The Process Of Unification Occurred Over A 100 Year Period

The process of unification occurred over a 100 year period, and was spurred on by a number of individuals, both Italians such as Cavour and Crispi and foreigners such as napoleon the III. There were, however, different stages of unification throughout the entire process. The actions of each key individual must be assessed within each stage they influenced and how their actions affected unification in a positive or negative way. The first stage of unification was 1800 to 1815, where Napoleon I was the primary mover. He made a huge number of changes such as changing ruling dynasties , simplifying trade boundaries, and most importantly, establishing his ‘Code Napoleon’ as law. Mack Smith argues that these reforms made Italy change†¦show more content†¦It can therefore be concluded that the advancements Napoleon made were only short term and he intended to just create a satellite of France, and giving the Italians too much of a unification spirit would have made them too strong. However, he did have a long-term political significance; he for political unity and inadvertently encouraged the Italians’ dislike of foreigners through his enforced conscription policies, which encouraged a sense of nationalism for the first time. The next stage was 1815 to 1849, involving primarily the Austrian Chancellor Prince Clemens von Metternich and the Italian political idealist Giuseppe Mazzini. They had an almost symbiotic relationship, ether justifying the others existence. This is argued by Sarti who implies Mazzini and Metternich helped unification through their hatred of each other; Mazzini served as the ideologist and Metternich the oppressor, each justified the other’s involvement in italy. Berkley says that there was â€Å"truth in Metternich’s thousand-times reiterated assertion that he was defending law and order† because if Mazzini’s revolutions had been successful, â€Å"there would have been bloodshed and utter anarchy † . It is certainly