ABSTRACT
Annual conscription was an entirely new experience for most Italians. In the pre-Revolutionary period, Piedmont was the only Italian state to have an effective army and a regular recruitment system. Uprisings against conscription in the Republic-Kingdom were dangerous but were quickly quelled. Much more common and persistent methods of resistance to conscription were draft dodging and desertion. It is no wonder, then, that as in France and other Napoleonic states conscription met with widespread opposition in the Italian Republic-Kingdom, where thousands of conscripts dodged the draft, deserted, and revolted, often with support from their relatives and communities. The chapter explores the confrontation between state and society over conscription in the Republic-Kingdom of Italy. It examines the conscription law, its implementation, the methods employed by conscripts to evade the service, the government's steps to repress that opposition, and the effectiveness of that policy.
