Editing History of Italy (section)

===Age of Napoleon===
{{Further|Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars}}
[[File:Italy_1796.svg|thumb|left|Italy before the Napoleonic invasion (1796)]]

At the end of the 18th century, Italy was almost in the same political conditions as in the 16th century; the main differences were that [[Austria]] had replaced Spain as the dominant foreign power (though the [[War of the Polish Succession]] resulted in the re-installment of the Spanish in the south, as the [[House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies]]), and that the dukes of [[Savoy]] had become kings of [[Sardinia]]. In 1796 the French [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]] under [[Napoleon]] invaded Italy, with the aims of forcing the [[First Coalition]] to abandon Sardinia and forcing Austria to withdraw from Italy. Within only two weeks [[Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia]] was forced to sign an armistice. Napoleon then entered Milan, where he was welcomed as a liberator. Subsequently, beating off Austrian counterattacks and continuing to advance, he arrived in the [[Veneto]] in 1797. Here occurred the [[Veronese Easters]], an act of rebellion against French oppression, that tied down Napoleon for about a week.

Napoleon conquered most of Italy in 1797–99. He set up a series of new republics, complete with new codes of law and abolition of old feudal privileges. Napoleon's [[Cisalpine Republic]] was centered on Milan. Genoa the city became a republic while its hinterland became the [[Ligurian Republic]]. The [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] was formed out of the papal holdings while the pope himself was sent to France. The [[Neapolitan Republic (1799)|Neapolitan Republic]] was formed around Naples, but it lasted only five months before the Coalition recaptured it. In 1805, he formed the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]], with himself as king and his stepson as viceroy. All these new countries were satellites of France, and had to pay large subsidies to Paris, as well as provide military support for Napoleon's wars. Their political and administrative systems were modernized, the metric system introduced, and trade barriers reduced. Jewish ghettos were abolished. Belgium and Piedmont became integral parts of France.<ref>Alexander Grab, ''Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe'' (2003) pp 62–65, 78–79, 88–96, 115–17, 154–59</ref>
[[File:Flag of Repubblica Cispadana1.jpg|thumb|upright|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], which was the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]

[[Flags of Napoleonic Italy|During the Napoleonic era]], in 1797, the first official adoption of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the [[Cispadane Republic]], a [[sister republic]] of [[Revolutionary France]], took place.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera |last2=Marchetti Tricamo |first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |date=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore |isbn=978-8-8045-0946-2 |page=156 |language=it}}</ref><ref>[http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm The tri-coloured standard].Getting to Know Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (retrieved 5 October 2008) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223131121/http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm |date=23 February 2008}}</ref> This event is celebrated by the [[Tricolour Day]].<ref name="miolegale">Article 1 of the law n. 671 of 31 December 1996 ("National celebration of the bicentenary of the first national flag")</ref> The [[Italian national colours]] appeared for the first time on [[Cockade of Italy|a tricolour cockade]] in 1789,<ref name="Cita|Ferorelli |p. 662">{{Cite journal |last=Ferorelli |first=Nicola |date=1925 |title=La vera origine del tricolore italiano |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |url-status=dead |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |language=it |volume=XII |issue=fasc. III |pages=662 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181159/http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |archive-date=31 March 2019 |access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military [[war flag]], which was adopted by the [[Lombard Legion]] in 1796.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tarozzi |first1=Fiorenza |title=Gli italiani e il tricolore |last2=Vecchio |first2=Giorgio |date=1999 |publisher=Il Mulino |isbn=8-8150-7163-6 |pages=67–68 |language=it}}</ref>

In 1805, after the French victory over the [[Third Coalition]] and the [[Peace of Pressburg (1805)|Peace of Pressburg]], Napoleon recovered Veneto and [[Dalmatia]], annexing them to the Italian Republic and renaming it the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]]. Also that year a second satellite state, the [[Ligurian Republic]] (successor to the old [[Republic of Genoa]]), was pressured into merging with France. In 1806, he conquered the [[Kingdom of Naples]] and granted it to his brother and then (from 1808) to [[Joachim Murat]], along with marrying his sisters [[Elisa Bonaparte|Elisa]] and [[Paolina Bonaparte|Paolina]] off to the princes of [[Felice Pasquale Bacciocchi|Massa-Carrara]] and [[Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese|Guastalla]]. In 1808, he annexed Marche and Tuscany to the Kingdom of Italy. In 1809, Bonaparte occupied Rome,<ref>Dalle grandi rivoluzioni alla Restaurazione. La biblioteca di Repubblica, 2004. pp.342</ref> exiling the Pope first to Savona and then to France.

After Russia, the other states of Europe re-allied themselves and defeated Napoleon at the [[Battle of Leipzig]], after which his Italian allied states abandoned him to ally with Austria.<ref>Dalle grandi rivoluzioni alla Restaurazione. La biblioteca di Repubblica, 2004. pp.349</ref> As Napoleon's reign began to fail, other national monarchs he had installed tried to keep their thrones by feeding nationalistic sentiments. Among these was the viceroy of Italy, [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], who tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the Kingdom of Italy, and [[Joachim Murat]], who called for Italian patriots' help for the unification of Italy under his rule.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1815 |title=Proclamation of Rimini |url=http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/immagine/00402.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080126164906/http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/immagine/00402.htm |archive-date=26 January 2008 |access-date=21 February 2008}}</ref> Napoleon was defeated on 6 April 1814. The resulting [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814) restored a situation close to that of 1795, dividing Italy between Austria (in the north-east and Lombardy), the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], the Kingdom of the [[Two Sicilies]] (in the south and in Sicily), and [[History of Tuscany|Tuscany]], the [[Papal States]] and other minor states in the centre. However, old republics such as [[Venice]] and [[Genoa]] were not recreated, Venice went to Austria, and Genoa went to the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]].

On Napoleon's return to France (the [[Hundred Days]]), he regained Murat's support, but Murat proved unable to convince the Italians to fight for Napoleon with his [[Proclamation of Rimini]] and was beaten and killed. The Italian kingdoms thus fell, and Italy's Restoration period began, with many pre-Napoleonic sovereigns returned to their thrones. Piedmont, Genoa and Nice came to be united, as did Sardinia (which went on to create the State of Savoy), while Lombardy, Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia were re-annexed to Austria. The dukedoms of Parma and Modena re-formed, and the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples returned to the Bourbons. The political and social events in the restoration period of Italy (1815–1835) led to popular uprisings throughout the peninsula and greatly shaped what would become the Italian Wars of Independence. All this led to a new [[Kingdom of Italy]] and [[Italian unification]]. Frederick Artz emphasizes the benefits the Italians gained:
:For nearly two decades the Italians had the excellent codes of law, a fair system of taxation, a better economic situation, and more religious and intellectual toleration than they had known for centuries. ... Everywhere old physical, economic, and intellectual barriers had been thrown down and the Italians had begun to be aware of a common nationality.<ref>Frederick B. Artz, ''Reaction and Revolution: 1814–1832 '' (1934) pp 142–43</ref>

French historian [[Hippolyte Taine]] stated:
<blockquote>Napoleon, far more Italian than French, Italian by race, by instinct, imagination, and souvenir, considers in his plan the future of Italy, and, on casting up the final accounts of his reign, we find that the net loss is for France and the net profit is for Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taine |first=H. A. |date=May 1, 1891 |title=Napoleon's Views of Religion |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-25102177 |publisher=The North American Review |via=Internet Archive}}</ref></blockquote>