Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/65

* ITALY. 49 ITALY. rin's administration France gave some assist- ance to the Neapolitan revolt, begun under ilasaniello and continued under the inefficient leadership of Henr}-, Duke of Guise. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) -OTOught great changes in Italy. Lombardy and Naples passed from Spain to Austria, which also obtained Sar- dinia, and the House of Savoy received the island of Sicily, wrested from Spain. In 1720 Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia, and the Duke of Savoy took the title of King of Sardinia. The growth in strength and influence of the House of Savoy was the beginning of an efficient national power in Italy. Piedmont became the real centre of life of the new kingdom. In 1734-35 the Bour- bons established themselves on the throne of the Two Sicilies, and in 1748 they obtained pos- session of Parma and Piaeenza. Tlie forty- five years following the Treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle (1748), which terminated the War of the Austrian Succession, were years of peaceful development in all parts of Italy, which was bet- ter governed than it had been for some centuries. This reign of peace was disturbed by the out- break of the French Revolution. In 1792 Savoy and Nice were seized by the French. In 1706-97 the army of Bonaparte swept through Northern Italy, driving the Austrians before it. Lom- liardy, part of Venetia, ilodena, the Eomagna, etc.. were constituted into the Cisalpine Republic (later known as the Italian Republic), and the Genoese dominions into the Ligurian Republic. The Venetian Republic was extinguished, and the bulk of its territories handed over to Austria. In 1798 a revolt was organized by French con- spirators in Rome, and General Berthier (q.v.) 7)roclaimed the Roman Republic, the Pope, Pius VI.. being imnrisoned in the French fortress of Valence, where he died the following year. The Neapolitan Court, supported by Austria, liaving undertaken hostilities against the French in Italy in 179S. Naples was taken by the French .lanuary 23. 1799, and the Parthenopean Repub- lic was erected. Piedmont and Tuscany had already been seized by the French. The two southern republics were short-lived. In 1799 the French were expelled from Southern Italy by the Coalition, and were forced back in the north. The influence of the French Republic, which had aroused the democratic element in all the Italian States, was ended, and was to give place to that of a purely military conqueror, Napoleon, to whom all Italy finally became subject. In 1800 the First Consul, having established his power in France, crossed the Alps and opened his second and most memorable campaign in Italy. The vic- tory of ^Marengo gave Bonaparte command of the situation, and a triumphant peace was made with Austria at Luneville in 1801. In 180.5 Napoleon was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardv as King of Italy, this Italy including the north- ern regions. In 1806 Napoleon took possession of the Kingdom of Naples, which was given to his brother Joseph, and, when the latter became King of Spain in 1808. to Joachim llurat. In 1808 Rome became part of the French Empire. The government of the whole Peninsula was essen- tially military: the normal conditions of so- ciety were disturbed : disorder was rife, especially in the south : and the anarchy began out of which came the Carbonari (q.v.) and other movements for political revolution. Divided and disorgan- ized, Italy, when the French were expelled by^the Allies (1814), was an easy prey to the latter, and Austria at once claimed jurisdiction. Murat, having joined the Allies, was allowed to retain his throne, but in 1815 he took up arms for Napo- leon, and was defeated and expelled. The Con- gress of 'S'ienna left Italy at the mercy of Aus- tria and the Papacy. The Sardinian Kingdom, augmented by the territory of the Cienoese Repub- lic, was returned to the House of Savoy; Austria recovered Lombardy and Venetia (having been stripped of the latter in 1805) ; ilodena was re- stored to the House of Este (q.v.) ; the Duchy of Parma was conferred on ilaria Louisa of Austria, wife of Napoleon, and Lucca was erected into a duchy for the dispossessed Bourbon dynasty of Parma ; the Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed again to the House of Lorraine-Hapsburg; the Bourbon dynasty (which had maintained its rule in Sicily) was restored in the Kingdom of Naples; the tiny Republic of San Marino and the Principality of ilonaco retained their independ- ence. The dominion of Austria and the rule of auto- cratic princes, upheld by the Hapsburgs and' the Holy Alliance, could not endure in Italy forever. Crushed under an iron despotism, the country was pervaded by a network of secret so- cieties, which kept up a constant agitation for constitutional government. (See Carbonari.) The French rule had introduced into the country certain liberal and progressive ideas which made their impression upon the people. But the princes, strong in the support of Aus- tria, refused all concessions, and by means of an elaborate police system succeeded in check- ing the progress of liberalism. Risings pro- moted bv armv officers took place in Naples (1820) and Piedmont (1821). In Naples Ferdi- nand I. was forced to grant a constitution, but yielded to iletternich at the Congress of Laibach, and in May, 1821, was rcpstablished in his des- potic sway with the aid of Austrian troops. He now entered upon a course of vin- dictive persecutions against the Liberals. The Piedmontese insurrection led to the abdication of Victor Emmanuel I. in favor of his brother, Charles Felix, a determined absolutist. He in- troduced some useful reforms in his Piedmontese possessions, but in general ruled in accordance with the spirit of Austria's autocracy. In Naples, Francis I., the son and successor of Ferdinand I., continued the iniquitous policy of his father. The Government of the Papal States xinder Leo XII. was oppressive, reactionary, and incapable. Tuscany alone, during the decade of 1820-30, enjoyed a fair measure of freedom and prosperity under its Grand Duke. Leopold II. The ,Tuly Revolution of 1830, which drove the Bourbons from the throne of France, had its echoes in Italy. In 1831 insurrections broke out in Mo- dena and in the Papal States, and in Bologna a congress of representatives from the revolted Papal States, excepting Rome and a few cities in the March of Ancona. adopted a constitution establishing a republican form of government. Austria promptly intervened with force of arms, resubjected Modena to its tyrant, suppressed the revolutionary movement in the dominions of the Pope, and placed a garrison in Bologna. Upon the death of Charles Felix in 1831, the .succession in the Kingdom of Sardinia passed to Charles Albert (q.v.). Prince of Carignan. repre- sentative of the younger line of Savoy. There had