ABSTRACT
In the decade 1849–1859, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the only state in Italy with a constitution and elected parliamentary representation, strengthened its institutions along liberal lines and promoted political confrontation. Contributions were made by the many political exiles from other Italian states who lived there. The Kingdom of Sardinia was also very active at a diplomatic level: above all, it won the esteem of the United Kingdom and effected a military alliance with the France of Napoleon III. The ambition behind this alliance was to begin a new conflict with Austria in order to take control of northern Italy.
The non-constitutional states were faced with a situation that they had never had to deal with before, with the growing dissemination of political dissent. Moderate liberal ideologies were, in fact, spreading through important sectors of the bourgeoisie and the local aristocracies.
The chapter also focuses on the evolution and articulation of democratically inspired dissent, which had created a vast conspiratorial network throughout the peninsula. The main figure behind these developments was Giuseppe Mazzini who, although an exile in London, was able to influence and organize the clandestine movement, the goal of which was to trigger a revolution that would establish a united republic in Italy.
