To what extent was Austria responsible for the failure of Italian revolutionaries in the years 1820-49?
Austria had a massive empire in the early 19th century, Italy only being a small part. The 1815 Congress of Vienna had given Austria direct control over Lombardy and Venetia, and had also put an Austrian family in charge of ruling smaller duchies such as Parma and Modena. As such, Austria had dominating control over a lot of Italy. However, this was not the only reason why Italian revolutionaries failed. Other factors included the fact that there was no foreign support against Austria and other foreign rulers in Italy and the fact that there was a lack of cooperation between the various revolutionaries.
The north of Italy was largely controlled by Austria, and their military prowess allowed them to greatly dominate the north and quickly stop any revolts…
The lack of cooperation between revolutionaries highlights that individual rulers could easily take back power, and the different ideas meant that people were fighting for different things which would have achieved nothing. There was also no foreign help, as all except one ruler in Italy were foreign and were not willing to give up power and France at the time was protecting the Pope. However, I think that Austria was the main reason why Italian revolutionaries failed. This is because not only did they dominate north Italy and were able to easily crush revolts, but they also play a part in the other factors as well. Other European states would not have wanted to cross Austria as at the time they were a dominating empire throughout Europe. The Austrians also exploited the lack of unity between revolutionaries in order to regain control in the few places that they had lost it. To summarise, we can see that Austria by a long way was the most significant factor for the failure of Italian…
