Italian Unification

Italian unification
Risorgimento

Five Days of Milan, 18–22 March 1848
Date	1815–1871
Location	Italy
Participants	Italian society, Kingdom of Sardinia, Provisional Government of Milan, Republic of San Marco, Kingdom of Sicily, Roman Republic, Carbonari, French Empire, Red Shirts, Hungarian legion, Southern Army, United Provinces of Central Italy, Kingdom of Italy
Outcome	Italian revolutions of 1820 Italian revolutions of 1830 Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states First Italian War of Independence Second Italian War of Independence Expedition of the Thousand Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy Third Italian War of Independence Capture of Rome Rome becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Italy

Anniversary of Risorgimento
Monument to Italia Turrita in Reggio Calabria
Observed by	Italy
Type	National
Significance	Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861
Celebrations	Parades, Fireworks, Concerts, Picnics, Balls, Trade shows
Date	17 March
Frequency	every fifty years

Italian unification (Italian: Unificazione italiana), or the Risorgimento ([risordʒiˈmento], meaning resurgence or revival), was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The memory of the Risorgimento is central to both Italian politics and Italian historiography, for this short period (1815–60) is one of the most contested and controversial in modern Italian history. Italian nationalism was based among intellectuals and political activists, often operating from exile.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman province of Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was an absentee foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state; as a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of city-states.

This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the major powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire (later Austria) and France.