The specific dates and years of Italian Unification (Italian: il Risorgimento, or "The Resurgence", when agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century,) is uncertain because it was accomplished in increments over a decade, (1859-1871), but has been agreed to be celebrated on the Italian Republic Day, which celebrates The establishment of the Republic of Italy after WWII, in 1946, a 65 th anniversary 

But there many attempts to Unify Italy, The First attempt at the Unification of Italy was attempted by Napoleon and failed with his fall and the Congress of Vienna of 1815 that repartioned Italy. 

Thereafter, one of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari (coal-burners), a secret organization formed in Southern Italy in 1814. Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, its members were mainly drawn from the middle class and intellectuals. and were active in most of the uprisings until Unification 

In 1820, a Regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, commanded by Guglielmo Pepe, a Carbonaro, mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies, but was later defeated by the greater forces of Ferdinand of Austria and the Holy Alliance. 

In 1823, the Piedmont insurrection led by  Santorre di Santarosa, wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under the House of Savoy. The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria, where troops adopted the green, white and red tricolore  of the Cisalpine Republic. and demanded a new constitution , but the king requested assistance from the Holy Alliance, and  Di Santarosa's troops were defeated,

By 1830, a Series of Insurrections with revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula.The Duke of Modena, Francis IV,  encouraged then doublrcrossed an uprising. At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal Legations of Bologna, Forl?. Ravenna, Imola, Ferrara, Pesaro and Urbino. These successful revolutions, which adopted the tricolore .in favour of the Papal flag, quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed the creation of a united Italian nation.These  revolts inspired similar activity in the Duchy of Parma, where the tricolore .flag was adopted.  Pope Gregory XVI asked for Austrian help against the Province Italiane unite  (United Italian Provinces),and in the spring of 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had gained it's freedom. 

Revolutions of 1848-1849 began on January 5 with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy, revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples against King Ferdinand, In February 1848 there were revolts in Tuscany  On 21 February, Pope Pius IX granted a constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On February 23, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris, and a republic was proclaimed. four  states of Italy had constitutions. Meanwhile in Lombardy the Milanese and Venetians rose up in revolt on 18 March 1848. Soon, Charles Albert  the King of Sardinia (whose kingdom was actually centered around Piedmont and Savoy), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided that this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria. After initial successes at Goito and Peschiera, he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Custoza on July 24, by Radetzky. An armistice was quickly agreed to, and Radetzky was able to regain control of all of Lombardy-Venetia save Venice itself, where a republic was proclaimed under Daniele Manin.

While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy-Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters began to take a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had so reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March began to come into conflict with their constitutional ministers, often leading to outright conflict. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX. Pius IX had been initially seen as something of a reformer, but conflicts with the revolutionaries led him to sour on the idea of constitutional government. In November 1848, Pius IX fled Rome. Subsequently, Garibaldi and other patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a Roman Republic on February 9.1849, Before the powers had a chance to respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained in the meanwhile by the exiled Polish general Albert Chrzanowski determined to renew the war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on March 23, 1849. This time the defeat was final. Charles Albert himself abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, and all Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment at least, brought to an end.  A popular revolt broke out in Brescia in the very day of the Novara defeat, but was fiercely suppressed by the Austrians ten days later.The remaining Roman and Venetian Republics were soon defeated.

War of 1859, the Second Italian War of Independence  Although Charles Albert had been crushingly defeated in his bid to drive the Austrians from Italy, the Piedmontese did not abandon all hope  Camillo di Cavour, president of the Council of Ministers in 1852,  Cavour hoped to secure aid from Britain and France in expelling the Austrians from the Italian peninsula. An attempt to gain British and French favour by supporting them in the Crimean War,  which Piedmont entered in 1855, was unsuccessful, as Italian matters were ignored at the Congress of Paris.

AN ASSASINATION ATTEMPT and APPEAL CHANGE HISTORY !!!!!!!  On January 14, 1858, an Italian nationalist Felice Orsini attempted to assassinate Napoleon III, the French Emperor. Writing from his prison cell, Orsini did not plea for his life, accepting death for his role in the failed assassination attempt, but rather appealed to Napoleon III to fulfill his destiny by aiding the forces of Italian nationalism. Napoleon, who had belonged to the Carbonari in his youth, and who saw himself as an advanced thinker, in tune with the ideas of the day, became convinced that it was his destiny to do something for Italy. In the summer of 1858, Cavour met with Napoleon III at Plombi?res and the two signed a secret agreement, which was known as the Patto di Plombi?res ("Pact of Plombi?res").Cavour and Napoleon III agreed to a joint war against Austria. Piedmont would gain the Austrian territories in Italy (Lombardy and Venetia), as well as the Duchies of Parma and Modena, while France would be rewarded with Piedmont's transalpine territories of Savoy and Nice. Central and Southern Italy, being largely under-developed and of little interest to the wealthier north, would remain largely as it was,

The Mille  expedition:   Expedition of the Thousand -1860

Thus, by the spring of 1860, only four states remained in Italy - the Austrians in Venetia, the Papal States (now minus the Legations), the new expanded Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There is no special reason to think that Cavour now envisaged the unification of the rest of Italy under Piedmontese rule since these areas were of little interest economically and could be a financial burden, but events proved to have a life of their own. 

 In April 1860, separate insurrections began in Messina and Palermo in Sicily, both of which demonstrated a history of opposing Neapolitan rule. These rebellions were easily suppressed by Neopolitan troops who totaled 150,000. 

Garibaldi, was persuaded by Cavour to concentrate on the Sicilian rebellions, instead of recovering his home territory of Nice.  On May 6, 1860, Garibaldi and his cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (called I Mille ), steamed from Genoa, landed near Marsala on the west coast of Sicily.

Near Salemi, Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of rebels, and the combined forces defeated the opposing army at Calatafimi on May 13. Within three days, the invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. After waging various successful but hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon the Sicilian capital of Palermo, Neapolitan general Ferdinando Lanza, arrived in Sicily with some 25,000 troops, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. But  the Neapolitan troops requested a Truce, with departure and surrender of the town to Garibaldi and his much smaller army.

Six weeks after the surrender of Palermo, Garibaldi attacked Messina. Within a week its citadel surrendered. Having conquered Sicily, Garibaldi proceeded to the mainland, crossing the Straits of Messina with the Neapolitan fleet at hand. The garrison at Reggio Calabria promptly surrendered. Progressing northward, the populace everywhere hailed him and military resistance faded: the people of Basilicata and Puglia, two regions of the Kingdom of Naples declared their independence. At the end of August Garibaldi was at Cosenza, and on September 5 at Eboli, near Salerno. Meanwhile, Naples on September 6 surrendering.Garibaldi's fame spread and many Italians began to consider him a national hero. Though Garibaldi had easily taken the capital, the Neapolitan army had not joined the rebellion en masse, holding firm along the Volturno River. Garibaldi's irregular bands of about 25,000 men could not drive away the King of Naples or take the fortresses of Capua and Gaeta until reinforcements arrived in the form of the Sardinian army.

In 1860, with much of the region already in rebellion against Papal rule, Sardinia conquered the eastern two-thirds of the Papal States and cemented its hold on the south. Bologna, Ferrara, Umbria, the Marches, Benevento and Pontecorvo were all formally annexed by November of the same year, and a unified Kingdom of Italy was declared.

The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the brink of fruition - Only Rome/Latium and Venetia remained to be added.

Third Italian War of Independence -1866

In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria contested with Prussia the position of leadership among the German states. The Kingdom of Italy seized the opportunity to capture Venetia from Austrian rule and allied itself with Prussia. 

The Papal States were reduced to Latium, the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, which was declared Capital of Italy in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament met in the kingdom's old capital Turin in Piemonte. However, the Italian Government could not take possession of its capital because Napoleon III kept a French garrison in Rome protecting Pope Pius IX. The opportunity to eliminate the Papal States came when the Franco-Prussian War began in July 1870. Emperor Napoleon III had to recall his garrison from Rome. Following the collapse of the Second French Empire at the battle of Sedan, widespread public demonstrations demanded that the Italian Government take Rome. King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count Gustavo Ponza di San Martino to Pius IX with a personal letter offering a face-saving proposal that would have allowed the peaceful entry of the Italian Army into Rome, under the guise of offering protection to the pope.

Italy's War on the Papal States - 1870
On September 10, 1870, Italy declared war on the Papal States, and the Italian Army, , crossed the frontier of the then remaining papal territory on 11 September and advanced slowly toward Rome. The Italian Army placed Rome under a state of siege. Although the pope's tiny army was incapable of defending the city, Pius IX ordered it to put up at least a token resistance to emphasize that Italy was acquiring Rome by force and not consent. The city was captured on September 20, 1870. Rome and Latium were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy as a result of a plebiscite the following October 1871..

FINALLY, A  Truce  Between Italy and The Vatican to Compensate for the Loss of  the Papal States to Italy.-1929

The Lateran Treaty is one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, three agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, ratified June 7, 1929, ending the "Roman Question." All succeeding Italian governments have all upheld the treaty.

The pacts consisted of three documents:

A political treaty recognising the full sovereignty of the Holy See in the State of Vatican City, which was thereby established. 
A concordat regulating the position of the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion in the Italian state. 
A financial convention agreed on as a definitive settlement of the claims of the Holy See following the losses of its territories and property. 

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States
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United States President Barack Obama is among the heads of state who will be invited to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification in June, Cabinet Secretary Gianni Letta said Thursday. 

The heads of state of the 27 European Union countries will also be invited to one of the leading events in this year's anniversary celebrations on June 2, Italy's Republic Day national holiday. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the heads of other nations with deeply rooted Italian communities will be asked to come too, including Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. 

This means Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will not be snubbed despite diplomatic tensions between the countries over her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's refusal to extradite former Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti. 

Italy is appealing against the decision Lula made on his last day in office last month to Brazil's supreme court. 

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has also threatened to take the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if Battisti, a former member of a militant leftist group convicted of four murders committed in the 1970s, is not handed over. 

Letta said the leaders will be invited to the military parade held every year on Italian Republic Day on the street running next to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in the capital. 

He also hinted that another big day for the anniversary celebrations, March 17, the day celebrating Italy's tricolor flag, will be a national holiday, this year only. 

''I don't think people will go to school or work on March 17,'' Letta said. 

The committee for the anniversary celebrations said Italian President Giorgio Napolitano will go the Pantheon on that day to pay homage to Italy's first king, Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the driving forces of the 'Risorgimento' unification movement. 

His tomb lies in the ancient Roman monument that is now a church along with that of his successor Umberto I and Umberto's queen, Margherita. 

The committee said this should not be interpreted as a sign that a request by the deposed Savoy family for the tombs of the last two Italian kings, Vittorio Emanuele III and Umberto II, to be moved there too will be granted. 

The Savoy family were banished from Italy after it became a republic in 1946 following World War II before being allowed back in 2002. 

Italy is also feting its 150th year with a plethora of initiatives, restoring memorials, building new national museums for key historic figures in unification Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, and staging exhibits and conventions in Italy and abroad. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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