We follow the convulsions of Italian society -- foreign invasion, popular revolution, peasant revolt, liberal reform, Romantic pageantry, diplomatic dirty dealings, and patriotic war -- through which the residents of a fragmented, poor, and backwards section of Europe overthrew the puppet regimes of foreign rulers and challenged the internal power of the Church, to seize control of their own destiny and create a new nation-state that would take its place among the major powers of the world.
Image: "The First Italian Flag Taken to Firenze," by F.S. Altamura, 1859.
Suggested further reading: Lucy Riall, "Risorgimento"; John A. David, ed., "Italy in the Nineteenth Century."
Musical passage: "Va, Pensiero" from Nabuco, Lyrics by Temistocle Solera, music by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra
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Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong