We've come to the end of the series - this will be the last episode of our story. I'd like to spend this episode addressing some of the big questions that the series raised: First, was unification inevitable? Second, was the incorporation of Southern Italy into the new Italian state a result of conquest or unification? And third, what was the legacy of the three men we focused on: Cavour, Garibaldi, and Mazzini? Then I'll wrap up with a few closing remarks and say goodbye....
Jun 23, 2019•40 min
In this penultimate episode we'll cover the period from 1861 to 1871 and reach the end of our story. Italy started as a collection of small states, many of them ancient, and now the entire peninsula, minus a few outlying areas that Italy would gain after WWI, has been unified under a single government based in the ancient city of Rome. This was an amazing, almost unbelievable achievement. The Kingdom of Italy had weathered the death of its leading statesman only a few months after its formation,...
Dec 18, 2017•1 hr 24 min
We're closing in on the end of the story of the Italian unification. Through both force of arms and cunning, Piedmont has conquered almost all of Italy - from the perspective of grand, heroic history, we've already passed the climax and we're just tying up loose ends. But that's not how I feel about it - because we're about to leave the heady days of high hopes and dreams for the future into the murky realm of mistakes, and of what might have been.
Jun 12, 2017•55 min
A brief update on the podcast delays.
Mar 19, 2017•1 min
1860 was a bad year to be a cartographer - or maybe a good year, depending on how you look at it. In 1859 there had been seven states in Italy: the Kingdom of Piedmont, the Austrian-controlled Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, the Papal States, and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. But, after the Second War of Italian Independence, which pitted France and Piedmont against Austria, we saw that number shrink to four, as Tuscany, Modena...
Oct 22, 2016•46 min
Ever since the fall of the Roman Republic to the French army in 1849, we've focused pretty exclusively on events in Northern Italy, because that was there the action was. That is going to change. Distracted by the annexation of most of northern Italy, Piedmont will temporarily lose the initiative, which will pass into the hands of the republicans and revolutionaries, and in particular, to Garibaldi. Today we begin the famous story of The Thousand, or in Italian, Il Mille.
Jul 20, 2016•43 min
In the space of a single year, Italy will change forever, emerging from the Second War of Italian Unification with an entirely new political landscape.
Apr 09, 2016•1 hr 1 min
It's the beginning of 1859, and we're at a pivotal point in the story. While it would be an exaggeration to say that the entire Italian Unification hinges on the events of this episode, the timing of events here will play a role in everything to come. The plan was for Cavour to stir up trouble in the duchy of Modena, which would lead to an escalating series of diplomatic incidents that would start a war between Piedmont and Austria, while making Austria look like the aggressor. France would then...
Jan 24, 2016•39 min
A new election in Piedmont will threaten to unseat Cavour, who will only survive through cunning, ruthlessness, and good old fashioned cheating. An assassination attempt on French Emperor Napoleon III will either warm the cockles of his heart or fan the flames of his ambition. Either way, Napoleon III will get serious about supporting Piedmont in a war against Austria. Cavour and Napoleon will meet and hash out the future of Italy in a single afternoon, including a pretext for war.
Nov 25, 2015•40 min
In this episode we're going to catch back up with both of our revolutionary friends Mazzini and Garibaldi. We'll start with Mazzini and the internal politics of the revolutionary movement post-1848, and then we'll get into a renewed round of revolutions. We'll then see Garibaldi wander the face of the globe searching for some peace and happiness. Then, toward the middle of the 1850's, Cavour will begin to infiltrate the revolutionary movement, laying plots and plans of his own, securing his repu...
Sep 07, 2015•50 min
Release schedule update.
Aug 02, 2015•2 min
The title of this episode, "The Eagle and the Bee", is a reference to the symbols of the House of Habsburg, the ruling house of Austria, and the House of Bonaparte, now the ruling house of France. The symbol of the House of Habsburg was a two-headed eagle, as it had been for centuries. The Bonapartes, having only recently risen to prominence, had adopted the industrious honey bee, as a complement to the traditional French eagle. And the conflict between these two, the eagle and the bee, is what ...
Jun 26, 2015•45 min
Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to power is one of the events that puts the 1790 in our "1790 to 1870" tagline. For almost 20 years Napoleon was deeply involved in Italian affairs both big and small, and no history of the Unification would be complete without a detailed discussion of his influence. It will be another Bonaparte who helps puts the 1870 in our tagline: his nephew Louis-Napoleon.
May 28, 2015•35 min
In this episode we'll continue the story of Piedmont's involvement in the Crimean war, and Cavour's role in the peace talks that followed. After that, we'll move on to the long awaited listener Q&A.
Apr 27, 2015•33 min
In this episode we're going to tell the first half of the story of Piedmont's involvement in the Crimean War, and Cavour's growing dominance of the Piedmontese political scene. We'll begin with a little housekeeping in Piedmont - some politics and then elections. Then we'll move on to the bigger story of how the Crimean war got started, and why Piedmont, a thousand miles away, somehow got involved. We'll close with a new round in the continuing battle between the Catholic church and the increasi...
Apr 08, 2015•40 min
We'll open this episode with a discussion of why Piedmont had no competition - what had happened to the rest of Italy that Piedmont, backwards, isolated Piedmont, was now their last, best hope for unification? Then we’ll return to Piedmont, where the first of several showdowns with the Catholic Church is brewing, and where Cavour is using maneuvering to displace Massimo D'Azeglio as Prime Minister.
Mar 10, 2015•40 min
In this episode we'll meet Piedmont's new king, and see Piedmont try to regain its footing as it deals with its first constitutional crisis, triggered by its peace treaty with Austria. Against the backdrop of these events, Cavour, the late-bloomer of our Big Three, will rapidly become the dominant figure in Piedmontese politics.
Feb 04, 2015•43 min
We left off with Garibaldi leading his men out of the doomed city to continue the fight elsewhere. In this episode we'll follow our intrepid guerrilla leader's fight to the bitter end, and see the fall of the Republic of Venice, the last holdout against Austria. Then we'll discuss the revolutions of 1848 and try to make some sense of them - why did they happen, why did they fail, and what did they mean? Then we'll set the stage for the 1850's, often called the 'Decade of Preparation', in which P...
Jan 12, 2015•30 min
Adam is back with the final stages of the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe.
Dec 21, 2014•42 min
The poetic, heroic, and tragic defense was burned indelibly into the memory and imagination of Italian patriots, for whom the city of Rome would now forever be inextricably linked to the very idea of Italian nationalism. The story of the Roman Republic ensured that no future Italian state could long endure without the city of Rome as its capital.
Dec 08, 2014•48 min
This episode will focus on two different areas. First, we're going to jump back to Piedmont. Frightened by the success of the republicans in Rome, and humiliated by their defeat by the Austrians in July of 1848, the Piedmontese made a desperate stab to get back in the limelight by renewing their war with Austria. Second, we're going to cover Mazzini's role as the leader of the Roman Republic. Handed nearly supreme power in the republic, this revolutionary with no political experience will wield ...
Nov 17, 2014•29 min
The creation and heroic defense of a new Roman Republic is one of the defining episodes in the story of the Italian unification. It's an epic story, a blockbuster, and Garibaldi and Mazzini are the two main characters. We're not quite there yet - in this episode we're going to set the stage for what will be the showdown between the Italian republicans and the European forces of conservatism.
Oct 29, 2014•38 min
Revolutions break out in Italy in earnest when Milan rises up against Austria. The Piedmontese declare war on Austria, ostensibly in a war of national liberation, but in reality because they want to annex northern Italy. The pope severs his ties with the moderate cause. When the dust settles the moderates are in retreat, and the radicals are left in power.
Oct 06, 2014•46 min
In this episode we're going to cover the first three months of 1848 in Italy. Sicily will kick off the year with a revolution, followed by a smaller one on the mainland. Then, like a chain of dominoes, almost all of the rulers in Italy will be forced by public pressure to grant constitutions. This first phase of the revolutions of 1848 in Italy will be remarkably peaceful, with one major exception.
Sep 22, 2014•42 min
An interview with Doug Cantelmo, Professor of Urban Development at St. John's University about urban development in late 19th century Italy.
Aug 31, 2014•35 min
Clearly, the 1840's were a troubled time in Italy. The decade had begun with increased demands from the business minded classes for economic liberalization. Books advancing Italian nationalism had become stunningly successful, helping to turn popular opinion against the Austrians. Pope Pius had added fuel to the fire by starting his pontificate with a series of sweeping reforms, realizing too late what he had set in motion. People all over Italy began demanding reforms and constitutions. For the...
Aug 18, 2014•40 min
Benjamin and Adam take a break from the story to answer questions sent in by listeners.
Aug 04, 2014•24 min
In the last episode we saw Europe undergo an economic crisis in the 1840's, as harvests failed, trade slumped, and urban unemployment exploded. The ingredients are all there for disaster, but up to this point, we haven't seen them all mix together, and revolution is still not inevitable. In this episode, we're going to see the Revolutions of 1848 kick off in France, quite by accident, and spread eastwards into Germany and the Austrian Empire.
Jul 22, 2014•40 min
Our story is now rapidly approaching an incredibly important series of events: the Revolutions of 1848. In a single year, a series of revolutions swept across Europe, occurring in France, Prussia, Austria, Italy, the German states, and others. While timing like that might make it seem as though the revolutions were a carefully laid plan by a European-wide conspiracy, they were mostly spontaneous uprisings. They fed off each other’s energy and momentum, definitely, but there was no force behind t...
Jul 07, 2014•40 min
Gearing up for the revolutions of 1848, we lay the groundwork by talking about liberalism, money, books, and opera in 19th century Italy. This unusually long episode has an intermission halfway through.
Jun 16, 2014•59 min
