Spanish Habsburgs. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy.

The French Revolution and Napoleonic era also played a role in the unification of Italy. The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with the campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792–97 when a series of client republics were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last Roman-German Emperor, Francis II, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz.

The Second War of Italian Independence in 1859 pitted Sardinia against Austria. The war ended with a treaty signed on 12 August, with Lombardy being annexed to Sardinia, and the remaining Austrian-controlled areas of the peninsula being left to the Austrian Empire. The Sardinian army conquered the United Provinces of Central Italy, consisting of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, and the Papal Legations on 22 March 1860. Sardinia handed Savoy and Nice over to France at the Treaty of Turin, a decision that was the consequence of the Plombières Agreement.

The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861, with Victor Emmanuel II as its first king. The unification of Italy was not fully achieved until after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, when the Kingdom of Italy acquired Venetia and Mantua. The final event of the unification of Italy was the Capture of Rome in 1870, when the Italian Army entered Rome and ended the temporal power of the pope.

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