The great powers, Cavour's intervention and the Kingdom of Italy

What the specification asks for

“Proclamation of Kingdom of Italy. Garibaldi's successes in Sicily and Naples and the Papal States and the reaction of the great powers and Cavour. The establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.” — examined through consequence and change. Incandio is aligned to specification 4HI1; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson.

1 · Understand it

The problem in September 1860

By early September Garibaldi held Naples and had announced that he would go on to Rome. That was intolerable to Cavour for a precise reason: the Pope's temporal power was protected by a French garrison, so an attack on Rome was an attack on France, and it would have destroyed the alliance on which everything since 1858 had depended. It would also have handed the leadership of Italian unification permanently to a man who was not the government.

Cavour's solution was to get there first. In September Piedmontese troops invaded the Papal States, defeated the papal army at Castelfidardo, and marched south — carefully avoiding Rome and the area under French protection. The public justification was the need to restore order and prevent revolution; the actual purpose was to interpose the royal army between Garibaldi and the capital.

Teano and the plebiscites

The two forces met near Teano on 26 October 1860. Garibaldi greeted Victor Emmanuel as king of Italy and handed over his conquests without conditions. He asked to be made viceroy of the south, was refused, declined all honours and rewards, and retired to his farm on Caprera. Within weeks his volunteer army was disbanded and its officers largely excluded from the regular army.

Plebiscites in Naples and Sicily in October, conducted in the same open and administered manner as those in the central states, returned enormous majorities for annexation to the monarchy. On 17 March 1861 the parliament in Turin proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Cavour died three months later, at fifty.

Rome and Venetia were not included. The kingdom proclaimed in 1861 was Italy minus its intended capital and one of its wealthiest provinces, and both were obtained later by means that had nothing to do with Italian arms.

What Teano actually settled

The meeting is the most painted moment of the Risorgimento and the mythology has obscured what it decided. It settled that the south would be annexed to Piedmont rather than federated with it, that the new state would be a monarchy on the Piedmontese model, and that the volunteers who had conquered it would have no place in the army or the administration.

Garibaldi's conduct is the reason it went so smoothly, and it is worth stating plainly because it is genuinely unusual: a man who had conquered a kingdom of nine million handed it to a monarch who had not helped him, asked for nothing that was granted, and went home. Whatever is said about the settlement, it was made possible by an act of self-abnegation that no calculation required.

The great powers acquiesced because the outcome suited them. Britain approved of a liberal constitutional Italy and had signalled that it would not intervene; France had been paid in Nice and Savoy and retained Rome; Austria had been beaten in 1859 and had troubles elsewhere. Unification's final act was permitted rather than resisted, which is the last piece of evidence for the argument that ran through the whole option.

The British position deserves naming precisely, because candidates often leave Britain out of an option in which it did nothing and mattered. Palmerston's government declined to join any intervention against the annexations and let it be known that the Royal Navy would not obstruct Garibaldi's crossing of the straits. Doing nothing, when you are the power that could have stopped it, is a policy — and it is the reason France did not act either.

2 · Learn it — the notes

The dates that earn marks

September 1860

Piedmont invades the Papal States and wins at Castelfidardo. Why this date: It is Cavour's decisive act of the year and its purpose was to reach Garibaldi before he reached Rome.

26 October 1860

Garibaldi meets Victor Emmanuel near Teano and hands over his conquests. Why this date: It settles that the south is annexed rather than federated, and that the volunteers have no place in the new state.

17 March 1861

The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed. Why this date: It creates a state without Rome or Venetia, which is why the option continues for another nine years.

June 1861

Cavour dies at fifty. Why this date: The kingdom loses its architect within three months of its creation, before any of the settlement's problems had been addressed.

The figures, and how far to trust them

• 26 October 1860 — The meeting at Teano, the date on which the south passed to the monarchy.
• 17 March 1861 — The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, without Rome or Venetia.
• Enormous majorities — The recorded results of the southern annexation plebiscites. (Open voting under administrations committed to the outcome; the results record a direction of opinion and not its scale.)

The people to place

• Cavour — Ordered the invasion of the Papal States to forestall Garibaldi; died in June 1861.
• Victor Emmanuel II — Met Garibaldi at Teano and became king of Italy in March 1861.
• Giuseppe Garibaldi — Handed over his conquests, refused all honours and retired to Caprera.

How historians disagree

Attributed interpretations, never voiced — the AO4 seam.

• The 'race, not partnership' reading: Cavour's invasion of the Papal States was directed against Garibaldi rather than against the Pope, and the celebrated cooperation of 1860 was in fact a contest to control the outcome. Contested by The reading that both men wanted the same kingdom and differed only on timing and on Rome, so that describing it as a race overstates a disagreement about method..

What students say — and what is actually the case

Not this: The Kingdom of Italy proclaimed in 1861 included Rome and Venice.

This: It included neither. Venetia came in 1866 and Rome in 1870, and both arrived as by-products of wars fought by other powers.

Not this: Cavour invaded the Papal States to liberate them from the Pope.

This: He invaded to place the royal army between Garibaldi and Rome, and the advance carefully avoided the area under French protection.

Two things students merge

Blurred: The Papal States and the city of Rome.

The distinction: Piedmont annexed most of the Papal States in 1860 and left Rome and its immediate territory alone, because the city was protected by French troops. The distinction is why 1860 did not cause a war with France and 1867 nearly did.

Blurred: Annexation and unification.

The distinction: The plebiscites annexed the south to the existing Piedmontese state and its laws, rather than creating a new constitution for a new country. That choice is what made 'Piedmontisation' the problem of the next decade.

What a Grade 9 answer holds here

A Grade 9 answer sees that the new kingdom was built to exclude the men who had won it. Garibaldi's volunteers were disbanded within weeks and largely refused commissions in the regular army, the south was annexed to Piedmontese law rather than negotiated with, and a state created by a popular conquest was organised so that nothing popular could threaten it.

3 · How it is examined

This strand is genuinely set through: Paper 1 (a) (6 marks — “What impression does the author give about …? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.”); Paper 1 (b) (8 marks — “Explain two effects of … on ….”); Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii) (16 marks — “'[A statement about the period.]' You may use the following in your answer: • [prompt] • [prompt]. You must also use information of your own. How far do you agree? Explain your answer.”).

What earns marks: The purpose of the September invasion, stated as forestalling Garibaldi rather than as liberating papal territory. It reframes the whole of 1860 as a contest.

The cap that bites here: The 8-mark question caps a single effect at 4 marks. Teano and the plebiscites are two separate consequences.

4 · Prove it — the questions

Answered inside Incandio, where a marker checks what a correct answer must contain and tells you which half was missing. The marking stays in the app; the questions are here.

1. What impression does the author give about the relationship between Cavour and Garibaldi in 1860? [6 marks · Paper 1 (a)]
2. Explain two effects of the Piedmontese invasion of the Papal States in September 1860. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
3. Explain two effects of the meeting at Teano in October 1860. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
4. 'The Kingdom of Italy was created by Cavour rather than by Garibaldi.' How far do you agree? [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]
5. 'The unification of Italy in 1861 was the work of foreign powers.' How far do you agree? [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]

Decide it

This lesson feeds a Decide History judgement — a position you commit to, an objection you answer, a criterion you name: Who unified Italy?.

Carry on through the option

• Previous lesson: Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily and Naples
• Next lesson, in key topic 5: Obstacles to unity after 1861 and 'Piedmontisation'
• Key topic 4 · Garibaldi and the Papal States · Development of a nation: unification of Italy, 1848–70 · the option's timeline · Incandio History
• The other key topics of Development of a nation: The 1848 Revolutions in the Italian states · Developments in Piedmont, 1849–54 · The defeat of Austria, 1854–59 · Venice and Rome and the extent of unification by 1870