Event

Italian unification

1861 · 19th century · Also known as Risorgimento

Italian unification, or the Risorgimento, was the political process that united the states of the Italian peninsula into a single kingdom, proclaimed in 1861. Leading figures included Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II. The new kingdom's ambitions for great-power status led to the foundation of the Italian Empire.

Italian unification
Image: Baldassare Verazzi (1819-1886) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 6 profiles

Italian EmpireFoundationPapal StatesImpact, DeclineKingdom of SardiniaImpact, SummaryDuchy of SavoyDecline, SummaryDuchy of Parma and PiacenzaSummaryKingdom of ItalyFoundation

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Kingdom of SardiniaCounty of Nice

Great speeches

Garibaldi Leaves Rome2 July 1849

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Italian unification. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/italian-unification
MLA
“Italian unification.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/italian-unification. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Italian unification.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/italian-unification.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Italian unification’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/italian-unification (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻