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101-596: The liceo was set up shortly after the Capture of Rome in 1871 in the building that had housed the Jesuit Roman College . It was dedicated to the famous Roman archaeologist Ennio Quirino Visconti , who had supported the Francophile Roman Republic at the end of the 18th century. In 1938, science teacher Maria Piazza was forced to leave her teaching position and 58 Jewish students were expelled under

202-475: A royal decree confirmed the incorporation of Rome and surrounding Lazio into the Kingdom of Italy. Pius denounced the plebiscite's result and instances of electoral violence employed to secure it. The pope issued the encyclical Respicientes on 1 November, in which he proclaimed a mass excommunication of the invaders, including King Victor Emmanuel II . The Italian government promised Pius sovereignty over

303-716: A French minister of State's declaration that Italy would never lay its hands on Rome, the Emperor had commented "You know, in politics, one should never say 'never'." ) and had made various proposals for resolving the Roman Question , but Pius IX rejected them all. Despite his support for Italian unification, Napoleon could not press the issue for fear of angering Catholics in France. Raffaele de Cesare, an Italian journalist, political scientist, and author, noted that: The alliance, proposed two years before 1870, between France, Italy, and Austria,

404-422: A Korps headquarters and its component units. Most reservists lived close to their regimental depots and could be swiftly mobilized. Austrian policy was to ensure that units were stationed far from home to prevent them from taking part in separatist revolts. Conscripts on leave or reservists recalled to their units during mobilization faced a journey that might take weeks before they could report to their units, making

505-506: A dispatch to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Alexander Mensdorff-Pouilly . He explained to him that Prussian public opinion had become extremely sensitive about the Duchies issue and that he had no doubt that "this artificial exaggeration of the danger by public opinion formed an essential part of the calculations and actions of Count Bismarck [who considered] the annexation of the Duchies ...

606-531: A face-saving proposal that agreed to the peaceful entry of the Italian army into Rome, under the guise of protecting the pope. Along with this letter, Ponza carried a list of provisions from Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Lanza , setting out ten articles as the basis of an agreement between Italy and the Holy See. The Pope would retain his sovereign inviolability and prerogatives. The Leonine City would remain "under

707-535: A federal union" in 1871. The resulting German Empire would become one of the most influential European powers. In addition to war reparations, the following territorial changes took place: The war meant the end of the German Confederation. Those states who remained neutral or passive during the conflict took different actions after the Prague treaty: The Austrian Chancellor Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust

808-614: A few hours, the Italian army breached the Aurelian Walls near Porta Pia , through where the troops flooded into Rome. 49 Italian soldiers and 19 Papal soldiers died in the fighting. According to slightly different figures in a 2009 history of the Vatican military, the defence of Rome was far from bloodless, leaving 12 dead and 47 wounded among the Papal forces and 32 dead plus 145 wounded of the regular Italian troops. By 6 am, one hour after

909-497: A free State"; by which he meant that the former should be entirely free to exercise her spiritual powers and leave politics entirely to the latter. On 27 March 1861, the new Italian Parliament met in Turin and declared Rome the capital of Italy. However, the Italian government could not take its seat in Rome because it did not control the territory. Also, a French garrison was maintained in

1010-528: A letter addressed to General Hermann Kanzler , commander of the Papal troops in Rome, he highlighted "the strength of the forces involved in the attack compared to those on the defense", and renewed the request that the Papal army offered no resistance. Kanzler refused, responding to Cadorna that he and the Italian government would be responsible, "before God and before the tribunal of history", for any casualties that would result from an attack. On 18 September, Minister of War Cesare Ricotti-Magnani gave Cadorna

1111-563: A matter of life and death for his political existence [and wished] to make it appear such for Prussia too." Possible evidence can be found in Bismarck's orchestration of the Austrian alliance during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, which can be seen as his diplomatic "masterstroke". Taylor also believes that the alliance was a "test for Austria rather than a trap" and that the goal

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1212-539: A partial mobilization against Prussia on 14 June, Bismarck claimed that the German Confederation had ended. The Prussian Army invaded Hanover, Saxony and the Electorate of Hesse on 15 June. Italy declared war on Austria on 20 June. For several centuries, Central Europe was split into a few large- or medium-sized states and hundreds of tiny entities , which while ostensibly being within the Holy Roman Empire ruled by

1313-505: A set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith." He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King. After, growing calmer, he exclaimed: "I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome!" San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day. Ponza then informed Lanza of the pope's refusal of the ultimatum. The next day, 11 September, Italian troops led by General Raffaele Cadorna entered

1414-467: A unique rifling system invented by Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg called the Lenk system. The Prussians, however, by this point had replaced up to 60% of their smooth bore artillery with the technologically superior C64 (field gun) , which had been in production since 1859. However, due to tactical reluctance on the part of Prussian high command to utilise relatively unfamiliar technology, and doctrinal stagnation in

1515-519: A united Germany had also become unpopular following the fall of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849. One of the strongest social forces in Germany at the time was religion, which provided Germans with common confessional values and identities that transcended national boundaries. This led to a strong confessional rivalry between the southern Catholic and northern Protestant states. Breuilly remarks that

1616-725: A variety of other names, was fought in 1866 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia , with each also being aided by various allies within the German Confederation . Prussia had also allied with the Kingdom of Italy , linking this conflict to the Third Independence War of Italian unification . The Austro-Prussian War was part of the wider rivalry between Austria and Prussia , and resulted in Prussian dominance over

1717-461: A widespread disinterest in the establishment of armed home guards". Nevertheless, the formed North German Confederation would go on to win the war and annex Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg in 1871. According to Geoffrey Wawro , the political and military power accumulated by Prussia allowed it to annex the northern German states in 1866 and then "force the Catholic states very much against their will into

1818-537: Is known that even on 6 August 1866, I was in the position to observe the French ambassador make his appearance to see me in order, to put it succinctly, to present an ultimatum: to relinquish Mainz , or to expect an immediate declaration of war. Naturally I was not doubtful of the answer for a second. I answered him: "Good, then it's war!" He travelled to Paris with this answer. A few days after one in Paris thought differently, and I

1919-508: The Landwehr , the home guard. Introducing universal conscription for three years increased the size of the active duty army and provided Prussia with a reserve army equal in size to that which Moltke deployed against Austria. Had France under Napoleon III attempted to intervene against the Prussians, they could have faced him with equal or superior numbers of troops. Prussian conscript service

2020-532: The Alvensleben Convention of February 1863 with Russia, whereas Austria had not. France : France was also unlikely to enter on the side of Austria, because Bismarck and Napoleon III met in Biarritz and allegedly discussed whether or not France would intervene in a potential Austro-Prussian war. The details of the discussion are unknown but many historians think Bismarck was guaranteed French neutrality in

2121-521: The Creditanstalt , and the state was heavily in debt. Historian Christopher Clark wrote that there is little to suggest that Prussia had an overwhelming economic and industrial advantage over Austria and wrote that a larger portion of the Prussian population was engaged in agriculture than in the Austrian population and that Austrian industry could produce the most sophisticated weapons in the war (rifled artillery). The Austro-Prussian War ended quickly and

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2222-521: The Holy Roman Emperor , operated in a largely independent fashion. When an existing Emperor died, seven secular and ecclesiastical princes, each of whom ruled at least one of the states, would elect a new Emperor. Over time the Empire became smaller and by 1789 came to consist of primarily German peoples (aside from Bohemia, Moravia, the southern Netherlands and Slovenia). Aside from five years (1740–1745),

2323-541: The Italian annexation of the Austrian realm of Venetia . The war erupted as a result of the dispute between Prussia and Austria over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein , which the two of them had conquered from Denmark and agreed to jointly occupy at the end of the Second Schleswig War in 1864. The crisis started on 26 January 1866, when Prussia protested the decision of the Austrian Governor of Holstein to permit

2424-613: The Act of Capitulation were presented by Cadorna and signed by Kanzler at Villa Albani , by which all of Rome, excluding the Leonine City, came under control of the Royal Italian Army . A white flag was hoisted from the dome of St. Peter's Basilica , and the defeated Papal forces were escorted to St. Peter's Square by Italian troops. As part of the terms of surrender, the Papal Army

2525-515: The Artillery Corps, the modern Krupp guns were either sent to reserve units or used in tandem and to the same effect as their smooth bore counterparts, something that massively throttled their effectiveness in the war, and many of the guns that saw combat were the old smooth bore muzzle loaders. The Austrians too, while having standardised the Lenk system of rifling in their cannon, did not use their artillery to full effect. They specifically targeted

2626-680: The Atlantic Ocean to go and observe the American Civil War. These officers met with high ranking commanders and recorded both Union and Confederate tactics. They wrote about troop movements, artillery positioning, and new methods of attack that worked well for the Americans. These officers then travelled back to Prussia and briefed their generals about these observations. Some officers, such as Justus Scheibert , published their adventures in America for

2727-566: The Austrian army was concentrating for an invasion of Silesia . There, the Prussian armies, led nominally by King William I , converged, and the two sides met at the Battle of Königgrätz (Hradec Králové) on 3 July. The Prussian Army of the Elbe advanced on the Austrian left wing, and the First Army on the center, prematurely; they risked being counter-flanked on their own left. Victory therefore depended on

2828-507: The Austrian mobilization much slower than that of the Prussian Army. The railway system of Prussia was more extensively developed than that within Austria. Railways made it possible to supply larger numbers of troops than hitherto and allowed the rapid movement of troops within friendly territory. The more efficient Prussian rail network allowed the Prussian army to concentrate more rapidly than

2929-672: The Austrian-Prussian war, which concentrate mainly on the fact that he had a master plan that resulted in this war, the North German Confederation and the unification of Germany. Bismarck maintained that he orchestrated the conflict in order to bring about the North German Confederation, the Franco-Prussian War and the eventual unification of Germany. On 22 February 1866, Count Károlyi , Austrian ambassador in Berlin , sent

3030-580: The Austrians rapidly, rather than continue the war in hopes of further gains. William had "planned to install both the crown prince of Hanover and the nephew of the elector of Hesse as titular grand dukes in small territorial residuals of their dynastic inheritance" due to opposition in the government cabinet, including Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia , to the annexation of several German states. The Austrians accepted mediation from France's Napoleon III . The Peace of Prague on 23 August 1866 resulted in

3131-413: The Austrians. Moltke, reviewing his plans to Roon stated, "We have the inestimable advantage of being able to carry our Field Army of 285,000 men over five railway lines and of virtually concentrating them in twenty-five days. ... Austria has only one railway line and it will take her forty-five days to assemble 200,000 men." Moltke had also said earlier, "Nothing could be more welcome to us than to have now

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3232-868: The Church was also ended, and replaced by financing through a dedicated personal income tax called the otto per mille , to which other religious groups, Christian and non-Christian, also have access. Austro-Prussian War Prussian -led German states and Italian victory Prussian-led German states [REDACTED] Austrian-led German Confederation states 637,262 522,203 The Austro-Prussian War , (German: Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg ) also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War , German Civil War , Brothers War or Fraternal War , known in Germany as Deutscher Krieg ("German War"), Deutsch-Deutscher Krieg ("German-German War"), Deutscher Bruderkrieg ( pronounced [ˌdɔʏtʃɐ ˈbʁuːdɐkʁiːk] ; "German Brothers War") and by

3333-508: The Electorate of Hesse by the crown of Prussia". Anti-annexationist petitions were organised and reached a significant number of signatures, with a separatist petition in Hanover reaching half a million signatures. In Nassau, Prussian soldiers were reportedly attacked by locals "with stones and axes"; according to Jasper Heinzen, "brawls between occupation troops and local veterans soon became so prevalent that one historian has called these incidents

3434-559: The German states. The major result of the war was a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian and towards Prussian hegemony . It resulted in the abolition of the German Confederation and its partial replacement by the unification of all of the northern German states in the North German Confederation that excluded Austria and the other southern German states, a Kleindeutsches Reich . The war also resulted in

3535-566: The Habsburg family, whose personal territory was Austria , controlled the Emperorship from 1440 to 1806, although it became increasingly ceremonial only as Austria found itself at war at certain times with other states within the Empire, such as Prussia , which in fact defeated Austria during the War of Austrian Succession to seize the province of Silesia in 1742. While Austria was traditionally considered

3636-511: The Italian government wanted to join this potential alliance, but Italian public opinion was bitterly opposed so long as Napoleon III kept a French garrison in Rome protecting Pope Pius IX , thereby denying Italy the possession of its capital (Rome had been declared capital of Italy in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament had met in Turin). Napoleon III was not strictly opposed to this (in response to

3737-510: The Italian government. While these measures satisfied the international community, including the Catholic countries, Pius refused to accept the law, proclaiming himself a " prisoner in the Vatican ". For nearly sixty years thereafter, relations between the Papacy and the Italian government were hostile, and the status of the Pope became known as the " Roman Question ". Negotiations for the settlement of

3838-570: The Leonine City and gave him assurances of his inviolability, but the pope still would not agree to give up his claims to a broader territory, and claimed that since his army had been disbanded, apart from a few guards, he was unable to ensure public order even in such a small area. On 13 May 1871, the Italian Parliament passed the Law of Guarantees , granting the pope extensive prerogatives, such as independence on foreign affairs and an annual grant from

3939-493: The Netherlands, Spain, and other countries—for a total of 13,157 defenders against some 50,000 Italians. The American consul in Rome, Maitland Armstrong , described the civilian population as unwilling to defend the pope's rule, and only two hundred people in the whole city answered the papacy's call for volunteers. The Italian army reached the Aurelian Walls on 19 September and placed Rome under siege. Pius IX decided that

4040-537: The Papal States with the objective of taking Rome, occupying the port city of Civitavecchia on 16 September. The papal garrisons had retreated from Orvieto , Viterbo , Alatri , Frosinone and other strongholds in Lazio. Under instructions from the Italian government, which still hoped to avoid seizing the capital by force, Cadorna sent a final appeal to the Papacy later the same day for the peaceful surrender of Rome. In

4141-489: The Prussian army, and thus would remain arbiter of the European situation. But when the war suddenly broke out, before anything was concluded, the first unexpected French defeats overthrew all previsions, and raised difficulties for Austria and Italy which prevented them from making common cause with France. Wörth and Sedan followed each other too closely. The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon's feet—that dragged him into

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4242-419: The Prussian artillery with their own batteries, limiting their impact on the battlefield in regards to Prussian infantry. One notable exception is the use of Austrian artillery to good effect against infantry at Battle of Königgrätz . The Generals of the Prussian army realized that, in order to stay ahead of their Austrian enemies, they needed to explore new military tactics. They sent officers to travel across

4343-585: The Roman Question began in 1926 between the government of Fascist Italy and the Holy See, and culminated in the Lateran Pacts , signed for King Victor Emmanuel III by Benito Mussolini , Prime Minister and Head of Government, and for Pope Pius XI by Pietro Gasparri , Cardinal Secretary of State , on 11 February 1929. The agreements were signed in the Lateran Palace , from which they take their name. In

4444-684: The Thousand resulted in the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Sardinia, leading to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861. The new state had not yet incorporated Rome and the surrounding region of Lazio , which remained part of Papal States, and Veneto , which was ruled by Austria as a crown land and would only be annexed in 1866 , after the Third Italian War of Independence . The first Prime Minister of Italy , Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour , died soon after

4545-520: The abyss. He never forgot, even in August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign of a Catholic country, that he had been made Emperor, and was supported by the votes of the conservatives and the influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not to abandon the Pontiff. ... For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign of Rome, where he had many friends and relations ... Without him

4646-615: The advantages of the Prussian army against the Austrian Empire. Taylor wrote that Bismarck was reluctant to pursue war as it "deprived him of control and left the decisions to the generals whose ability he distrusted". (The two most important personalities within the Prussian army were the War Minister Albrecht Graf von Roon and Chief of the General Staff Helmuth Graf von Moltke .) Taylor suggested that Bismarck

4747-464: The attack began, foreign envoys began to arrive at the Apostolic Palace to meet the pope, including the ambassadors of France, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Pius, members of his entourage, and the diplomatic corps later gathered at his library, where, at around 9 am, he received the news from Kanzler's chief of staff of the opening of the breach near Porta Pia. Shortly afterwards, the terms of

4848-405: The budget of the pontifical state, and would assume all Papal civil servants and soldiers onto the state payroll, with full pensions as long as they were Italian. According to Raffaele De Cesare: The Pope's reception of San Martino [10 September 1870] was unfriendly. Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King's letter upon the table he exclaimed, "Fine loyalty! You are all

4949-508: The capital of unified Italy. It is widely commemorated in Italy, especially in cathedral cities, by naming streets for the date: Via XX Settembre (spoken form: "Via Venti Settembre"). In 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence , much of the Papal States had been conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel II . The next year, Giuseppe Garibaldi 's Expedition of

5050-531: The city and of the Papal States . After a plebiscite held on 2 October 1870, Rome was officially made capital of Italy on 3 February 1871, completing the unification of Italy ( Risorgimento ). The capture of Rome by the Royal Italian Army brought an end to the Papal States, which had existed since the Donation of Pepin in 756, along with the temporal power of the Holy See , and led to the establishment of Rome as

5151-520: The city by Emperor Napoleon III in support of Pope Pius IX, who was determined not to hand over temporal power in the State of the Church. In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began, and by early August, Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome. The French not only needed the troops to defend their homeland, but were concerned that Italy might use the French presence in Rome as a pretext to join

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5252-507: The civil commissioner who oversaw the integration of Hanover into Prussia, to remark that "As a whole the Hanoverians are a tougher, less accommodating tribe than the Saxons. Their particularism rests not solely on Prussophobia .. . but above all on a deep-rooted conviction that life is nowhere better than in Hanover. Theirs is a solid ... national feeling". The protests of George V of Hanover and

5353-415: The confessional rivalry was so strong that "a Hamburg Lutheran had more in common with a Swedish Lutheran than with an Austrian Catholic". The minor nations of Germany valued their independence and believed that their ability to remain sovereign depended on Austro-Prussian dualism, with neither side allowed to become too powerful. Confessional division also played an important role in German dualism, and there

5454-422: The dissolution of the German Confederation , Prussian annexation of four of Austria's former allies, and the permanent exclusion of Austria from German affairs. This left Prussia free to form the North German Confederation the next year, incorporating all the German states north of the Main River . Prussia chose not to seek Austrian territory for itself, and this made it possible for Prussia and Austria to ally in

5555-517: The estates of the duchies to call up a united assembly, declaring the Austrian decision a breach of the principle of joint sovereignty. Austria replied on 7 February, asserting that its decision did not infringe on Prussia's rights in the duchies. In March 1866, Austria reinforced its troops along its frontier with Prussia. Prussia responded with a partial mobilization of five divisions on 28 March. The Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck made an alliance with Italy on 8 April, committing it to

5656-416: The event of a war. Bismarck was aware of his numerical superiority but still "he was not prepared to advise it immediately even though he gave a favourable account of the international situation". When the Prussian victory became clear, France attempted to extract territorial concessions in the Palatinate , Rhenish Hesse and Luxembourg . In his speech to the Reichstag on 2 May 1871, Bismarck said: It

5757-406: The first article of the treaty, Italy reaffirmed the principle established in the 1848 Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy , that "the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Religion is the only religion of the State". To commemorate the successful conclusion of the negotiations, Mussolini commissioned the Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation), which would symbolically link the Vatican City to

5858-410: The full jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Pontiff". The Italian state would guarantee the pope's freedom to communicate with the Catholic world, as well as diplomatic immunity both for papal nuncios and envoys in foreign lands and for foreign diplomats at the Holy See. The government would supply a permanent annual fund for the pope and the cardinals, equal to the amount currently assigned to them by

5959-473: The future, since Austria felt threatened more by Italian and Pan-Slavic irredentism than by Prussia. The war left Prussia dominant in German politics (since Austria was now excluded from Germany and no longer the top German power). The northern states protested against their annexation to Prussia, and both the dethroned rulers and the local population lamented the loss of their nation's sovereignty. Local resistance and regional loyalty led Hans von Hardenberg ,

6060-428: The great powers of Europe intervened is listed below: Britain : Britain had no stake economically or politically in the war between Prussia and Austria, thus, was not going to intervene. Russia : Russia was unlikely to enter on the side of Austria, due to ill will over Austrian support of the anti-Russian alliance during the Crimean War and Prussia had stood by Russia during the January Uprising in Poland, signing

6161-494: The heart of Rome. The post- World War II Constitution of the Italian Republic, adopted in 1948, states that relations between the State and the Catholic Church "are regulated by the Lateran Treaties". In 1984, the concordat was significantly revised. Both sides declared: "The principle of the Catholic religion as the sole religion of the Italian State, originally referred to by the Lateran Pacts, shall be considered to be no longer in force". The exclusive state financial support for

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6262-446: The leader of the German states, Prussia became increasingly powerful and by the late 18th century was ranked as one of the great powers of Europe. Francis II 's abolition of the office of Holy Roman Emperor in 1806 also deprived him of his imperial authority over most of German-speaking Europe, though little true authority remained by that time; he did, however, retain firm control of an extensive multi-ethnic empire (most of it outside

6363-420: The local population proved to be an effective obstacle to Hanover's assimilation into Prussia, and led to the founding of the German-Hanoverian Party , which received 46.6% of the Hanoverian vote in the March 1871 Reichstag election . Hostility to annexation was also felt in smaller annexed kingdoms such as Hesse, where the dethroned Prince Frederick William of Hesse-Kassel strongly condemned "the usurpation of

6464-486: The lower part of Trentino , and moved towards Trento . The Prussian peace with Austria forced the Italian government to seek an armistice with Austria on 12 August. According to the Treaty of Vienna , signed on 12 October, Austria ceded Veneto to France, which, in turn, ceded it to Italy. In order to prevent "unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge" and forestall intervention by France or Russia, Bismarck pushed King William I of Prussia to make peace with

6565-399: The monarch joined the Austrians, despite the Hessian Landtag voting for neutrality. King George V of Hanover during the spring of 1866 was contacted by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph about establishing a coalition against the Prussians, but his success took some time. The Hanoverian monarch concluded that his kingdom would fall if it were to fight against the Prussian armies. Most of

6666-405: The most distinctive inaugural feature of the Prussian era". Anti-Prussian and separatist sentiment in newly annexed kingdoms continued into 1871, as local Prussian authorities complained about "a not insignificant number" of deserters from Hanover and Schleswig, and the population reacted to the Franco-Prussian War with "recurrent acts of sabotage on telegraph lines, latent French sympathies, and

6767-433: The next day. Prussia's general mobilization orders were signed in steps on 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 May. When Austria brought the Schleswig-Holstein dispute before the German Diet on 1 June and also decided on 5 June to convene the Diet of Holstein on 11 June, Prussia declared that the Gastein Convention of 14 August 1865 had thereby been nullified and invaded Holstein on 9 June. When the German Diet responded by voting for

6868-443: The order to attack Rome, but informed that the Leonine City, which would be reserved for the pope, should be spared, while also advising moderation. The plan of attack was left entirely up to the general. When the Italian army approached the city's ancient Aurelian Walls , the Papal force, commanded by General Kanzler, was composed of the Swiss Guard , the Palatine Guard and the Papal Zouaves —volunteers from France, Austria,

6969-492: The other two instantly attack their flank and rear, threatening their lines of communication. Prussian infantry were equipped with the Dreyse needle gun , a bolt-action rifle which could be fired faster than the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifles of the Austrian army. In the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, French troops took advantage of poorly trained enemies who did not readjust their gunsights as they got closer – thus firing too high at close range. By rapidly closing

7070-428: The previous boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire). After 1815, the German states were once again reorganized into a loose confederation: the German Confederation , under Austrian leadership. Prussia had been contesting Austria's supremacy in Germany since at least 1850, when a war between the two powers had nearly erupted over Prussia's leadership of the Erfurt Union , though at that time Prussia had backed down . At

7171-447: The proclamation of Italian national unity, leaving to his successors the solution of the knotty Venetian and Roman problems. Cavour had firmly believed that without Rome as the capital, Italy's unification would be incomplete. "To go to Rome", said his successor, Bettino Ricasoli , "is not merely a right; it is an inexorable necessity." In regard to the future relations between church and state, Cavour's famous dictum was, "A free Church in

7272-552: The public to enjoy. In 1866, the Prussian economy was rapidly growing, partly as a result of the Zollverein , which gave Prussia an advantage in the war. Prussia could equip its armies with breech-loading rifles and later with new Krupp breech-loading artillery but the Austrian economy was suffering from the effects of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Second Italian War of Independence . Austria had only one bank,

7373-413: The racial laws imposed by the fascist regime. A commemorative plaque installed in 2019 recalls the victims of state anti-Semitism. This Italian school-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Capture of Rome Italian victory The Capture of Rome ( Italian : Presa di Roma ) occurred on 20 September 1870, as forces of the Kingdom of Italy took control of

7474-523: The range, French troops came to close quarters with an advantage over the Austrian infantry. After the war, the Austrians adopted the same methods, which they termed the Stoßtaktik ("shock tactics"). Although they had some warnings of the Prussian weapon, they ignored these and retained Stoßtaktik . The Austrians were equipped with breech-loading rifled cannon, which was superior to the Prussian muzzle loading smooth bore cannon. The Austrian Artillery used

7575-483: The republican government was far less sympathetic to the Holy See than the Empire and did not possess the political will to protect the pope's position. In July 1870, at the last moment of the papacy's rule over Rome, the First Vatican Council affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility . In early September 1870, King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count Gustavo Ponza di San Martino to Pope Pius IX offering

7676-433: The situation changed radically. The French Emperor was captured and deposed. The best French units had been captured by the Prussians, who quickly followed up their success at Sedan by marching on Paris . Faced with a pressing need to defend the capital with its remaining forces, the provisional government of the newly proclaimed French Republic was clearly not in a military position to retaliate against Italy. In any case,

7777-420: The size of the army had been fixed by earlier laws that had not taken population growth into account, making conscription inequitable and unpopular for this reason. While some Prussian men remained in the army or the reserves until they were forty years old, about one man in three (or even more in some regions where the population had expanded greatly as a result of industrialisation) was assigned minimal service in

7878-451: The soldier was seeking cover on the ground, whereas the Austrian muzzle-loading rifles could be loaded only slowly, and generally from a standing position. The main campaign of the war occurred in Bohemia . Prussian Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke had planned meticulously for the war. He rapidly mobilized the Prussian army and advanced across the border into Saxony and Bohemia, where

7979-669: The southern German states sided with Austria against Prussia. Those that sided with Austria included the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg . Smaller middle states such as Baden , Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Hesse-Darmstadt , and Nassau also joined with Austria. Many of the German princes allied with the Habsburgs principally out of a desire to keep their thrones. Most of the northern German states joined Prussia, in particular Oldenburg , Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Mecklenburg-Strelitz , and Brunswick . The Kingdom of Italy participated in

8080-435: The surrender of the city would only be granted after his troops had put up enough resistance, to make it plain that the Italian takeover was achieved through force and not freely accepted. At 5 a.m. on 20 September, Italian artillery began firing at the city walls. Cadorna commanded the major line of assault, while troops on the other side of the city, charged with creating a distraction, were led by General Nino Bixio . After

8181-446: The time of the war, there was no strong national consciousness in Germany. Michael Hughes notes that in regards to Germany, "nationalism was a minority movement, deeply divided and with only a marginal impact on German political life". German newspapers were almost exclusively concerned with local affairs or their respective state governments, and the individual German states cultivated loyalty towards themselves. While rivalry with France

8282-508: The timely arrival of the Second Army on the left wing. This was achieved through the brilliant work of its Chief of Staff, Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal . Superior Prussian organization and élan decided the battle against Austrian numerical superiority, and the victory was near total, with Austrian battle deaths nearly seven times the Prussian figure. An armistice between Prussia and Austria came into effect at noon on 22 July. A preliminary peace

8383-470: The war against France. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Italy had allied with Prussia , and Italian public opinion favored the Prussian side at the start of the Franco-Prussian War. The removal of the French garrison allowed Italy to remain neutral and eased tensions between France and Italy. It was only after the surrender of Napoleon III and his army at the Battle of Sedan on 2 September that

8484-416: The war if Prussia entered one against Austria within three months, which was an obvious incentive for Bismarck to go to war with Austria within three months so that Italy would divert Austrian strength away from Prussia. Austria responded with a mobilization of its Southern Army on the Italian border on 21 April. Italy called for a general mobilization on 26 April and Austria ordered its own general mobilization

8585-489: The war that we must have." The Austrian army under Ludwig von Benedek in Bohemia (the present-day Czech Republic ) might previously have been expected to enjoy the advantage of the "central position", by being able to concentrate on successive attacking armies strung out along the frontier, but the quicker Prussian concentration nullified this advantage. By the time the Austrians were fully assembled, they would be unable to concentrate against one Prussian army without having

8686-697: The war to strengthen his negotiating position for territory along the Rhine , while the Russian Empire still bore a grudge against Austria from the Crimean War . The first war between two major continental powers in seven years, it used many of the same technologies as the Second Italian War of Independence , including railways to concentrate troops during mobilization and telegraphy to enhance long-distance communication. The Prussian Army used von Dreyse 's breech-loading needle gun , which could be rapidly loaded while

8787-419: The war with Prussia, because Austria held Venetia and other, smaller territories wanted by Italy to further the process of Italian unification . In return for Italian aid against Austria, Bismarck agreed not to make a separate peace until Italy had obtained Venetia. Notably, the other foreign powers abstained from this war. French Emperor Napoleon III , who expected a Prussian defeat, chose to remain out of

8888-519: Was "impatient to take his revenge on Bismarck for Sadowa ". As a preliminary step, the Ausgleich with Hungary was "rapidly concluded". Beust "persuaded Francis Joseph to accept Magyar demands which he had until then rejected", but Austrian plans fell short of French hopes (e.g. Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen proposed a plan which required the French army to fight alone for six weeks in order to allow Austrian mobilisation). Victor Emmanuel II and

8989-415: Was a strong pressure in Catholic states to support Austria. In the absence of nationalist sentiment, a united German state could only be created through external force. Bismarck recognised this, remarking in 1862 that a united German state could not be forged through "speeches and majority decisions" but only through "blood and iron". There are many interpretations of Otto von Bismarck 's behaviour before

9090-496: Was an important element of German nationalist myth-making, many Germans cooperated with France during the Napoleonic Era, and those who resisted France did not do so out of nationalist sentiment. According to John Breuilly , any sense of a common German identity "was weakly developed and confined to particular groups" and "there was very little demand, certainly at popular level, for unification". The liberal-nationalist concept of

9191-586: Was disbanded and its foreign soldiers were immediately repatriated. The pope was allowed to retain the Swiss, Noble , and Palatine guard units. With most of the papal military demobilized, protests against Pius took place in the Leonine City on 21 September. To legitimize the city's annexation, Prime Minister Lanza held a plebiscite  [ it ] in Rome on 2 October 1870. Out of 167,548 eligible voters, an overwhelming majority of 133,681 voted in favor of union with Italy, with 1,507 votes against. On 9 October,

9292-626: Was fought mainly with existing weapons and munitions, which reduced the influence of economic and industrial power relative to politics and military culture. Before the war started, both the Austrian and Prussian governments sought to rally allies in Germany. On 15 June Bismarck offered territorial compensation in the Grand Duchy of Hesse to the Electorate of Hesse , if Elector Frederick William were to ally with Prussia. The proposition grievously offended Frederick William's "legitimist sensibilities" and

9393-418: Was given to understand that this instruction had been torn from Emperor Napoleon during an illness. The further attempts in relation to Luxemburg are known. Italy : Italy had already allied itself with Prussia because it wanted Lombardy - Venetia . This meant that Austria would be fighting both Italy and Prussia, without any non-German allies of its own. Bismarck may well have been encouraged to go to war by

9494-455: Was hoping to force Austrian leaders into concessions in Germany, rather than provoke war. The truth may be more complicated than simply that Bismarck, who famously said that "politics is the art of the possible", initially sought war with Austria or was initially against the idea of going to war with Austria. In 1862, von Roon had implemented several army reforms that ensured that all Prussian citizens were liable to conscription. Before this date,

9595-470: Was never concluded because Napoleon III ... would never consent to the occupation of Rome by Italy. ... He wished Austria to avenge Sadowa, either by taking part in a military action, or by preventing South Germany from making common cause with Prussia. ... If he could ensure, through Austrian aid, the neutrality of the South German States in a war against Prussia, he considered himself sure of defeating

9696-427: Was not war with Austria, contradicting what Bismarck later gave in his memoirs as his main reason for establishing the alliance. It was in the Prussian interest to gain an alliance with Austria to defeat Denmark and settle the issue of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The alliance can be regarded as an aid to Prussian expansion, rather than a provocation of war against Austria. Many historians believe that Bismarck

9797-436: Was one of continuous training and drill, in contrast to the Austrian army where some commanders routinely dismissed infantry conscripts to their homes on permanent leave soon after their induction into the army, retaining only a cadre of long-term soldiers for formal parades and routine duties. Austrian conscripts had to be trained almost from scratch when they were recalled to their units on the outbreak of war. The Prussian army

9898-505: Was shelled by Prussian artillery, but the garrison defended its position until armistice day. The Austrians were more successful in their war with Italy , defeating the Italians on land at the Battle of Custoza (24 June), and on sea at the Battle of Lissa (20 July). However, Italy's " Hunters of the Alps " led by Garibaldi defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Bezzecca on 21 July, conquered

9999-586: Was signed on 26 July at Nikolsburg . Except for Saxony, the other German states allied to Austria played little role in the main campaign. Hanover's army defeated Prussia at the Second Battle of Langensalza on 27 June 1866, but, within a few days, they were forced to surrender by superior numbers. Prussian armies fought against Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and the Hessian states on the river Main , reaching Nuremberg and Frankfurt . The Bavarian fortress of Würzburg

10100-579: Was simply a Prussian expansionist , rather than a German nationalist, who sought the unification of Germany. It was at the Gastein Convention that the Austrian alliance was set up to lure Austria into war. The timing of the Prusso-Italian alliance of 8 April 1866 was perfect, because all other European powers were either bound by alliances that forbade them from entering the conflict, or had domestic problems that had priority. The reason why none of

10201-575: Was thus better trained and disciplined than the Austrian army, particularly in the infantry. While Austrian cavalry and artillery were as well trained as their Prussian counterparts, with Austria possessing two elite divisions of heavy cavalry, weapons and tactics had advanced since the Napoleonic Wars and cavalry charges had been rendered obsolete. The Prussian army was locally based, organized in Kreise (military districts, lit.: circles), each containing

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