Saber & Educar (Dec 2016)

The Italian Peninsula in the 19th century

  • Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17346/se.vol21.236
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 0, no. 21
pp. 138 – 147

Abstract

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Around 1830, the counter-revolutionary movement began to wither but a new European fever would burst in 1848. On one hand, the revolutionary wave of 1848 covers a short period of time – 1848 and 1849. On the other hand, it falls within a broader perspective due to the upholding of liberal and national aspirations.This was both a liberal and national phenomenon that marked the revolutionary movement in Italy.In spite of the utopia underlying such a project, created in 1834, the latter was undoubtedly significant when seen from a cross European perspective based on a democratic view of the Nation-State. It should be noted that this patriotic élan was also a moment of convergence in Europe. This was the feeling that encouraged Mazzini in 1848, when he believed that favorable conditions had been met for the struggle against Austrian oppression.In fact, the unifications of Germany and Italy changed the European balance of power.Mazzinian and Garibaldian, revolutionary and moderate, Genoa played a leading role in important moments of the 19th century Italian life: “Le due anime quella mazziniana e della sinistra rivoluzionaria in genere, e quella moderata, che avrà dopo l’Unità un ruolo importante – sono entrambe protagonista nel quadro dele vicende risorgimentali”.

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