Eagles over Italy: The Second Italian War of Independence in the liberal London press

Abstract

Britain remained neutral during the brief but deadly Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 – fought in Italy by France and Sardinia-Piedmont against Austria. Traditionally, historians emphasize the importance of the war as a step toward Italian Unification, occurring in 1861, and for the re-normalization of warfare in the European continent on its march to 1914. These interpretations necessarily overlook contemporary reactions to the conflict as it occurred. This thesis uses a close reading of British newspapers and periodicals printed during the war to explore how Britons viewed themselves, and others, in relation to the conflict. For midcentury Britons, the tendency for states to engage in, or to avoid, war itself became a marker of civilization and progress, and a way for neutral Britain – whose enthusiasm for Italian liberty was tempered by its antipathy for conflict – to perceive others. War was deemed a regressive pursuit, and where nations had once been entangled by military conflict, they were now derided for their proclivity to it. In this sense, war constitutes part of the liberal language which Britons used to distinguish themselves from continental autocracies. Crucially, 1859 shows how the notion of war pervaded British discourses regarding the state of (and states of) their European context.