| Second Italian War of Independence | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the wars ofItalian unification and theFrench–Habsburg rivalry | |||||||||
 Battle of Solferino, 24 June 1859 Adolphe Yvon | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 France Sardinia |  Austria | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Napoleon IIIP. de MacMahonVictor Emmanuel IIGiuseppe GaribaldiAlfonso La Marmora | Franz Josef IFerenc GyulayFerdinand MaximilianLudwig von BenedekKarl von Urban | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| : 128,000 312 guns Sardinia: 56,00090 guns[1] | : 198,000 824 guns | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| :c. 11,000 killed or died of wounds 1,128 missing 17,054 wounded 2,040 disease related deaths Total: 25,720 casualties : 1,533 killed3,572 wounded 1,268 missing[2] Total: Unknown | :c. 23,000 killed or died of wounds[2] Total: Unknown | ||||||||
TheSecond Italian War of Independence, also called theSardinian War, theAustro-Sardinian War, theFranco-Austrian War, or theItalian War of 1859,[3] was fought by theSecond French Empire and theKingdom of Sardinia against theAustrian Empire in 1859 and played a crucial part in the process ofItalian Unification.
A year prior to the war, in thePlombières Agreement, France agreed to support Sardinia's efforts to expel Austria from Italy in return for territorial compensation in the form of theDuchy of Savoy and theCounty of Nice. The two states signed amilitary alliance in January 1859. Sardinia mobilised its army on 9 March 1859, and Austria mobilized on 9 April. On 23 April, Austria delivered an ultimatum to Sardinia demanding its demobilization. Upon Sardinia's refusal, the war began on 26 April. Austria invaded Sardinia three days later, and France declared war on Austria on 3 May.
The Austrian invasion was stopped by the arrival of French troops in Piedmont that had begun in late April. The Austrians were defeated at theBattle of Magenta on 4 June and pushed back toLombardy, where the Franco-Sardinian victory at theBattle of Solferino on 24 June resulted in the end of the war and the signing of theArmistice of Villafranca on 12 July.
Austria ceded Lombardy to France, which, in turn, gave it to Sardinia. Exploiting the collapse of Austrian power in Italy, Sardinia annexed theUnited Provinces of Central Italy, consisting of theGrand Duchy of Tuscany, theDuchy of Parma, theDuchy of Modena and Reggio and the Papal Legations, on 22 March 1860. Two days later, Sardinia cededSavoy andNice to France at theTreaty of Turin as compensation for its assistance.
The Piedmontese, following their defeat by Austria in theFirst Italian War of Independence, recognized their need for allies. That led Prime MinisterCamillo Benso, Count of Cavour to attempt to establish relations with other European powers, partially through Piedmont's participation in theCrimean War. In thepeace conference atParis after the Crimean War, Cavour attempted to bring attention to efforts for Italian unification. He found Britain and France to be sympathetic but refusing to go against Austrian wishes, as any movement towards Italian independence would threaten Austria's territory ofLombardy–Venetia. Private talks between Napoleon III and Cavour after the conference identified Napoleon as the most likely candidate to aid Italy although he was still uncommitted.
On 14 January 1858,Felice Orsini, an Italian, led an attempt on Napoleon III's life. Theassassination attempt brought widespread sympathy for the Italian unity and had a profound effect on Napoleon III himself, who now was determined to help Piedmont against Austria to defuse the wider revolutionary activities, which governments in Italy might later allow to happen. After acovert meeting atPlombières on 21 July 1858, Napoleon III and Cavour signed a secret treaty of alliance against Austria on 28 January 1859.
France would help Piedmont-Sardinia, if attacked, to fight against Austria if Piedmont-Sardinia gaveNice andSavoy to France in return. The secret alliance served both countries by helping with the Sardinian-Piedmontese plan of unification of theItalian Peninsula under theHouse of Savoy. It also weakened Austria, a fiery adversary of Napoleon III'sFrench Second Empire.
Cavour, being unable to get French help unless the Austrians attacked first, provoked Vienna by a series of military maneuvers close to the border. Sardinia mobilised its army on 9 March 1859. Austria mobilised on 9 April 1859 and issued an ultimatum on 23 April demanding the complete demobilisation of the Sardinian Army. When it was not heeded, Austria started a war against Sardinia on 26 April.
The first French troops entered Piedmont on 25 April, and France declared war on Austria on 3 May.[4]
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The French Army for the Italian campaign had 170,000 soldiers, 2,000 horsemen and 312 guns, half of the whole French army. The army, under the command of Napoleon III, divided into five corps: the I Corps, led byAchille Baraguey d'Hilliers; the II Corps, led byPatrice de MacMahon; the III Corps, led byFrançois Certain de Canrobert, the IV Corps; led byAdolphe Niel, and the V Corps, led by princeNapoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte. TheImperial Guard was commanded byAuguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély.
Napoleon III participated in the war and showed up on the battlefield in the belief that it would motivate the French people during the war. That would prove successful.
The Sardinian Army had about 70,000 soldiers, 4,000 horsemen and 90 guns. It was divided into five divisions, led by Castelbrugo,Manfredo Fanti,Giovanni Durando,Enrico Cialdini andDomenico Cucchiari. Two volunteer formations, theCacciatori delle Alpi and theCacciatori degli Appennini, were also present. It was led byVictor Emmanuel II of Savoy, supported byAlfonso Ferrero la Marmora.
The Austrian Army fielded more men with 220,000 soldiers, 824 guns and 22,000 horsemen. It was led byField MarshalFerencGraf Gyulay.
While theLorenz rifle proved to be superior over the FrenchMinié rifles,[5] the Austrian infantry did not receive proper training to take full advantage of their new rifles. Another problem for the Austrians was that most of its multi-ethnic army did not speak German, thus their soldiers were unable to follow the orders of their officers. According to Wawro, while the Austrian Army used nine different languages (including Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Italian) during peacetime, in battle only German was used. One Austrian officer recalled that his Slavic troops weren't even able to understand the command "Halt".[6]
The newly-formedUnited Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia also supported the Franco-Italian alliance. Their ruler,Alexandru Ioan Cuza, was given 10,000 rifles and ammunition by Napoleon III. Napoleon III, with his unwavering and very genuine sympathy, also sent a military mission toBucharest. Encouraged, Cuza formed a new military camp atPloiești. As a result, Austria had to keep 30,000 troops inTransylvania, which could ill be spared from Italy.[7]
The French Army, underMarshal François Certain Canrobert, moved intoPiedmont in the first massivemilitary use of railways. The Austrian forces counted on a swift victory over the weaker Sardinian Army before French forces could arrive in Piedmont. However, Count Gyulai, the commander of the Austrian troops inLombardy, was very cautious and marched around the riverTicino in no specific direction until he crossed it to begin the offensive. Unfortunately for him, very heavy rains began to fall, which allowed the Piedmontese to flood the rice fields in front of his advance and slowed his army's march to a crawl.
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The Austrians, under Gyulai, capturedNovara on 30 April andVercelli on 2 May and advanced onTurin from 7 May onward. The Franco-Sardinian move to strengthen theAlessandria andPo bridges aroundCasale Monferrato forced the Austrians to halt their advance on 9 May and to fall back on 10 May. Napoleon III left Paris on 10 May, landed at Genoa on 12 May and arrived in Alessandria on 14 May.
Napoleon then took the command of the operations of the war, whose first major clash was theBattle of Montebello on 20 May, between the Austrian IX Corps led byKarl von Urban (under the general command of Stadion) andForey's division, part of the French I Corps under marshal d'Hilliers. The Austrians retreated after 9 hours of combat when the Sardinian Cavalry underDe Sonnaz arrived, which made Gyulai even more cautious.
Napoleon III crossed the Ticino river after the Battle of Turbigo and entered Lombardy. He advanced with part of his force and sent many other troops to the north to flank the Austrians. The Austrians planned a resistance before Milan, however they were defeated at theBattle of Magenta on 5 June, which caused Gyulai to retreat east of the river Mincio to thequadrilateral fortresses, where he was relieved of his post as commander by the EmperorFranz Josef, who assumed the command himself.
The Piedmontese-French army tookMilan and slowly marched further east to finish off Austria beforePrussia could get involved.
During the retreat, the Austrians won one of their only victories of the war, when Karl von Urban defeated Giuseppe Garibaldi at theBattle of Treponti.
The Austrians found out that the French had halted atBrescia and decided that they should counterattack along the river Chiese. The two armies met accidentally aroundSolferino, which precipitated a confused series of battles.
A French corps held off three Austrian corps all day at Medole and kept them from joining the larger battle around Solferino, where, after a day-long battle, the French broke through.Ludwig von Benedek with the Austrian VIII Corps was separated from the main force and defendedPozzolengo against the Piedmontese part of the opposing army. It was successful, but the entire Austrian army retreated after the breakthrough at Solferino and withdrew back into the Quadrilateral.[8]
Meanwhile, in the north of Lombardy, the Italian volunteers ofGiuseppe Garibaldi'sHunters of the Alps defeated the Austrians atVarese andComo, and the Piedmontese-French Navy landed 3,000 soldiers and conquered the islands ofLosinj (Lussino) andCres (Cherso), inDalmatia.[9]
After the Battle of Solferino, a cease fire was agreed on 8 July. The two emperors met on 11 July at Villafranca di Verona and the armistice was signed on the following day - thePeace of Villafranca.
Napoleon III signed the armistice with Austria at Villafranca for a combination of reasons. The Austrians had retreated tothe Quadrilateral, which would be very costly to overrun. His absence in France had made the country vulnerable to attack. His actions in Italy were being criticised in France. He did not want Cavour and Piedmont to gain too much power, mostly at the expense of his men. He feared involvement of the German states. Most ofLombardy, with its capital,Milan, excluding only the Austrian fortresses ofMantua andLegnago and the surrounding territory, was transferred from Austria to France, which would immediately cede the territories to Sardinia. The rulers of Central Italy, who had been expelled by revolution shortly after the beginning of the war, were to be restored.
The agreement, made by Napoleon behind the backs of his Sardinian allies, led to great outrage in Piedmont-Sardinia, and Cavour resigned in protest. However, the Villafranca terms never took effect. Although they were reaffirmed by the finalTreaty of Zürich in 11 November, the agreement had become a dead letter. The central Italian states were occupied by Piedmont, which would not restore the previous rulers, and France was unwilling to force them to do so.
The Austrians were left to look on in frustration at the French failure to carry out the terms of the treaty. Austria had emerged triumphant after the suppression of liberal movements in 1849, but its status as a great power on the European scene was now seriously challenged and its influence in Italy severely weakened.
As such, on 22 March 1860, with French and British approval, the United Provinces of Central Italy (including theDuchy of Parma,Duchy of Modena,Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and part of thePapal States) were annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, and France took its deferred rewards ofSavoy andNice. This latter move was vehemently opposed by Italian national hero Garibaldi, a native of Nice, and directly led toGaribaldi's expedition to Sicily, which would complete the preliminaryUnification of Italy.[10] The annexation of Nice to France caused theNiçard exodus, or the emigration of a quarter of theNiçard Italians to Italy,[11] and theNiçard Vespers.
During the war,Prussia also mobilized 132,000 men, but never joined the fighting. The weaknesses laid bare during the mobilization caused the Prussian Army to initiate military reforms.[12] These reforms were the basis for Prussia's rapid victories overAustria in 1866 andFrance in 1870-71, which led to a united Germany under Prussian dominance.[13]
