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Article: Risorgimento
- Article from:
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
CopyrightThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information)
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Risorgimento [Ital.,=resurgence
], in 19th-century Italian history, period of cultural nationalism and of political activism, leading to unification of Italy.
Roots of the Risorgimento
The Risorgimento's roots lie in 18th-century Italian culture in the works of such people as Ludovico Antonio
Muratori
, Vittorio
Alfieri
, and Antonio
Genovesi
. Italy had not been a single political unit since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th cent., and from the 16th through the 18th cent. foreign domination or influence was virtually complete. During the French Revolutionary Wars and the period dominated by
Napoleon I
, the temporary expulsion of Austrian and other repressive ...