Editing Unification of Italy (section)

===Reaction (1815–1848)===
[[File:Giuseppe Mazzini.jpg|thumb|[[Giuseppe Mazzini]], highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement]]
After Napoleon fell (1814), the [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the [[Austrian Empire]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_room/articles/files/hicks_napoleon_kingitaly.asp |title=How Napoleon became 'King of Italy' |publisher=Napoleon.org |date=23 October 2012 |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> as they directly controlled the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]] and indirectly the duchies of [[Duchy of Parma and Piacenza|Parma]], [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Modena]] and [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]].

With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the [[Absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchical regimes]], the [[Italian tricolour]] went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=10|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref><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|page=169|isbn=978-88-04-50946-2}}</ref> and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.<ref>Ghisi, Enrico ''Il tricolore italiano (1796–1870)'' Milano: Anonima per l'Arte della Stampa, 1931</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gay |first1=H. Nelson |title=Review of Il Tricolore Italiano, 1796-1870 |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1932 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=750–751 |doi=10.2307/1843352 |jstor=1843352 }}</ref> The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the [[Cittadella of Alessandria]], during the [[Revolutions during the 1820s|revolutions of 1820s]], after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Villa|first=Claudio|title=I simboli della Repubblica: la bandiera tricolore, il canto degli italiani, l'emblema|year=2010|publisher=Comune di Vanzago|language=it|page=18|id=[[National Library Service of Italy|SBN]] [https://opac.sbn.it/bid/LO11355389 IT\ICCU\LO1\1355389]}}</ref>

An important figure of this period was [[Francesco Melzi d'Eril]], serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic [[Italian Republic (Napoleonic)|Italian Republic]] (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nicassio|first=Susan Vandiver|title=Imperial City: Rome Under Napoleon|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|location=United States |edition=|isbn=978-0-226-57973-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialcityrome00nica/page/n220 220]}}</ref>
Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; [[Vittorio Alfieri]], [[Francesco Lomonaco]] and [[Niccolò Tommaseo]] are generally considered three great literary precursors of [[Italian nationalism]], but the most famous proto-nationalist work was [[Alessandro Manzoni]]'s [[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|''I promessi sposi'' ''(The Betrothed)'']], widely read as thinly veiled allegorical criticism of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of ''I Promessi Sposi'' used a standardized version of the [[Languages of Italy|Tuscan dialect]], a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Henry |first1=Jean |date=1978 |title=Antonio Canova and the Tomb to Vittorio |id={{ProQuest|302938866}} |oclc=7413922 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

Three ideals of unification appeared. [[Vincenzo Gioberti]], a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the pope in his 1842 book ''Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Romani |first1=Roberto |title=Liberal Theocracy in the Italian Risorgimento |journal=European History Quarterly |date=October 2014 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=620–650 |doi=10.1177/0265691414546601 }}</ref> [[Pope Pius IX]] at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hales |first1=Edward Elton Young |title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century |date=1954 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |oclc=1024605117 }}{{pn|date=April 2025}}</ref>

[[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Carlo Cattaneo]] wanted the unification of Italy under a [[federal republic]], which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by [[Cesare Balbo]] (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Isabella |first1=Maurizio |title=Aristocratic Liberalism and Risorgimento: Cesare Balbo and Piedmontese Political Thought after 1848 |journal=History of European Ideas |date=November 2013 |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=835–857 |doi=10.1080/01916599.2012.762621 }}</ref>