4.31 Europe: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 3/28)

Italy

Italy had a population of about 15,000,000, living under divided rule. The old noble families of Florence and Venice were shrinking and fresh blood had to be brought in. Titles were granted for money. (Ref. 292 ) The Habsburgs took over Tuscany in 1737 and except for Venetia, Genoa and Savoy, they soon controlled all of northern Italy. The Papal States and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies remained as previously, and the Genoese Republic remained independent but was constantly encroached on by Savoy, France and Austria. The forces which led to the revolution in France were also at work in Italy in the last of the century and when the French Revolution did break out, some Italian states tried to join in a coalition against France. As a result, Napoleon invaded the peninsula, crushed all resistance and once again Italy became a French dependency. At that time, General Napoleon was only a young army wizard, but that military conquest initiated his climb up the ladder of fame and power. The 1797 Treaty of Camp Formio, however, gave Venice to Austria

Naples, with perhaps 500,000 people, was the 4th largest city in Europe, although at the end of the century at least 100,000 were extremely poor, living like "filthy animals". (Ref. 260 ) All southern Italy had a feudal system, with powerful barons who were sovereigns on their own estates. In the Kingdom of Naples over 50% of the population were subject to feudal justice and in some provinces this was over 80%. As in the rest of Europe, food supplies in Italy frequently were short and unreliable. As an example, Florence experienced hunger in 111 years of the 400 leading up to 1791 and had had only 16 "very good" harvests in that same period. Maize, with its high yield, finally put an end to the recurrent famines in Venetia. All over Italy, soon the peasants ate maize and sold their wheat. Transportation and communications remained slow. With horses, coaches, ships and runners, messages could make at most 100 kilometers in 24 hours. (Ref. 260 )

The islands bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea were in constant political turmoil throughout this century. In 1713 Spain ceded Sardinia (along with Naples) to Austria and Sicily to Savoy, but by 1720 the latter had exchanged Sicily for Sardinia. In 1732 Genoa recovered Corsica from insurgent forces, who had revolted two years previously, but French help was necessary to control the island. In the same spot local clans under Paoli again rebelled in 1755 against Genoese rule and established a democracy, but France bought the island from Genoa in 1768 and crushed Paoli, only to see him rise again in 1793. On the latter occasion he was defeated by Napoleon, himself a Corsican. In that same year, Sardinia tried to get autonomy within the combined kingdom of Piedmont-Sardina. Through this century Sardinia was a strong military state - the Prussia of Italy. Usually it was allied with Austria through Eugene of Savoy, a great military leader for the Habsburgs.