THE REVOLT OF 1848 ( FIRST WAR OF INDEPENDENCE )

The 1848 Revolutions in the Italian states, part of the wider Revolutions of 1848 in Europe,
were organized revolts in the states of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, led by intellectuals and
agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate
reactionary Austrian control. During this time, Italy was not a unified country, and was divided
into many states, which, in Northern Italy, were ruled directly or indirectly by the Austrian
Empire. A desire to be independent from foreign rule, and the conservative leadership of the
Austrians, led Italian revolutionaries to stage revolution in order to drive out the Austrians. The
revolution was led by the state of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Some uprisings in the Kingdom of
Lombardy–Venetia, particularly in Milan, forced the Austrian General Radetzky to retreat to the
Quadrilateral fortresses.[1]

King Charles Albert, who ruled Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849, aspired to unite Italy with
the endorsement of Pope Pius IX, head of the Papal States, which comprised a large territory in
the center of the Italian peninsula. He declared war on Austria in March 1848 and launched a
full-out attack on the Quadrilateral. Lacking allies, Charles Albert was no match for the Austrian
army and was defeated at the Battle of Custoza on 24 July 1848. He signed a truce and withdrew
his forces from Lombardy, and thus Austria remained dominant in a divided Italy until the
Second Italian War of Independence.

OTHER ITALIAN ARMIES AND VOLUNTEERS

All the other monarchies of the peninsula that had been forced to join the war against Austria due
to public sentiment in their respective countries sent military contingents to Lombardy–Venetia,
but without conviction.

The first to arrive was the Papal Army, with a contingent of 17–18,000 men (including roughly
900 cavalry soldiers and 22 cannons). It consisted of a regular division (10–11,000 men including
3–4,000 volunteers) under the command of the Piedmontese Giovanni Durando and a second
division (around 7,000 men) made up of the Mobile Civic Guard and of volunteers under the
republican Andrea Ferrari. The armed corps entered Lombardy–Venetia from the Apostolic
legation of Ferrara. A group of around 130 volunteers, called the Bersaglieri del Po also came
from Ferrara

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany entered the war on 21 March and sent a corps of around 6,400 men
to Mantua, partially regular troops and partially volunteers. The contingent was commanded
initially by Ulisse d'Arco Ferrari and subsequently by Cesare de Laugier. These troops had little
technical training but were highly enthusiastic, especially the so-called "Battalion of Students",
led by Astronomy professor Ottaviano-Fabrizio Mossotti.
In Parma and Modena, the respective dukes, Charles II and Francis V, had abandoned the throne
in the face of popular riots, allowing the formation of provisional governments. A few hundred
volunteers set out for Lombardy-Veneto.[

The major contribution to the war was to be made by Ferdinand II of Two Sicilies, who promised
to send a corps of 25,000 men. This contingent did not leave on time and when it was sent in
March it contained around 11,000 men. King Ferdinand II was politically very far from the
Piedmontese liberal ideology and his highest priority was the reconquest of Sicily, which had
revolted on 26 March 1848 under the leadership of Ruggero Settimo.Commanded by Guglielmo
Pepe, the Neapolitan troops arrived in the theatre of war only in mid-May, when, as they were
crossing the Po from the south, they received the order to return home. Only a few units loyal to
Guglielmo Pepe entered Veneto and participated in the fighting.

However, the anti-Austrian coalition could rely on other forces. There were Lombard volunteers
(4,500 men), Neapolitan volunteers (1,600 men), and Venetian volunteers from the Republic of
San Marco. The last group consisted of around 9,000 men, organised as regular units by Daniele
Manin and directed principally against the enemy forces which had crossed the Soča from the
east in order to reinforce the Habsburg troops in Lombardy–Venetia. They were commanded by
generals Carlo Zucchi and Alberto della Marmora.

THE AUSTRIAN ARMY

The multiethnic Austrian army in Lombardy–Venetia was commanded by the 81-year-old

General Josef Radetzky, a man whose past experience had earned him exceptional autonomy
from the Viennese bureaucracy. He had organised the army in Italy according to his own ideas,
including the idea that army training was necessary even in times of peace – a theory that few
followed in this period. The result was that when the war broke out his soldiers were ready and,
in particular, were familiar with the territory in which they would need to fight.

Before the insurrections at Milan and Venice, Radetzky had 70,000 men in two armies: the 1st in
Lombardy and the 2nd in Venetia, containing a total of 61 battalions of infantry. After the revolt,
as a result of casualties, surrenders, and desertions, this was reduced to 41 effective battalions.
There were also 35 squadrons of cavalry and 100 pieces of artillery. Given that the average force
of the Austrian battalions was around 1,000 men, Radetzky had a total of around 50,000 men at
the start of the war. He further ordered that a reserve force of 20,000 soldiers be gathered in a
hurry under the command of Laval Nugent von Westmeath from the Austrian side of the Soča
and from Carinthia.

The Battle of Custoza in July 1848 marked a significant turning point in the revolution, as
Austrian forces decisively defeated the Piedmontese army led by King Charles Albert of
Sardinia, who had declared war on Austria in support of the Italian cause. The defeat at Custoza
dealt a severe blow to the Italian revolutionaries' hopes for independence and unification, leading
to a wave of disillusionment and demoralization among their ranks.

Despite the setback at Custoza, the Italian revolutionaries continued to resist Austrian
domination, engaging in guerrilla warfare and insurgency tactics against the occupying forces.
However, their efforts were ultimately in vain, as the superior military might and resources of the
Austrian Empire proved too formidable to overcome. In August 1849, the last major stronghold
of the Italian revolutionaries, the Roman Republic, fell to a combined Austro-French assault,
effectively bringing an end to the revolution.

The defeat of the Italian Revolution of 1848 dealt a devastating blow to the aspirations of Italian
nationalists and liberals, who had hoped to create a unified, independent Italian state. In the
aftermath of the revolution, the Italian states remained fragmented and divided, with Austria
tightening its grip on its Italian possessions and the dream of Italian unification deferred for
several more decades.

ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMAN EMPIRE BY MAZZINI AND GARIBALDI

After Pope Pius IX withdrew his support to the Italian armies and volunteers fighting the war for
independence against Austria in northern Italy in April 1848, the internal situation in Rome
became difficult. The supporters of the Risorgimento and of Italian unification, including
returning volunteers from the war in Lombardy and Veneto and republicans, kept agitating. The
new Papal Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, instead refused the war for unification and only
supported a confederation of monarchies. In November 1848 Rossi was stabbed to death while
entering the Government’s palace (Palazzo della Cancelleria). The Pope escaped from Rome
southwards and obtained refuge in Gaeta, a highly fortified port north of Naples. There he was
hosted by the King of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinando II of Bourbon, the most reactionary Italian
King, who was crushing the liberals and had started to re-conquer rebellious Sicily. The joint
portraits of the two strongest opponents of the Risorgimento are displayed in a medal minted on
behalf of the Neapolitan Army in order to thank the Pope for his long visit to Gaeta. A series of
fictitious Papal coins were minted privately in Paris, highlighting that Papal authority had been
transferred to “Gaëte” (the French spelling of the town’s name), represented here by a copper
Scudo, a coin that should have been in silver, had it been authentic.
After several weeks of attempts to convince the Pope to return to Rome, local authorities decided
to call the citizens of the Papal states to elect a Constituent Assembly which would decide the
future of the country. Several foreigners were elected, including Mazzini and Garibaldi from
Liguria and Cernuschi from Milan. Once elected, the new assembly rapidly voted the creation of
the Roman Republic on 9 February 1849.

The initial government of the Republic was an Executive Committee of three members
(Armellini, Montecchi and Saliceti). Under its authority a decree of the Constituent Assembly
was adopted on 1 March 1849, establishing that “the value of the coins of the Roman Republic is
stated in Italian lire”, the same choice made the previous year by the provisional governments of
Milan and of the Venetian Republic, in a spirit of unity. Furthermore the description of the
images planned for large silver and gold coins was very close to the one used by the Provisional
Government of Lombardy (see the July 2016 coin of the month), a standing figure of Italy with
the motto “God wants Italy united”. It is possible to imagine the influence of Lombards present
in Rome, particularly of Enrico Cernuschi who had been elected a member of the Roman
assembly, of its main committee drafting the Constitution and later was sent to negotiate with the
French and then headed the Commission for the barricades of the Roman Republic. The same
decree imagined that the smaller silver and gold coins would bear the head of Roma galeata, a
classicist concession to the silver denari minted before Ceasar and Augustus with the head of the
goddess Rome, wearing a winged helmet.
The symbol of the Republic, however, had already been chosen on 22 February. It was the eagle
surrounded by the civic crown, holding in its claws the consular fasci: “Lo Stemma della
Repubblica Romana avrà nel mezzo l’aquila circondata dalla corona civica e I fasci consolari tra
gli artigli. Il legame de’ fasci consolari formerà una benda cadente, che avrà il motto Legge e
Forza.” The decree of 1 March indicated that this symbol would be used for copper coins,
together with the motto “God and the People” (“Dio e Popolo”). This image was the only one to
be minted during the short life of the Republic. In fact the plan to change the local Roman
currency into lire was immediately dropped by the Constituent Assembly, even before a
Triumvirate, composed by Mazzini, Armellini and Saffi, was elected.
Just a day later, on 2 March, a second decree was issued, directed to solving the concrete need for
cash and seignorage income using pre-existing local monetary units, scudi, divided into 100
baiocchi. It authorized the Minister to issue 1 million scudi (equivalent to about 5 million Italian
lire) in eroded coinage, with debased silver and copper whose nominal value was equal to only
40% of its real value. Pieces of three baiocchi were immediately introduced.

Such a speedy abandonment of the project to replace traditional local coinage in favour of the lira
reflected the reality that it was not possible to make a change in the monetary system while at the
same time saddling the new system with such a massive loss of real value due to the financial
emergency.

As a consequence coins in debased silver were minted in substantial quantity with the eccentric
values of 40, 16, 8 and 4 baiocchi, and copper pieces of 3, 1, and ½ baiocchi. To face the
financial needs of the hour, paper money was also issued, particularly 24 baiocchi pieces (Boni
del Tesoro, that is formally Treasury bonds), carrying the eagle of the Republic and the signature
of the Finance Minister and triumvir Armellini, here illustrated. Small private issues to facilitate
local trade appeared as well, as the bono for two baiocchi of the baker Pietro Mengarini,
operating in the square under the Palazzo Borghese, at the Fontanella Borghese.