DiscoverRelevant HistoryEpisode 66 - The Unification of Italy
Episode 66 - The Unification of Italy

Episode 66 - The Unification of Italy

Update: 2025-05-03
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In part three of his series on the unifications of Germany and Italy, Dan talks about the turbulent 1850s and early 60s. In Germany, this is a time of mass industrialization. With the regional economy growing at a record pace, Prussia and Austria engage in saber-rattling diplomacy over the future of the German Confederation.


 


Meanwhile, the new King of Piedmont-Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, aims to do what his father could not: conquer all of Italy. Taking advantage of Austrian weakness – and a burgeoning alliance with France – he and three other men will engineer a revolution that unites the Apennine Peninsula for the first time since the Roman Empire.


 


TABLE OF CONTENTS:


Chapter One: The German Question – 00:04:22


Chapter Two: The Erfurt Union – 00:30:15


Chapter Three: The (Austrian) Empire Strikes Back – 00:42:24


Chapter Four: Enter Bismarck – 01:03:59


Chapter Five: Goodbye, Friedrich Wilhelm – 01:32:59


Chapter Six: Repression in Lombardy – 01:41:19


Chapter Seven: Enter Camillo Cavour – 01:51:20


Chapter Eight: Enter Victor Emmanuel – 02:04:32


Chapter Nine: The Crimean War – 02:17:48


Chapter Ten: Engineering a Revolution – 02:39:34


Chapter Eleven: The War for Northern Italy – 03:05:02


Chapter Twelve: The Expedition of the Thousand – 03:34:34


Chapter Thirteen: The Dictator of Sicily – 04:14:24


Chapter Fourteen: The Conquest of Southern Italy – 04:28:49


Chapter Fifteen: The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy – 04:51:04


Chapter Sixteen: Rome and the Risorgimento – 05:13:43


 


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Episode transcript (90% accurate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTILtf6-xAur_LTmOc_UJ7iH-H3L0l_O_jUjd2CwhN9q3CWJV6zM2UCbss4HP1saanj2jSurstKqKX0/pub/


Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan


 


SOURCES:


Derek Beales and Eugenio F. Biagini, The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy


David Blackbourn, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany 1780-1918 https://www.scribd.com/document/261666797/Long-Nineteenth-Century-History-of-Germany-1780-1918-the-David-Blackbourn


Carlo Bossoli, The War in Italy


Tim Chapman, The Risorgimento: Italy 1815-71https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B003SNK19G&ref_=dbs_t_r_kcr


Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945


Erich Eyck, Bismarck and the German Empire


Charles Stuart Forbes, The Campaign of Garibaldi in the Two Sicilies: A Personal Narrative


Giuseppe Garibaldi, Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi


-Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofg0001gari/page/n3/mode/2up


-Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofg0002gari/page/n3/mode/2up 


-Supplement by Jesse White Mario: https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofg0003gari/page/4/mode/2up


E.E.Y. Hales, Pio Nono: A Masterful Study of Pius IX and His Role in Nineteenth-Century European Politics and Religion


Denis Mack Smith, Cavour, a Biography


Denis Mack Smith, Cavour and Garibaldi, 1860: A Study in Political Conflict


Denis Mack Smith, The Making of Italy, 1796-1870https://archive.org/details/makingofitaly1790000mack/page/n3/mode/2up


Denis Mack Smith, Mazzini


Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy, A Political History


Denis Mack Smith, Victor Emanuel, Cavour, and the Risorgimento


Giuseppe Mazzini, Address to Pope Pius IX, On His Encyclical Letter https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=YURTAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PP4&hl=en


Damian McElrath, The Syllabus of Pius IX: Some Reactions in England


The New York Times, The Attempted Assassination of the Emperor of the French - https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1858/02/09/78528596.pdf


Robin Okey, The Habsburg Monarchy: From Enlightenment to Eclipsehttps://archive.org/details/habsburgmonarchy0000okey/page/n5/mode/2up


Jürgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World, A Global History of the Nineteenth Centuryhttps://www.everand.com/read/261688401/The-Transformation-of-the-World-A-Global-History-of-the-Nineteenth-Century


Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Josephhttps://archive.org/details/twilightofhabsbu0000palm


Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus of Errors: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9syll.htm


Trevor Royle, Crimea, The Great Crimean War 1854-1856


Frederick C. Schneid, The Second War of Italian Unification 1859-61


James J. Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)


Jonathan Steinberg, Bismarck: A Life

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Episode 66 - The Unification of Italy

Episode 66 - The Unification of Italy

Dan Toler