abstract
| - Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy had been crowned King of Italy on March 17, 1861, his reign did not control Venetia and Lazio. The situation of the Irredente (a later Italian term for part of the country under foreign domination, literally meaning un-redeemed) created an unceasing state of tension for the inner politics of the newly created Kingdom, as well as being a cornerstone of its foreign policy. A first attempt to capture Rome was that of 1862 by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Confiding in the King's neutrality, he had set sail from Genoa to Palermo. Collecting 1,200 volunteers, he moved from Catania and landed at Melito, in Calabria, on August 24 to reach the Aspromonte, with intention to climb the peninsula up to Rome. The Piedmontese general Enrico Cialdini, however, sent a division under colonel Pallavicino to stop the volunteer army. Garibaldi himself was wounded in the ensuing battle, and taken prisoner along with his men. The growing divergences between Austria and the growing Prussia's predominance in Germany turned into an open war in 1866, offering Italy an occasion to regain Venetia. On April 8, 1866 the Italian government signed a military alliance with Prussia, through the mediation of Napoleon III of France. Italian armies, led by general Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, were to engage the Austrians on the southern front. Simultaneously, taking advantage of their naval superiority, the Italians threatened the Dalmatian coast, forcing Austria to move part of its forces there from the central European front.
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