Uprising of Piedmont

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Uprising of Piedmont

· 1720 Dukes of Savoy ruled over the backward state of Piedmont in

northwest of Italy. He became King of the island of Sardinia. Piedmont

and Sardinia came together to be normally known as just Piedmont

· End of the 18th century population was small and most were peasants.

Life was short. The capital Turin had little industry and countryside

was poverty stricken.

· But Piedmont had 2 advantages over other states because it had a

strong army & was well governed by an absolute monarch. There was no

parliament so the people had no say in how the country was ran.

· At the end of the 18th century Piedmont made an alliance with

Austria. Because the Piedmontese family had connections with the

French royal family and so were in turn enemies of Napoleon. Piedmont

and Austria declared war on France when the French army attacked Nice

and Savoy west of Piedmont.

· From 1802 to 1814 Piedmont was united with France. They governed

every part of the state society including the language spoken to

schooling being under the French system. There was no great opposition

to French rule and it came to an advantage for the middle classes for

career opportunities. Only towards the end of French occupation was

there unrest such as young men setting up anti-French societies.

· 1815 King Emmanuel I returned after exile to return as a restored

monarch. Piedmont was still bound to out-of-date laws made before 1800

that could not be changed. French legal system and equal justice was

abolished.

· The Vienna Settlement of 1815 gave the Republic of Genoa to

Piedmont, which was of commercial benefit...

... middle of paper ...

...harles Albert was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel II seen as

defying Austrian plans for the Statuto’s abolition. Most historians

now believe he was not anxious to keep it but was pressured by the

Austrians to keep it instead. Austrians believed anything besides a

republic was tolerable.

· The constitution remained in force and gave opportunity for an

active political life in Piedmont something which did not exist

anywhere else in Italy.

· It had reasonably free press, an elected if unrepresentative

assembly, and a certain amount of civil liberty and legal equality.

· Piedmont attracted refugees from the rest of Italy during the next

decade, which was to be dominated by the political leadership of the

now returned Cavour, the military successes of Garibaldi and the

interventions of Napoleon III of France.

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