PIETRO ORSI, Professor of Modern History, Royal Lyceum of Venice.
Co. ITALIAN HISTORY FROM 181S TO 1907. Before the French Revolution, the territory which now forms the kingdom of Italy was inhabited by about 17,000,000 people, and was composed of nine principal states: The kingdom of Sardinia with Piedmont and Savoy; the republic of Genoa; the duchy of Parma and of Piacenza; the duchy of Modena; the republic of Venetia; the republic of Lucca; the grand duchy of Tuscany; the Pon tifical States; the kingdom of Naples with Sicily; and besides two regions belonging to foreign powers, i.e., Corsica to France, and Lombardy and Mantua to Austria. In these countries, the political, social, economic, judi cial, financial and intellectual conditions were deplorable; the power of the sovereign was absolute; the population was divided into classes, some of which possessed remarkable and varying privileges; industry, commerce and agriculture were neglected, with consequent poverty of the laboring classes; justice was meted out unfairly to all, barbarously con ducted and with no proportion between the crime and its punishment; the public finances were in a ruinous state; education was very limited and difficult to acquire. Into this Italy, so complex and unprogressive, came the French Revolution (1789-1814) with the arms of the republic and of the emperor; destroyed the existing states and set up and supported the Glorious Principles of 1789. After undergoing various transformations, Peninsular Italy belonged to the Bourbons of Naples, Sardinia to the House of Savoy and Corsica to France) was thus partitioned by Napoleon I: one part was united to the French Empire (Piedmont, Liguria, Parma and Piacenza, Tus cany, Umbria, Lazio); a second part formed the kingdom of Italy, which was destined to become independent under its own king, with the capital at Milan (composed of Lombardy, theprovince of Venetia, Modena, the province of Rome and the Marches); a third part, with the title of the kingdom of Naples, was held successively by two French kings, Giuseppe Bonaparte and Gioacchino (Joachim) Murat, with a certain independence. In these coun tries, through the initiation of foreign folk, but with the co-operation of many Italians also, arose a period of economic activity; streets were opened; institutions were founded for the progress of science and the diffusion of knowledge; the government and administration of affairs became vastly superior to what had preceded; and the equality of all before the law was established. The moral, civil and eco
nomic progress throughout the entire penin sula was very evident and very considerable; but the people ended in becoming very discon tented because of the incessant levies, which robbed the country of the flower of its youth, following the military enterprises of Napoleon, and also because of the enormous taxes which the emperor Unposed upon eve one accord ing to his own despotic will. When en the Napo leonic dynasty fell, the United Powers, which had overthrown it, in order to wipe out every trace of the revolution in Italy, wished to re establish the states exactly as they were before the coming of the French (except the repub lics, which were not reconstituted), and they recalled the former sovereigns, and the entire country was placed under the rule, direct or indirect, of Austria.
The Treaties of Paris and the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) finally reorganized Italy in the following manner: there were seven prin cipal states, nominally independent, and two regions governed by foreign rule. The inde pendent states were: (1) The kingdom of Sardinia, to which the House of Savoy re turned, which had at its head Victor Emanuel I, and to which was also given the territory of the former republic of Genoa; (2) the duchy of Parma and of Piacenza, given to Marie Louise of Austria, the wife of Napoleon I; (3) the duchy of Modena, to the Archduke Fran cis IV of Austria; (4) the grand duchy of Tuscany, to Ferdinand III of Austria; (5) the duchy of Lucca, to Maria Louisa of Bour bon; (6) The Pontifical State, to which Pius VII returned, freed from prison; (7) the kingdom of the two Sicilies, i.e., Naples and Sicily, to which Ferdinand IV (now become I) of Bourbon returned. The regions subject to foreign powers were: Corsica, which remained French, and the kingdom of Lombardy-Vene tia, which passed to the House of Austria. The latter, therefore, possessed incontestable power in all Italy, since in addition to the direct au thority over the kingdom of Lombardy-Vene tia, it had its own princes in power over Tus cany, Parma, Modena and exercised a sort of guardianship over the other states. Austria, the centre of reaction in Europe, represented in Italy the Holy Alliance, which had the plan to re-establish the divine right of monarchies and to hold the people quiet and submissive, and to carry out this plan the sovereigns belonging to the Alliance were obliged to help each other whenever called upon.