Briefly traace the Italy unification

1. Italy had a long history of political fragmentation. Italians vs cathode over several dynastic States as well as the multi-national Habsburg empire. 2. In the middle of the 19th century, Italy was divided into seven States. Only one, Sardinia Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs, the centre was ruled by the pope and the southern regions were under the domination of the bourbon kings of Spain. Even the Italian language had not acquired one common form and had many regional and local variations. 3. During 1830 Guiseppe Mazzini, a revolutionary, formed a secret society called young Italy to spread his ideas and unify Italian republic. However, the failure of revolutions in 1831 and 1848 meant that the task now fell on Sardinia Piedmont under its ruler King Victor Emmanuel II two unify the Italian States through war. The ruling Elite of this region felt that unified Italy would offer them the possibility of economic development and political dominance. 4. Chief minister Cavour forged and alliance with France and succeeded in defeating the Austrian forces in 1859. 5. Apart from regular troops, collage number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they marched into the kingdom of the two Sicilies. (Two Sicilies, the largest Italian state before the Italian unification was union of the kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples, collectively called the " Two Sicilies") and with the support of local peasants drove out the Spanish rulers. 6. In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of United Italy.

Italy was divided into 7 states. King of serdinia Piedmont victor Emmanuel II along with his cheif minister Cavour led this movement of unification. Cavour also took help of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Serdinia Piedmont was successful in defeating the austrian forces. In 1860 they successfully won south Italy and kingdom of two sicilies fron Spanish rulers. In 1861,victor Emmanuel II and his wife were declared the rulers of Italy