Editing Unification of Italy (section)

===French Revolution and Napoleonic era===
[[File:Flag of the Repubblica Cispadana.svg|thumb|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], which was the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]
The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with the [[Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars|campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars]] in 1792–97 when a series of [[Sister republic|client republics]] were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last [[Roman-German Emperor]], [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II]], after its defeat by Napoleon at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]]. French rule destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of the intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after the [[First French Empire]] collapsed in 1814.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grew |first1=Raymond |title=Finding Social Capital: The French Revolution in Italy |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |date=January 1999 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=407–433 |doi=10.1162/002219598551760 }}</ref>

The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=Anna Maria |title=Republicanism in Italy from the eighteenth century to the early Risorgimento |journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |date=March 2012 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=149–167 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.641409 }}</ref> The reaction against any outside control challenged [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Viceroy of Italy]], and [[Joachim Murat]], [[Kingdom of Naples (Napoleonic)|King of Naples]]) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] approval for his succession to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the [[Rimini Proclamation]], which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers.

[[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 Napoleonic [[sister republic]] of [[Revolutionary France]], took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national [[self-determination]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio|last2=Marchetti Tricamo|first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera|year=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|language=it|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2|page=156}}</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 a [[Cockade of Italy|tricolour cockade]] in 1789,<ref name="Cita|Ferorelli |p. 662">{{cite journal |last1=Ferorelli |first1=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= |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |volume=XII |issue=fasc. III |language=it |pages=662 |access-date=25 December 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |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= |url-status=dead }}</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|last2=Vecchio|first2=Giorgio |title=Gli italiani e il tricolore|year=1999|publisher=Il Mulino|language=it|isbn=88-15-07163-6|pages=67–68}}</ref>