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Napoleon Bonaparte died on the Island of St. Helena.

Garibaldi liberated Naples and Sicily from the rule of Bourbons.

After his defeat in the Waterloo battle, Napoleon was exiled, to St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean on May 5^th 1821.

The combined armies of Prussia and Austria attacked Denmark in 1864.

Bismarck said that ‘The great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority decisions but by ‘iron and blood’. This became popular as the ‘Blood and Iron’ policy of Bismarck.

The unification of Italy is only possible by the sword.

Napoleon after escaping from the Island of Elba occupied the throne of France and ruled from March to June in 1815 for a period of about a hundred days. This episode is called ‘The Hundred Days’.

He did not want to accept the crown offered by the elected representatives instead of their Kings. He was also afraid of the military intervention of Austria and Russia and hence rejected the offer.

Otto von Bismark- ‘Blood and Iron’ policy.

General Roon and General Moltke assisted Bismarck in the reorganization of the Prussian military.

Napoleon established the Bank of France.

In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself as the Emperor of France.

Victor Emmanuel II was the first King of United Italy.

Victor Emmanuel-II was the King of Piedmont and Sardinia.

The war with Austria took place in 1866. It ended with the treaty of Prague.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in the Island of Corsica on August 15^th,1769. His parents were Count’Charles Bonaparte and Countess Leticia Romalina. During his childhood, he cultivated selfconfidence, an ability to work hard and immense ambition. After his education, he joined the Military Academy in Paris and graduated.

Because of his keen interest in Military Science and ability, he rose up in the ranks fast and proved his talent by suppressing two rebellions against the French Government.

In 1796, the Directory Government appointed Napoleon as the commander of the French Army in Italy. His Italian campaign was a great success. He defeated the Sardinians and then the Austrians. By the Treaty of ‘Campo-Formio’ in 1797, he gained immense success for France.

Napoleon started re-drawing the map of Europe though his conquests. Arbitrary Governments were imposed on Italy and Belgium. His Egyptian campaign was aimed at striking the British “. Imperialism. In the ‘Battle of the Pyramids’ Napoleon could score a victory over England. But in the Naval Battle of the Nile or ‘Aboukir Bay’, he was defeated by Admiral Nelson. Napoleon overthrew the Directory Government and became the First Consul of the three-member Consulate government and later took over absolute control and declared himself as the Emperor.

Joseph Mazzini (1805-1872): Mazzini was one of the architects of Italian unification. He was the prophet of the unification movement. He was born in Genoa in 1805. He was the son of a Professor of Anatomy. He was influenced by nationalist ideas from his boyhood days. The misery of his country had left a deep impression on his mind and as a symbol of mourning he used to dress himself in black. He joined the Carbonari. He had studied law and was greatly influenced by the writings of Dante, Milton, Scott and others. Count Cavour’s Risorgimento was a source of great inspiration to him. His ambition was to drive out the Austrians from the Italian soil.

He founded the organization called ‘Young Italy’ in 1813. The main intention of his organization was to train the Italians and make them aware of their great past. It stood for unity and independence and wanted liberty, equality and humanity. He was basically a democrat and he spread the ideas of unity and independence through his personal, abilities without any external help. He was a staunch believer in “Pen is mightier than sword”. He laid a strong foundation for Italian unification. His efforts created a new spark of nationalism throughout the country.

After the Revolution, France became a Republic in 1792. The National convention gave all executive authorities to the ‘Committee of Public Safety’, which let loose a reign of terror internally. It came to an end with the guillotining of Robespierre, the head of the Committee. The Directory government was formed in 1795, which was overthrown by Napoleon in 1799. The revolution had resulted in a series of only temporary solutions in the Governance of France and had paved the way for Napoleon to take over control. The principles of the revolution were given life with his reforms. So, Napoleon was in a way the offshoot or ‘The Child of Revolution’.

The underlying principles of the French Revolution as per J.J. Rousseau were ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’. Montesquieu advocated the ‘Theory of Separation of Powers’ as per which, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary should function independently to safeguard the liberty, of the people. Napoleon being overambitious wanted to rule over the World. His military campaigns, the continuous war with England, the disastrous invasion of Moscow, his absolute control of power over legislative, executive and Judiciary systems were all against the principles on which the French Revolution was set up. He undermined them and so rightfully called the ‘Destroyer’.

The war with Denmark took place in 1864 and it ended with the treaty of Vienna.

he third stage of Italian Unification was achieved by the great patriot, Garibaldi. He was born in 1807 at Nice. He became a member of ‘Young Italy’ at the age of 24 and took part in the revolutionary activities. He was the most romantic figure of the Italian unification movement. He was a great disciple of Mazzini. His parents wanted him to join the Church, but he joined seafarers and spent many years at sea. He believed in “The Unification of Italy is possible only by the Sword”. He was a revolutionary and was exiled to South America for taking part in plots and insurrections. While in exile, Garibaldi learned the art of guerrilla warfare.

He participated in the revolt organized by Mazzini at Savoy in 1834. But the revolt failed. Because of his nationalistic activities he was given death sentence. He managed to escape to South America and lived in exile for 14 years. He had a large number of followers who were ready for any sacrifice for the sake of their country.

They were transformed into an army called the ‘Red Shirts’. During the 1848 revolution, he returned to Italy and took part in the Italian Nationalist Movement. During the war between Sardinia and Austria, he commanded the Sardinian forces.

In 1860, the people of Sicily sought his help against the Bourbons. Immediately he went with his army of Red Shirts and within two months, Francis II was defeated and Sicily was annexed. Then he went to Naples and defeated Francis II there also. He wanted to proceed to Rome but Cavour did not like his move and prevailed upon Victor Emmanuel II to prevent him from doing so.

So an army of Victor Emmanuel II was sent to Rome and Garibaldi, whose main aim was the Unification of Italy, handed over Naples and Sicily to Victor Emmanuel II. Garibaldi is called the ‘Sword of Italian Unification’. A true patriot, he refused to accept titles and honours which were offered to him, went back to his village and lived the life of a peasant.

Count de Cavour was born in 1810 at Piedmont, and received military education. He served in military for some time. He had studied history and culture of Italy and had developed a patriotic spirit. He advocated the English Constitutional System. In 1847, he started a newspaper called ‘Risorgimento’ (Rebirth). As the editor of the paper, he mobilized public opinion to unite Italy.

His political career began when he was elected to the Parliament of Piedmont in 1850. He was appointed as the Prime Minister in 1852 by Victor Emmanuel II. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 to 1861. He had the dream of uniting Italy under the leadership of Sardinia. But before taking up that task, he undertook many reforms to make Sardinia strong. Economy was reformed. Commercial taxes were reduced. He encouraged education and industries. He thus developed the State and it became a ‘Model State’.

He relieved in the policy of war and diplomacy to unite Italy. Cavour believed that Italian Unification could be achieved only with the help of other European countries. Hence, he took part in the Crimean war. This war, fought between England and France 1854-1856, on the side of Turkey against Russia had no reason for Cavour to take part. But with a foresight to create an image about his State before England and France, he made this move. He remarked. ‘Out of the mud of Crimea, Italy will be made’. After the war, in the Paris Peace Congress, he put forth the problems of Italy before the leaders.

Napoleon III, the ruler of France was very sympathetic to the cause of Italian Unification. Cavour signed an agreement with Napoleon III at Plombieres in 1858. Napoleon promised to help Cavour against Austria in return for Which Cavour had to give Savoy and Nice. Cavour built his army. Austria was suspicious of the meeting between Cavour and Napoleon and the militarization of Sardinia and ordered Sardinia to disarm. When Sardinia refused, the war began in 1859. This war lasted for two months. The Austrians were defeated at Magenta and Salfereno. But Napoleon stopped the war without giving a clue to Sardinia, concluded the treaty of ‘Villa Franca’ with Austria.

According to this treaty, Austrian troops were evacuated from Lombardy and it was ceded to Victor Emmanuel II. Thus, the first stage of unification was set in. Napoleon received Nice and Savoy. The abrupt end of the war disappointed Cavour. He forced King Victor Emmanuel II not to accept the treaty of Villa Franca. But when Victor Emmanuel refused, he resigned. But soon he was re-elected and took over as the Prime Minister.

In 1860 Modena, Parma, Tuscany, Romagna, Umbria and Marches voted to merge with Sardinia. This led to the second step in the unification. Considered ‘the Brain of Italian Unification’ he died in 1861. He died almost a decade before the Unification of Italy. His last words were “Italy is made, all is safe’. It was indeed an optimistic quote.

Causes for the downfall of Napoleon are manifold. Mainly they were as given below.

1. Though he was a genius, his inordinate ambition, pride and self centred nature ruined him in the end.

2. Napoleonic Empire depended only on his military strength. His army consisted of soldiers belonging to different nationalities who did not have any attachment to the Empire.

3. The rise of nationalism against the Napoleonic Empire was another factor that led to his fall. This spirit of nationalism which initially worked well in Spain, later on, spread to other countries like Austria, Prussia, and Russia, leading to the War of Liberation.

4. The Continental System was one of the great blunders committed by Napoleon. Due to the heavy losses, the European countries came out of the system.

5. The Russian expedition was ill-fated and the grand army of Napoleon was reduced to pieces due to the bad weather. The opportunity was immediately seized by his enemies who formed the fourth coalition to bring about his downfall.

6. The ill-treatment of the Pope by Napoleon antagonized the. Roman Catholics throughout Europe. In 1809, he had seized the Papal territories and transferred the seat of Papacy to Paris as the Pope had refused to observe the continental system.

7. The continued opposition of England, its undisputed supremacy on the sea and the ability of its commanders like Vice-Admiral Nelson and General Wellesley also contributed much towards the destruction of Napoleonic Empire. The fact was that his navy was very weak.

Treaty of Villa Franca in 1859 was concluded after the war between Austria and Sardinia.