ABSTRACT
The origins of Italy’s Risorgimento are usually placed in the panEuropean crisis of the ‘old order’ which took place at the end of the eighteenth century. Within the city and regional states of the Italian peninsula, this crisis was associated with conflicts over reform. In particular, the efforts made by Italian rulers to build up more centralised and efficient bureaucracies ran into financial and political difficulties. Attempts to raise revenue through increased taxation were also unpopular and often unsuccessful, while both the Church and the nobility resented the attack on their special privileges and their position in the political hierarchy.
