Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/395

 THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 383 remained to Austria, still stood outside what was now the Sardinian kingdom of Northern Italy. Savoy, though it was the ancestral domain of the Sardinian dynasty, was not in fact Italian. To this kingdom, the audacious enterprise of the great guerilla leader Garibaldi added Naples and much of the remaining papal territory. On his own responsibility he raised an Garibaldi in enthusiastic band of volunteers known as the Sicily. ' Thousand,' and flung himself into Sicily, always on the verge of revolt against the Bourbon rule. In six weeks he was master of the island, and two months later he was conducting what was practically a triumphal march through Southern Italy upon Naples, where he was hailed as Liberator. Cavour would have" had no excuse for taking part in this exploit, if the pope had not provided it by preparing to attempt the recovery of Bologna. The North Italian troops were thus warranted in entering the papal states 5 while the plain facts justified Victor Emmanuel in announcing that the annexation of the two Sicilies alone could prevent the establishment of an independent Neapolitan Republic, which seemed the most probable outcome of Garibaldi's triumphs. Europe on the one hand and Garibaldi on the First King other recognised the logic of facts. As the king of Ital y- advanced into Neapolitan territory, Garibaldi met him and greeted him as King of Italy. Rome itself, and Venetia, were all that still remained outside the Italian kingdom, whose first united parliament met in February 1861. Cavour lived just long enough to see the realisation of his hopes. The acquisition of Venetia still had to await the war between Prussia and Austria which gave it to Italy as Prussia's ally; that of Rome was deferred till the war between Prussia and France withdrew the French support from the papacy. While the cause of Nationalism was being fought out in Italy, Prussia was falling under the control of the king, William 1., and the minister, Otto von Bismarck, who were to make her the head of a new united German Empire. To secure this leadership was Bismarck's primary aim ; to that end, a supreme army was necessary ; and he did not hesitate to urge the king to override the Prussian parliament and assume