Young Italy

Young Italy (Italian, Giovine Italia), movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini, which aimed for a united republican Italian nation. In the Congress of Vienna held after the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, France returned control of Italian states to their former rulers and a popular movement for a united Italy, the Risorgimento, arose. Mazzini desired a united Italy under a republican government and from 1832 to 1834 he published a journal, Giovine Italia, to popularize his views. By 1833 Young Italy had 50,000 members and so Mazzini set up Young Europe to encourage the growth of national organizations throughout the continent. He also led various failed nationalist uprisings, was active during the 1848 revolutions, and briefly established a Roman Republic in 1849. Young Italy, however, remained a middle-class movement and lack of mass support for revolution caused Mazzini to replace the society with the Italian National Committee (Associazione Nazionale Italiana) in 1848. Mazzini's revolutionary influence subsequently declined, but he did inspire Garibaldi, who helped secure an independent Italy in 1861.