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Use this guide if your course is Pearson Edexcel A level History, Paper 2, option 2D.1: The unification of Italy, c1830-70. Do not use it for Edexcel 2D.2 on German unification or for another board’s Italian course: the dates, required detail and questions differ.

Paper 2 lasts 1 hour 30 minutes and is worth 40 marks, or 20 percent of the A level. Section A gives you two sources and asks one compulsory 20-mark question. Section B asks you to choose one of two 20-mark essays.

Your starting picture

In 1830 there was no single Italian state. The peninsula contained several states with different rulers, laws and interests. Austria directly ruled Lombardy-Venetia and influenced other governments. The Pope governed the Papal States across central Italy. Piedmont-Sardinia in the north-west was ruled by the House of Savoy, while the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies controlled the south.

The story is therefore not simply that Italians wanted unity and eventually achieved it. Different people meant different things by Italy. Mazzini wanted a united republic created through popular national revolution. Gioberti imagined a federation under papal leadership. Piedmontese leaders increasingly pursued expansion under a constitutional monarchy. Foreign rulers and armies repeatedly decided what Italian nationalists could achieve.

Keep one enquiry in mind: Was Italy made by nationalism, by Piedmont, by war and diplomacy, or by a combination of all four?

Vocabulary bridge

• Risorgimento: the cultural and political movement associated with Italian national revival.
• Nationalism: the belief that people sharing an identity should form or govern their own nation.
• Liberalism: support for constitutional government, civil rights and limits on arbitrary rule.
• Republic: a state without a monarch.
• Plebiscite: a direct popular vote on a political question.
• Piedmontisation: extending Piedmontese laws and institutions across the new Kingdom of Italy.
• Irredenta: territories regarded by nationalists as Italian but remaining outside the kingdom.

1. Challenge and failed revolution, c1830-49

The Italian peninsula’s political divisions made coordinated change difficult. Revolts in 1830-32 challenged conservative governments but remained local and were defeated. Secret societies such as the Carbonari showed that opposition existed, yet secrecy, weak coordination and narrow support limited their power.

Mazzini tried to turn scattered conspiracy into a national mission. Young Italy promoted a united republican nation and encouraged popular action. His importance lay partly in keeping the idea of national unity alive, but his attempted risings failed. Other programmes competed with his. Balbo looked towards Piedmontese leadership; Gioberti proposed a federation headed by the Pope. Early nationalism was therefore energetic but divided over leadership, territory and the form of the future state.

Pope Pius IX’s early reforms after 1846 encouraged hopes that the Papacy might support national change. Economic hardship, liberal demands and events elsewhere in Europe helped produce revolutions across the Italian states in 1848. Charles Albert of Piedmont went to war against Austria, while revolutionaries established a Roman Republic.

The revolutions failed because their opponents possessed stronger armies and because the revolutionaries lacked unity. Austria recovered and defeated Piedmont. France restored papal government in Rome. Republicans, liberals and monarchists pursued incompatible aims, while popular involvement varied sharply. The First Italian War of Independence exposed Piedmont’s military weakness.

Yet 1848-49 mattered. Piedmont retained the Statuto, its constitutional charter, while conservative rule returned elsewhere. Nationalists increasingly saw Piedmont as the state capable of acting when popular revolution could not.

Pause and check

1. Why did competing nationalist programmes weaken the revolutions?
2. Why did the survival of the Statuto matter after 1849?

Strong answers should connect political division with military intervention, then explain why Piedmont emerged with a distinctive constitutional position.

2. The rise of Piedmont, 1849-56

Victor Emmanuel II became king after the defeat of 1849 and kept the Statuto. This did not make Piedmont a democracy, but it distinguished the kingdom from restored conservative regimes. Cavour became prime minister in 1852. Through the connubio, an alliance of moderate parliamentary groups, he built a stable centre and isolated political extremes.

Cavour’s policies strengthened Piedmont rather than following Mazzini’s model of national revolution. Anticlerical measures reduced some Church privileges. Trade agreements, railways, industrial growth and state investment made Piedmont more credible economically and strategically. These changes did not themselves unite Italy, but they gave Piedmont greater resources and standing.

Diplomacy was equally important. Piedmont joined Britain and France in the Crimean War and gained a place at the Congress of Paris in 1856. Cavour could now present Austrian power in Italy as an international problem. Piedmont still could not defeat Austria alone, so French assistance became essential.

3. Creating the Kingdom of Italy, 1856-61

The National Society helped direct some nationalist support towards Piedmontese leadership. After Felice Orsini attempted to assassinate Napoleon III, Cavour used the crisis to press the Italian question. At Plombieres in 1858, Cavour and Napoleon III reached a secret understanding: France would support Piedmont in a war against Austria if Austria appeared the aggressor.

War began in 1859. French and Piedmontese victories at Magenta and Solferino weakened Austrian control, but Napoleon III unexpectedly agreed the settlement of Villafranca. Piedmont gained Lombardy, not Venetia. Cavour resigned in anger. Even so, central Italian states moved towards annexation by Piedmont, while France received Nice and Savoy.

Garibaldi then transformed the situation. In 1860 his Thousand sailed to Sicily, defeated Bourbon forces and crossed to Naples. Garibaldi was a popular nationalist and republican, but his success threatened to escape Piedmontese control. Cavour feared both a revolutionary attack on Rome and foreign intervention. Piedmontese forces entered papal territory, and Victor Emmanuel II met Garibaldi at Teano. Garibaldi handed over his conquests to the king.

Plebiscites helped legitimise annexation, though they were not modern free elections. In 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. This outcome depended on several forces: nationalist mobilisation made action possible; Garibaldi conquered the south; Cavour used Piedmontese institutions, economic strength and diplomacy; Victor Emmanuel supplied dynastic leadership; and French and Austrian decisions shaped what could be won.

Anchor sequence

• 1848-49: revolutions and First Italian War of Independence fail.
• 1852: Cavour becomes prime minister.
• 1855-56: Piedmont enters the Crimean War and attends the Congress of Paris.
• 1858: Plombieres agreement.
• 1859: war with Austria; Magenta, Solferino and Villafranca.
• 1860: Garibaldi conquers Sicily and Naples; meeting at Teano.
• 1861: Kingdom of Italy proclaimed.

4. Consolidating the kingdom, 1861-70

Political unification did not create social or economic unity. Piedmontese laws and officials were extended across the kingdom. Critics called this Piedmontisation. In the south, resistance, poverty and state repression contributed to the Brigands’ War of 1861-65. Large differences in wealth, literacy, landholding and infrastructure divided north and south. The Pope rejected the loss of territory, while France protected Rome.

Venetia joined Italy in 1866 after Italy allied with Prussia against Austria. Italian forces performed poorly, but Prussia’s victory forced Austria to surrender Venetia. This demonstrates the importance of international circumstances: Italy gained territory despite limited military success.

Rome was harder. Garibaldi’s efforts failed in 1862 and 1867, and French troops continued to defend the Pope. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 caused France to withdraw its garrison. Italian troops entered Rome, which became part of the kingdom.

By 1870, Italy possessed a constitutional monarchy, parliament and national institutions, but unity remained incomplete. Papal opposition continued, politics had narrow participation and substantial social and regional divisions survived. Some Italian-speaking territories remained outside the kingdom. Distinguish carefully between territorial unification and a deeply integrated nation.

How Section A works: evaluating two sources

Section A assesses AO2. Read each source as evidence produced in a particular situation. A useful paragraph does four things:

1. identifies a precise claim or feature in the source;
2. uses contextual knowledge to test or explain it;
3. considers how the author’s position, purpose or situation affects its value;
4. reaches a judgement about how useful the source is for the exact enquiry.

Provenance is not a shortcut. A nationalist speech is not automatically unreliable; it may be valuable evidence for nationalist aims or methods. A diplomatic letter may be informed but strategically selective. Evaluate what the source can reveal, not whether it is simply biased.

Practice enquiry: How valuable are two contemporary sources for investigating Cavour’s role in the creation of the Kingdom of Italy? Compare what each reveals about Piedmontese policy, foreign help, popular nationalism and the limits of Cavour’s control.

How Section B works: the depth essay

Choose one of two essays. Define the issue in the question, organise by factors or turning points, and make comparisons throughout. Avoid a sequence of separate biographies of Mazzini, Cavour and Garibaldi.

Practice question: How far do you agree that foreign intervention was the main reason for the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861?

A strong plan might compare:

• foreign intervention and the international situation;
• Piedmontese economic, political and diplomatic strength;
• nationalist ideas and organisation;
• Garibaldi and popular mobilisation;
• the weaknesses of Austria and the existing Italian rulers.

Set criteria before judging: which factor made decisive territorial change possible, which created support, and which controlled the final settlement?

Final knowledge check

1. Name two ways Italian nationalism was divided before 1848.
2. Explain two reasons why the revolutions of 1848-49 failed.
3. How did Cavour strengthen Piedmont between 1852 and 1856?
4. Why was French support important in 1859?
5. Why did Garibaldi’s success both help and alarm Piedmont?
6. What did the meeting at Teano represent?
7. How did Venetia and Rome become part of Italy?
8. Give two reasons why unity remained incomplete in 1870.

If you can answer these with explained links rather than isolated facts, you have the course’s central structure. Next, practise one source evaluation and one factor-based essay plan using the exact wording of the questions.