Revolutions of 1848 in The Italian States - Background

Background

In 1848 modern day Italy was composed of the following duchies, states, or kingdoms: in southern Italy was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in central Italy was the Papal States, in the north were the three Duchies of Parma, Tuscany and Modena, in the northwest was the Kingdom of Sardinia, which consisted of Nice, Genoa, Savoy, mainland Piedmont and the island of Sardinia. The economy was heavily based on agriculture. Farm products were subject to unstable prices due to foreign competition, and the slowness of Italian farming contrasted to more efficient foreigners. There were food riots all through 1840 to 1847; radical groups proliferated in Rome.

On June 16, 1846 Cardinal Giovanni Masta Ferretti, was chosen to the papacy as Pope Pius IX. He was considered a liberal and aroused the hopes of political liberals and of the poor both in the Papal States and throughout Italy. He began numerous political and economic reforms. Most dramatically he immediately pardoned hundreds of political prisoners, creating a sensation. He created a Council of State in order to share his power, as well as a municipal council for Rome and a Citizens' Guard so that the middle class would be armed and support his regime. These projects raised high hopes for greater popular influence in the papal government and for Italian unification, and the disenchantment when these did not happen was severe. The reforms failed to resolve any of the grave political and economic problems of the Papal States. Pius IX refused to lead an Italian war of liberation against Habsburg Austria, because it was a Catholic stronghold. A violent uprising in Rome forced Pius to flee in November 1848. The failure of his modest liberal reforms turned him to the right, and he returned as a reactionary.