Italian nationalism

Italian nationalism builds upon the idea that Italians are the ethnic, cultural, and linguistic successors of the ancient Romans who inhabited the Italian Peninsula for over a millennium. The origins of Italian nationalism have been traced to the Renaissance. Italian nationalism first arose as a potent political force in the 1830s in the Italian peninsula under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini. It served as a cause for Risorgimento in the 1860s to 1870s. Italian nationalism became strong again in World War I with Italian irredentist claims to territories held by Austria-Hungary, and during the era of Italian Fascism.

The origins of Italian nationalism have been traced to the Renaissance where Italy led a European revival of classical Greco-Roman style of culture, philosophy, and art. Renaissance-era diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli in his work The Prince (1532) appealed to Italian patriotism urging Italians "to seize Italy and free her from the Barbarians", the "Barbarians" he referred to were foreign powers occupying the Italian Peninsula.

The initial important figure in the development of Italian nationalism was Giuseppe Mazzini who became a nationalist in the 1820s. In his political career, Mazzini held as objectives the freeing of Italy from Austrian occupation, indirect control by Austria, princely despotism, aristocratic privilege, and clerical authority. Mazzini was captivated by ancient Rome that he considered the "temple of humanity" and sought to establish a united Italy as a "Third Rome" that emphasized Roman spiritual values that Italian nationalists claimed were preserved by the Catholic Church. Mazzini and Italian nationalists in general promoted the concept of Romanità (the Roman ideal) that claimed that Roman culture made invaluable contributions to both Italian and Western civilization. Since the 1820s, Mazzini supported a revolution to create of an ideal Italian utopian republic based in Rome. Mazzini formed revolutionary patriotic Young Italy society in 1832. Upon Young Italy breaking apart in the 1830s, Mazzini reconstituted it in 1839 with the intention to gain the support of workers' groups. However, at the time Mazzini was hostile to socialism due to his belief that all classes needed to be united in the cause of creating a united Italy rather than divided against each other.

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Wikipedia