1796 –99

French armies invade Italy; the era of the Italian Republics

1797

Treaty of Campoformio (18 Oct.)

1799

Popular anti-republican risings (summer–autumn)

1800

Napoleon’s victory over the Austrians at Marengo (14 June)

1802

Napoleon proclaimed president of the Italian Republic (26 Jan.); publication of Ugo Foscolo’s Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis

1804

Napoleon crowned emperor of France (2 Dec.)

1805

Napoleon crowned king of Italy in Milan (26 May); after victory over Austrians at Ulm, edict from Schönbrunn Palace deposes Bourbon rulers of Naples and Sicily (Dec.)

1806

Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Naples (30 Mar.); Berlin Decrees impose blockade of British trade (21 Nov.)

1807

Foscolo writes Dei sepolcri

1808

French troops occupy Rome (2 Feb.); Joseph Bonaparte nominated king of Spain (Mar.), replaced in Naples by Joachim Murat (1 Aug.)

1809

Papal States annexed to France (17 May): Pope Pius VII excommunicates Napoleon, is arrested, and imprisoned at Savona

1810

Napoleon’s marriage to Maria Luisa of Austria

1812

Sicilian Constitution (Apr.); Spanish Constitution (8 May); start of the retreat from Moscow (19 Oct.)

1813

Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig (Nov.); defection of Joachim Murat

1814

Lombardy and Venetia annexed to Habsburg Empire; restoration of King Victor Emanuel I (Sardinia), Pope Pius VII, Grand Duke Ferdinand III (Tuscany), Duke Francis IV (Modena); Congress of Vienna (1 Nov.)

1815

Murat’s ‘Appeal to the Italians’ (Rimini, 30 Mar.) and defeat at Tolentino (3 May), Ferdinand IV restored to Naples; closure of Congress of Vienna (9 June); Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo (18 June); Emperor Francis I of Austria, Frederick William of Prussia, and Tsar Alexander I of Russia sign the Holy Alliance (26 Sept.)

1816

Administrative reorganization of the restored states: Pius VII’s motu proprio in Rome (6 July), Tuscany (6 Sept.); creation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (8 Dec.); first performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rome)

1818 –19

Circulation of the Milanese cultural journal Il Conciliatore

1820

Revolution in Naples begins at Nola (1 May); Ferdinand I of Naples takes oath to the constitution (13 July); Palermo rebels against Naples (15–17 July) and declares independence (Aug.); Neapolitan troops land at Messina (Sept.); Holy Alliance powers sanction intervention against revolution in Italy (Toppau, 23 Oct.); Austrian authorities in Milan claim discovery of a Carbonarist lodge

1821

First issue of Gian Piero Vieusseux’s Antologia in Florence; Congress of Lubjana authorizes Austrian intervention against the revolutionary government in Naples; Spanish Constitution proclaimed at Alessandria (Piedmont); abdication of King Victor Emanuel I; Charles Albert appointed regent; Austrian troops enter Naples (24 Mar.); royalist army led by Charles Felix enters Turin (10 Apr.)

1825

First performance of Rossini’s Semiramide (Venice); Alessandro Manzoni writes first version of I promessi sposi

1831

Modena rising led by Ciro Menotti (Feb.); Austrian troops enter Duchy of Parma, Modena, and the Papal States (1 Mar.); Giuseppe Mazzini founds Young Italy in Genoa (14 Aug.); first performance of Bellini’s Norma (Milan); publication of Giacomo Leopardi’s I canti

1834

Mazzinian insurrection in Piedmont fails; Mazzini founds Young Europe (Berne, 15 Apr.)

1835

Emperor Francis I dies and is succeeded as king of Lombardy by Ferdinand I; cholera outbreaks in Lombardy, Venetia, Ancona, and Naples; Gaetano Donizetti composes Lucia di Lammermoor (first performance, Naples)

1839

First issue of Carlo Cattaneo’s Politecnico (Milan, Jan.); first meeting of the Congress of Italian Men of Science (Pisa, 1 Oct.); opening of first Italian railway (Naples to Portici, 3 Oct.)

1840

Manzoni’s second version of I promessi sposi, substantially –42 rewritten in Tuscan literary idiom

1842

First performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco (La Scala, Milan)

1843

Publication of Vinceno Gioberti’s Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians (Brussels).

1844

Publication of Cesare Balbo’s Hopes of Italy (Paris, Jan.); Emilio and Attilio Bandiera captured and executed (Cosenza, 24 July)

1845

Mazzinian rising in Rimini (Sept.); Massimo D’Azeglio publishes his pamphlet On Recent Events in the Romagna

1846

Election of Pius IX (17 June)

1847

Pius IX reforms censorship in the Papal States; Leopold II of Tuscany establishes a consulta (Aug.); Turin enters into a customs league with Rome and Florence; publication of Cavour’s journal Il Risorgimento (Turin)

1848

Rising in Livorno (6 Jan.); insurrection in Palermo (12 Jan.); Ferdinand of Naples concedes constitutions (11 Feb.), followed by Leopold II of Tuscany (17 Feb.), Charles Albert of Sardinia (4 Mar.), Pius IX (14 Mar.); popular rising against Austrians in Milan (18–22 Mar.: ‘le quattro giornate’), Manin declares the republic in Venice; Charles Albert declares war on Austria (23 Mar.) and enters Lombardy; Pius IX denounces war against Austria (29 Apr.), Ferdinand of Naples suspends parliament and withdraws from war against Austria; Piedmontese forces defeated by the Austrians at Custoza (24–5 July); Austrians reoccupy Lombard, Modena, and Reggio Emilia; Venice continues to resist; in Tuscany, Giuseppe Montaneili and Dominico Guerrazzi head a radical government (28 Oct.); in Rome Pellegrino Rossi is murdered (15 Nov.) and Pius IX and cardinals flee to Gaeta (24 Nov.)

1849

The Roman Republic is established (5 Feb.); Piedmont resumes war against Austria (12 Mar.) but is again defeated (Novara, 23 Mar.); Charles Albert abdicates and is succeeded by Victor Emanuel II, who signs the armistice at Vignale (25 Apr.); French troops land at Civitavecchia to restore the pope; Rome surrenders (1 July); Victor Emanuel’s ‘Moncalieri Proclamation’ promises to maintain the constitution (20 Nov.)

1850

Siccardi Laws approved in Piedmont (Apr.); Cavour appointed minister of agriculture, commerce, and the navy by Massimo D’Azeglio

1851

Verdi composes Rigoletto (first performance, Venice, Mar.); its success together with that of Il trovatore (first performance, Rome, Jan. 1953) and La traviata (first performance, Venice, Mar. 1853) establishes his international reputation

1852

Cavour becomes prime minister in Piedmont (4 Nov.) following the resignation of D’Azeglio

1853

Mazzinian rising in Milan (6 Feb.).286 | chronology

1855

Piedmont joins Anglo-French alliance against Russia in the Crimea (10 Feb.); Cavour resigns because of opposition to his bill to abolish religious houses but is reinstated as prime minister (4 May); Cavour and Victor Emanuel visit Paris

1856

Paris Peace Congress (Feb.): Britain and France break diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; Austrian troops withdraw from the Romagna (Oct.), but retain garrisons in Bologna and Ancona

1857

Carlo Pisacane’s expedition to Sapri (2 July); founding of the Italian National Society in Turin (1 Aug.)

1858

Felice Orsini attempts to assassinate Napoleon III in Paris; secret meeting between Cavour and Napoleon III at Plombières (20–1 July); Mazzini founds new periodical, Pensiero e Azione, in London (1 Sept.)

1859

Secret treaty between Victor Emanuel II and Napoleon III signed in Turin (24 Jan.); Austrian ultimatum to Kingdom of Sardinia (24 April) and Austrian invasion of Piedmont (27 Apr.); flight of Leopold II of Tuscany; Franco-Piedmontese victories at Magenta (4 June), Solferino, and San Martino (24 June); armistices signed with Emperor Francis Joseph (8 July) at Villafranca; elected assemblies in Tuscany, the duchies and Legations vote for annexation to Piedmont (Aug.–Sept.)

1860

expedition sails from Quarto, landing at Marsala (11 May); Bourbon troops defeated at Calatafimi (25 June); Francis II of Naples reintroduces the constitution of 1848; Garibaldi enters Naples (7 Sept.); Piedmontese ultimatum to Rome, Piedmontese troops enter the Papal States (18 Sept.); plebiscites on annexation in Kingdom of Two Sicilies (21 Oct.), Umbria, and the Marches (4 Nov.)

1861

First elections for the new Italian parliament; Victor Emanuel of Savoy II assumes title of king of Italy (17 Mar.); rural insurrections spread throughout the Mezzogiorno; Cavour dies (6 June); General Cialdini given emergency powers in the south.

1862

Urbano Rattazzi replaces Ricasoli as prime minister (3 Mar.); Garibaldi’s attempt to resume the march on Rome halted by the Italian army in the Aspromonte mountains (29 July); Rattazzi resigns (29 Nov.) as prime minister, succeeded by Luigi Carlo. Farini; the term scapigliatura begins to be used in connection with the work of young writers, painters, and sculptors in Milan and Turin

1863

Farini resigns, Marco Minghetti becomes prime minister (24 Mar.); Pica Laws on repression of brigandage

1864

Garibaldi’s visit to England; Pius IX publishes the Syllabus of Errors

1865

Capital moved from Turin to Florence (3 Feb.)

1866

Italy becomes secret ally of Prussia against Austria (8 Apr.); controvertibility of the currency suspended (corso forzoso); Prussia declares war against Austria (17 June), followed by Italy (20 June); Italian army defeated at Custoza (24 June); Prussian victory over Austria at Sadowa (3 July); damage inflicted on Italian fleet at Lissa by the Austrian navy; Vienna cedes Venetia to Napoleon III who concedes it to Italy

1867

Garibaldian invasion of Papal States routed at Mentana (3 Nov.); Vatican I begins (8 Dec.)

1870

Napoleon III defeated at the Battle of Sedan (1 Sept.); Italian troops enter Rome (20 Sept.); Rome and Lazio annexed by plebiscite; Pius IX denounces the occupation of Rome and excommunicates Victor Emanuel II; parliament votes to transfer the capital to Rome (23 Dec.)

1871

Transfer of capital to Rome (July)

1876

Minghetti’s government of the right falls and Depretis forms government (Mar.)

1878

Death of Victor Emanuel II and succession of Umberto I (Jan.)

1880

Giosue Carducci begins work on Odi barbare

1881

Publication of Giovanni Verga’s I malavoglia

1882

Electoral reform approved (Jan.); Triple Alliance with Germanyand Austria– Hungary (May); death of Garibaldi

1887

Renewal of Triple Alliance (Feb.); new tariff approved and Crispi becomes prime minister (June–July)

1891

Papal Encyclical Rerum Novarum

1892

Founding of Italian Socialist Party (Aug.)

1896

First performance of Puccini’s La Bohème (Turin); Abyssinians defeat Italian army at Adowa (1 Mar.); fall of Crispi

1898

Riots in Milan (May).288 | chronology

1900

King Umberto assassinated, Victor Emanuel III succeeds (July)

1901

Death of Giuseppe Verdi (Jan.); Zanardelli and Giolitti form government (Feb.)