RIZAL AND HIS TIMES

The World of Rizal’s Times

 19TH Century- when he (RIZAL) lived was a century of ferment caused by the blowing
winds of history.
-Asia, Europe, and Americas events surged inexorably like sea tides,
significantly affecting the lives and fortunes of mankind.

 February 19, 1861- four months before Rizal’s birth in Calamba, the liberal Czar
Alexander II (1855-1881), to appease the rising discontent of the Russian masses,
issued a proclamation emancipating 22, 500, 000 serfs.

 June 1, 1861- eighteen days before Rizal’s birth, Benito Juarez, a full-blooded Zapotec
Indian, was elected President of Mexico.
 April 1862- a year after his (Benito Juarez) elected, Emperor Napoleon III, of the Second
French Empire, in his imperialistic desire to secure a colonial stake in Latin America,
sent French troops which invaded and conquered Mexico.
 CZAR ALEXANDER II
➢ the ruler of Russia since 1855, is killed in the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown
by a member of the revolutionary “People’s Will” group. The People’s Will, organized in
1879, employed terrorism and assassination in their attempt to overthrow Russia’s
czarist autocracy. They murdered officials and made several attempts on the czar’s life
before finally assassinating him on March 13, 1881.

➢ did much to liberalize and modernize Russia, including the abolishment of serfdom in
1861. However, when his authority was challenged, he turned repressive, and he
vehemently opposed movements for political reform. Ironically, on the very day he was
killed, he signed a proclamation—the so-called Loris-Melikov constitution—that would
have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives.

➢ succeeded by his 36-year-old son, Alexander III, who rejected the Loris-Melikov
constitution. Alexander II’s assassins were arrested and hanged, and the People’s Will
was thoroughly suppressed. The peasant revolution advocated by the People’s Will was
achieved by Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1917.
 BIOGRAPHY OF BENITO JUAREZ
➢ (1806-1872) was a Mexican statesman and resistance leader against the French. After
defeating the Austrian would-be emperor Maximilian, Juárez instituted numerous liberal
reforms as president.
➢ born in the small Zapotec Indian village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, on March 21,
1806. His parents, poor peasants, died when he was 3 years old. Juárez then lived with his
grandparents and later with an uncle. He worked with his uncle until he was 13, when he left
for the city of Oaxaca; at this time he could not yet speak Spanish.
➢ 1850 Mexico seemed on the verge of total collapse. Thirty years of violence had left the
treasury bankrupt, communications disrupted, and the population demoralized. Two
factions, defining themselves as Conservatives and Liberals, constantly fought over the
control of the state and its shrinking revenues.
*Conservatives- representing the large landholders, the Church, the professional army, and the
large cities, tried to make Mexico into a highly centralized state based upon the institutions and
ideology of the colonial period.
 Biography of Benito Juarez
* Liberals- who represented small merchants, some intellectuals, political leaders in rural areas,
and the small ranchers of the west and south, stood for a federal system, the abolishment of
colonial prerogatives, land distribution, and a constitutional democracy based upon the ideals of
Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson.
 despite the requests of Don Antonio Salanueva, a book binder who took a strong liking to him
(Indian Boy), and became his godparent and all intents and purposes adopted him. Salanueva,
wishes him to become a priest, but Juárez entered the Oaxaca Institute of Arts and Sciences
to study law. The curriculum proved the perfect stimulus for the rebellious and ambitious former
seminarian. In 1831 he qualified to enter a local law office, but as the legal profession was
already overcrowded, he began a second career as an antiestablishment Liberal politician.

 1831- entered politics as an elected alderman on the Oaxacan town council. In 1835 the city
elected him as a Liberal deputy to the federal legislature. He carried forward his legal career,
often serving as a representative of impoverished Indian communities in their struggles to
protect their landholdings. Incorruptible and intelligent, he was one of Oaxaca's leading
lawyers.
➢ During the Conservative domination of Mexico between 1836 and 1846, Juárez largely
avoided elective office but often accepted professional and political appointments from the
Conservative state authorities. In 1841 the state government appointed him a federal court
judge, a post in which he served with distinction. His local standing had increased through
his marriage to Margarita Mazza, the daughter of one of Oaxaca's wealthiest Creole
families.

➢ Juárez served as secretary to the state's Conservative governor and as a member of the
local assembly. He showed his liberalism by resigning the judgeship because of
unwillingness to prosecute those who refused to pay clerical tithes, but the state
government soon reinstated him .
Governor of Oaxaca
➢ In 1846 the Liberal party, led by former president Valentín Gómez Farías, took power
throughout Mexico. Despite his Conservative connections, Juárez became again a Liberal
federal deputy. In 1847-1848, during the debacle of Mexico's war with the United States, he
became Oaxaca's acting governor and then elected governor.
➢ Juárez curbed corruption and built roads, public buildings, and schools. He reorganized the
state national guard, and when he left office in 1852, a respectable surplus remained in the
state treasury. His state government became renowned throughout Mexico for its honesty,
public spirit, and constructiveness. In 1852 Juárez became director of the Institute of Arts and
Sciences. He also again served as a lawyer, often helping the poor.

➢ In 1853 the Conservative party, led by the brilliant Lucas Alamán, seized power by a barracks
coup. One of the revolt's leaders, and its inevitable president, was Antonio López de Santa
Ana, the unscrupulous Creole general who had frequently dominated Mexico during the
previous 20 years. Seeking to consolidate power, Santa Ana immediately exiled the leaders
of the Liberal party.
EXILE AND REVOLUTIONARY
➢ Government troops arrested Juárez without warning and then sent him into exile. He lived
first in Havana and then in New Orleans. In the early 1850s the future Liberal leaders of
Mexico, including Ignacio Comonfort, José María Mata, and Melchor Ocampo, formed a
revolutionary junta in New Orleans and began to plan the reforms with which they hoped to
rebuild their shattered nation.
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN
➢ a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of
the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Lincoln
proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader: His Emancipation Proclamation
paved the way for slavery’s abolition, while his Gettysburg Address stands as one of the most
famous pieces of oratory in American history. In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of
victory, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
Lincoln’s assassination made him a martyr to the cause of liberty, and he is widely regarded
as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.

➢ Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his
term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters
for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection, he
returned to Springfield in 1849.
➢ Events conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas, a leading
Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854), which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government,
had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free.

➢ On October 16, 1854, Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the
institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence.
➢ With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party–formed largely in
opposition to slavery’s extension into the territories–in 1856 and ran for the Senate again
that year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for the seat in 1855 as well). In June, Lincoln
delivered his now-famous “house divided” speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to
illustrate his belief that “this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half
free.”
➢ Lincoln then squared off against Douglas in a series of famous debates; though he lost the
Senate election, Lincoln’s performance made his reputation nationally.
 Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign
➢ Lincoln’s profile rose even higher in early 1860, after he delivered another rousing speech at
New York City’s Cooper Union. That May, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for
president, passing over Senator William H. Seward of New York and other powerful
contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with only one undistinguished congressional
term under his belt.
➢ In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern
Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while
John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell
splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral
College to win the White House.

➢ He built an exceptionally strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including
Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin M. Stanton.

➢ I
 ➢ Lincoln and the Civil War
 After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th
president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink. By the time Lincoln
was inaugurated as 16th U.S. president in March 1861, seven southern states had seceded
from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

➢ Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply the federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina in
April. The Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War.
Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run
(Manassas), and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides prepared for a long
conflict.

➢ While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War
hero and former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of
service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many when he proved to
be a capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years
of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders.
➢ General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with
his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee’s retreating
Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862,
Lincoln removed him from command.

➢ During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right
of habeas corpus, but he considered such measures necessary to win the w

Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address

➢ Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the enslaved people in
the rebellious states not under federal control, but left those in the border states (loyal to the
Union) in bondage.
➢ Though Lincoln once maintained that his “paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery,” he nonetheless came to regard
emancipation as one of his greatest achievements, and would argue for the passage of a
constitutional amendment outlawing slavery (eventually passed as the 13th Amendment after
➢ his death in 1865).

Two important Union victories in July 1863–at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at the Battle of
Gettysburg in Pennsylvania–finally turned the tide of the war.
* General George Meade missed the opportunity to deliver a final blow against Lee’s army at
Gettysburg, and Lincoln would turn by early 1864 to the victor at Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant,
as supreme commander of the Union forces.
➢ In November 1863, Lincoln delivered a brief speech (just 272 words) at the dedication
ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Published widely, the Gettysburg
Address eloquently expressed the war’s purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers,
the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of human equality. It became the most
famous speech of Lincoln’s presidency, and one of the most widely quoted speeches in
history.
➢ In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former
Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T.
Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president’s way. In his
second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to
reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

➢ As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas after staging his March
to the Sea from Atlanta, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on
April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on
April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically,
Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction.
 Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
➢ On the night of April 14, 1865 the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth
slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-
blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street
from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning
hours of April 15, 1865.

➢ Lincoln’s assassination made him a national martyr. On April 21, 1865, a train carrying his
coffin left Washington, D.C. on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on
May 4. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train traveled through 180 cities and seven states so
mourners could pay homage to the fallen president.

➢ Today, Lincoln’s birthday—alongside the birthday of George Washington—is honored on

President’s Day, which falls on the third Monday of February.
 Abraham Lincoln Quotes
➢ “Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.”

➢ “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted
a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

➢ “I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual
nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

➢ “I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, an

 June 19, 1861- the American Civil War (1861-1865)- raging furiously in the
United States over the issue of Negro slavery.
 (1861-1865)- the reason of American Civil War: determined what kind of
nation it would be (United States), resolving 2 fundamental questions that
was left unresolved by the revolution of (1776-1783), creating the United
States Civil War.

 April 12, 1861- the titanic conflict (American Civil War) erupted, thus
compelled President Lincoln to issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation
on September 22, 1863, freeing the Negro slaves.
2 FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS:

1. Whether the United States was to be dissolvable confederation of sovereign

states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government.
2. Whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal
right to liberty, would continue to exists as the largest slaveholding country in the world.
(Negro slavery-racism).
 AMERICAN CIVIL WAR-was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western
world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars (FRANCE) in 1815 and the onset of
World War in 1914.
REASONS OF THE CIVIL WAR
 Uncompromising differences between free and slave states over the power of
the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that hadnot yet
become states.
* 1860- Abraham Lincoln, won the election as the first Republican President on a
platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the
deep south seceded and formed a nation, the Confederate States of America.
 Request for the Refusal of Legitimizing the Secesion
 They feared (Northern people) that it would discredit and create a fatal precedent that would
eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several squabbling countries.

 April 12, 1861- Northern people claimed United States fort as their own, the Confederate
army on that day opened fire on the federal garisson and forced it to lower the American flag
in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this insurrection.
 EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I OF MEXICO
 In full Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, (born July 6, 1832, Vienna, Austria—died June 19, 1867,
near Querétaro, Mex.), archduke of Austria and the emperor of Mexico, a man whose naive
liberalism proved unequal to the international intrigues that had put him on the throne and to
the brutal struggles within Mexico that led to his execution.

 The younger brother of Emperor Francis Joseph, he served as a rear admiral in the Austrian
navy and as governor-general of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. In 1863 he accepted the
offer of the Mexican throne, falsely believing that the Mexican people had voted him their king;
in fact, the offer was the result of a scheme between conservative Mexicans, who wished to
overturn the liberal government of President Benito Juárez, and the French emperor
Napoleon III, who wanted to collect a debt from Mexico and further his imperialistic ambitions
there. Backed by a pledge of support from the French army, Maximilian sailed for Mexico with
his wife Carlota, daughter of Leopold I, king of the Belgians.
 Crowned emperor on June 10, 1864, Maximilian intended to rule with paternal
benevolence, viewing himself as the protector of the Indian peasants. He upheld Juárez’
sweeping reforms (to the indignation of the landed proprietors) and was determined to
abolish peonage, and he antagonized the Roman Catholic hierarchy by refusing to
restore vast church holdings confiscated by Juárez. The treasury was so bare, however,
that he had to use his own inherited income for daily expenses.
 By April 1865 the French army had successfully supported Maximilian by driving Juárez
northward almost into Texas. But that month the American Civil War ended, and the
United States demanded the withdrawal of French troops from Mexico on the grounds
that their presence was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Carlota rushed to Europe to
seek aid for her husband from Napoleon III and Pope Pius IX, only to suffer a profound
emotional collapse when her efforts failed.
 The French forces withdrew in March 1867, and Juárez and his army moved back into
Mexico City. Refusing to abdicate, feeling that he could not honorably desert “his people,”
Maximilian was made supreme commander of the imperial army by his conservative
Mexican backers. At Querétaro, Maximilian’s small force was surrounded, starved, and
finally betrayed into capitulation (May 15, 1867). Even though Victor Hugo, Giuseppe
Garibaldi, and many of the crowned heads of Europe petitioned Juárez to save Maximilian’s
life, the Mexican president refused to grant clemency, given that thousands of Mexican lives
had been lost in this latest struggle for independence from foreign domination. On June 19,
1867, Maximilian was executed on a hill outside Querétaro.
 UNIFICATION OF THE TWO EUROPEAN NATIONS

➢ Italians & Germans succeeded in unifying their own coutries. Italians under the leadership of
Count Cavour and of Garibaldi and his Army of “Red Shirts” drove out the Austrians and
French armies from Italy and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel,
with Rome as capital city.
➢ Prussians led by Otto von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor,” defeated France in the Franco-
Prussian War and established the German Empire on January 18, 1871, with King Wilhelm of
Prussia as first Kaiser of the German Empire. With his ( King Wilhelm of Prussia) defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War, Emperor Napoleon III’s Second French Empire collapsed, and over its
ruins the Third French Republic arose, with Adolph Thiers as first President.

 Italian Unification- was a political and social movement that united the different states of the
Italian peninsula into a single nation of Italy in the 19th century.
 History of the Unification
 3rd century B.C., Italy was first unified by the Roman Empire and became an informal
extension of the Roman Republic for about 700 yrs, and since it was protected by Rome, it
evaded being converted into a province. It even remained united after the decline of the
Western Roman Empire.
 This situation suddenly changed during the conquest of the Frankish empire. For this reason,
Italy was divided into a system of city-states.
 Consequently the Kingdom of Sicily or the Kingdom of Naples led the Southern region, as
established by the Normans. Meanwhile the Pope governed Central Italy as a temporal
kingdom known as the Papal States.
 Following the establishmnet of city-states, the rise of their modern counterparts, known as the
nation-states, caused by the former ones to decline. Italy this time, became a site of opposing
world powers.
 THE RULE
 Until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Italy remained divided into small
principalities.
 Following this, Napoleon Bonaparte, was put into power, and he wanted to conquer the Italian
states. He was successful in his agenda after small principalities into one administrative unit.
Since the conquest took place during the French Revolution, Italy eventually became part of
the French Empire, which was aimed at promoting liberty, equality, fraternity, and people’s
participation in politics. He also encouraged revolutionary ideas and nationalism. He abolished
the feudalistic with all landheld in fee, and as chief of characteristics homage, the service of
tenants under arms and in court, wardship, and forfeiture.
 The Napoleonic Wars eventually took place around Europe, but Napoleon was starving to fail
during this time. This ignited revolutions, including the attempts of Eugene de Beauharnais,
viceroy of Italy, and Joachim Murat, who both wanted to control Italy rather than unify it.
 THE DIVIDE
➢ After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Italy was split again, thus reversing
everything that happened during the previous events mentioned.
➢ This Congress attempted to ignore the changes brought by Napoleon, and restore old rulers
in their desired positions. It further caused Italy to be divided into different states such as the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Two
Sicilies.
THE REVOLUTIONS
 Since the Congress of Vienna was in effective, it only created hunger due to crop failures,
unemployment, and further suffering of the Italian people. Thereafter, societies pushed for the
idea of a unified Italian state. It includes the Carboari aimed at liberating Italy through
revolutionary movements, which was inspired by the principles of the French revolution.
 Giuseppe Mazzini- a member of the Carbonari and the founder of another organization called
“Young Italy”, was one of the most significant figures that led the Italian unification. It
eventually attracted the attention of Giuseppe Garibaldi, another known figure in the Italian
unification.
• As the two leaders joined forces in 1883, they continue to push their ideas. Unfortunately, a
failed Mazzinian uprising in Piedmont in February 1834 forced Garibaldi to flee to South
America.
• Following this was the turmoil of the revolutions in 1848 known as the First Italian War of
Independence. The Second Italian War of Independence soon after took place led by Victor
Emmanuel II, the third great figure of Italian unification. Later in 1861, Italy was declared a
united nation-state under the Sardinian King Victor Emmanuel II.
• Although most of the Italian peninsula was already united at this time, Venice and other Papal
states were still far from the ideals of a single Italy. As the Austro-Prussian War broke out in
1886, Italy look this opportunity to capture Venice.
• During the Third Italian War of Unification, the Austrian Empire battled against the Prussian
Empire which was already backed by Italy. This was eventually ended in our agreement,
leaving all of Italy united.
 THE AFTERMATH
 The Italian unification was fully completed by the capture of Rome and later by the conquest
of Trentino, Friuli, and Trieste at the end of World War 1. This was also known in Italy as the
Fourth Italian War of Independence.
 However, Italy faced numerous problems even after the unification. Revolutionary ideals
never really thrived as the class divide continues.

UNIFICATION OF GERMANY AND ITALY

 The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state
officially occured on January 18, 1871 when Bismarck brought all territory under Prussian
control and crowning Wilhelm I, Kaiser of Germany in 1861.

 1861- Italy was declared a united nation by Camillo di Cavour. A nation state represents the
nation of the rest of the world, and is bonded together by nationalism, language and culture.
 UNIFICATION OF ITALY
• Long Term Cause:
 The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)- were fought in the early 1800’s and resulted in the
reorganization of Italian states. Under the French, Italy was introduced to new ideas that
eventually led to the unification of Italy under a Republican government.

• SHORT TERM CAUSE: BATTLE OF WATERLOO (1815)

 Prussian forces defeated Napoleon in Waterloo, in 1815 bringing an end to Napoleon’s rule
over Italy. This resulted in the turn of monarchy in Italian states.
• SHORT TERM CAUSE: THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815)
 The Congress of Vienna brought peace between England, Austria, France and Prussia, which
resulted in the reformation of old boundaries in Europe. This separated many Italian territories
which resulted in protest from Italians who wanted a unified Italian state.
 Camilo Benso Cavour
➢ was born in 1810, a Piedmontese aristocrat whose name and mother language were
French. It is interesting to note that both Cavour and Garibaldi (q.v.) spoke incorrect Italian.
Trained in journalism, Cavour was editor of the newspaper Il Risorgimento by the time he
was thirty-seven.
➢ Il Risorgimento or ‘Resurrection’ was a movement designed to unite Italy. Austria was a
formidable and intractable opponent of unification, because it dominated Venetia, Lombardy
and most of the peninsula. Habsburgs ruled in Tuscany and Parma, and the Duke of
Modena was also Austrian.

➢ The policy of the newspaper with that name was to persuade Italian rulers to cooperate in
the removal of Austria, with violence if needs be. But the revolution(s) of 1848, in which
Cavour took no part, proved that kicking the Austrians out could not be achieved with
foreign help.
➢ In 1850 Cavour got into the Piedmontese government, and was Prime Minister by 1852. He
stayed as PM until his death, except for a brief period of exclusion in 1859. Cavour hated
Mazzini (q.v.), admired secularism and the free traders, opposed revolutions, and remained
a monarchist; he could have been called a Conservative, were it not for the fact that he
advocated reducing the power of the Church and orchestrated several commercial treaties
with foreign powers. He also expanded the railways and began the process of turning
Piedmont into a more progressive state.

➢ So far so good; but then Cavour entered the Crimean War to please the King, though
Piedmont got nothing out of this ridiculous war. Then Cavour signed an agreement with
Napoleon III at Plombieres; the idea was that a successful war with the Austrians would be
followed by Piedmont gaining Lombardy and Venetia. France would receive Nice and Savoy
in return, from Piedmont. The eventual war only lasted two months, but the French thrashed
Austria at Magenta and Solferino, though losses on both sides were appalling. Napoleon III
suddenly made peace without bothering to conquer Venetia. Put not your trust in princes.
➢ Only Lombardy was gained by Piedmont, and France gained nothing, as the
agreement at Plombieres had not been fulfilled. Camillo Cavour resigned, very angry.
In Central Italy the rulers of Tuscany, Parma and Modena ran away and were replaced
by provincial governments, but then Cavour was told these new governments wanted
Piedmont to annex them. Following his brief resignation (1859) Cavour resumed
power and instantly signed another agreement with Napoleon III!