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ITALY UNDER NAPOLEON
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History of Italy)
At the
End of 18th Century
The Italian political and territorial picture, which at the
end of the 18C seemed to have stabilised, rapidly disintegrated
in the face of Napoleon Bonaparte's first military campaign
across the peninsula so as to successfully attack the Austrian
Empire on its southern flank. After the Peace of Paris (16 May
1796) reached with the neighbouring kingdom of Savoy, that of
Campoformio (17 October 1797) marked the end of the now enfeebled
Republic of Venice. The latter was exchanged with Austria for
the Duchy of Milan, which went to form the Repubblica Transpadana
(November 1796).
With Napoleon's entry into Italy there came also the new ideas
of liberty diffused from the French Revolution and these had
an immediate effect. After the French occupation of the territory
of the Papal Legations in 1796, in August of the same year the
ducal government of Reggio (Emilia) was overthrown and in the
following December the Repubblica Cispadana was proclaimed.
This latter included the rest of Emilia and adopted for the
first time a flag with the present-day white, red and green
colours. On 29 June 1797 the two republics were joined in the
new Repubblica Cisalpina and towards the end of the year
the Repubblica Ligure was formed. At the beginning of 1798 the
rest of the Papal States were occupied and turned into the Repubblica
Romana, while the pope had to seek refuge in Tuscany. The next
year (in January 1799) it was the turn of Naples, where a group
of intellectuals and aristocrats formed the Repubblica Partenopea,
while King Ferdinando IV had to flee to Sicily. A republican
government was then also established in Tuscany.
But the dream of liberty seemed of brief duration. The absence
of Napoleon, on the Egyptian Campaign (1798-99), favoured a
coalition of the great European States allied with the Russian
czar and the English monarchy. As quickly as it had arrived
the French army was forced to withdraw from the peninsula leaving
the way open to the restoration that was to be particularly
violent at Naples (June 1799).
The Second Italian Campaign began with the resounding victory
of Marengo (14 June 1800) and ended with the Peace of Luneville
(9 February 1801) whereby France regained control over Italy.
The republican ideals having been replaced by Napoleon's dynastic
aspirations, the Repubblica Italiana, direct heir of
the Cisalpina with the addition of the Venetian domain, was
established on 28 December 1805 and then transformed into the
Kingdom of Italy on 31 March 1805. The pope's authority
over part of his territories was re-established; the Grand Duchy
of Tuscany was transformed into the Kingdom of Etruria; the
territories of Piombino, Lucca, Massa and Carrara were assigned
as a duchy to Napoleon's sister Eloise; the Kingdom of Naples
was given (30 March 1806) his brother Joseph; and only Sardinia
and Sicily remained for the Savoys and Bourbons.
Successive events further reinforced Napoleon's control of Italy.
His brother-in-law Murat ascended the throne of Naples; the
Kingdom of Italy was expanded with the Trentino and Alto Adige
(the latter fiercely defended by Andreas Hofer); and Tuscany
and the Papal States were incorporated in the new French
Empire (Peace of Sch?brunn, 14 October 1810). But after
a brief interlude, the failure of Napoleon's Russian Campaign
and his defeats at Leipzig (1813) and Waterloo (1815), as well
as Murat's tragic end (October 1815), brought back to Italy
the restoration of the old political and territorial order under
the terms of the Congress of Vienna (June 1815).
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