4 A. Italy before the unification

After Rome's fall, "Italy" was a geographical expression (Metternich's sneer — itself a marker of the age): the Austrian north (Lombardy-Venetia), the Papal States across the middle (the Pope- king's temporal rule), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Bourbon Naples — the Mezzogiorno's feudal poverty), and the duchies (Tuscany, Parma, Modena) — plus Piedmont-Sardinia, the one independent native kingdom (the Savoyard state: the only constitutional monarchy among them — the Statuto Albertino, 1848, the future kingdom's constitution). The Risorgimento("resurgence") — the cultural-national awakening: Manzoni's novels, Verdi's operas (the chorus's acronym — Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia), Mazzini's republicanism (below) — and the failed revolutions of 1820–21, 1831, 1848–49 (the Roman Republic of 1849 — Mazzini's triumph crushed by French arms for the Pope; Venice's heroic siege) — the lesson (Italy's own): idealism alone insufficient; Piedmont's monarchy and army would be the spear.