The Italian Risorgimento and Southeast Europe (1848-1870)

Italy’ interest in the Balkans rose in the wake of the revolutionary year of 1848, due to the plans of the great Italian political thinker Giuseppe Mazzini. His ideas on the common fight of the Italians, Polish émigrés gathered around Prince Adam Czartorisky, and the nations of the Balkans and Southern Europe, against the Habsburg Monarchy, even though they remained unheeded, set a pattern for the following period. The leadership of the Risorgimento in the next decade passed into the hands of Count Cavour, who approached it from the standing point of European diplomacy. He was able to obtain the French support that led to the success in the battles in Lombardy and the Italian unification. Cavour’s thoughts on the Balkans were limited as he saw to region as a possible compensation for the Habsburg possessions in Italy. Another hero of the Risorgimento, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was seen as a possible liberator of the Balkans, following the example of his expedition of the Thousand in Sicily. However, Garibaldi’s red coats never came to the Balkans, and Italy’s involvement was limited to few and far between diplomatic initiatives. Cultural and religious ties were more frequent and more important.