The Battle of Rome 1849 is the English title of an Italian documentary film which premiered in 2020.
The Italian title is La Battaglia di Roma 1849
The topic of this film is the Roman Republic of 1849. This film wants to study the history of the Roman Republic.
What is the historical background?
What happened in 1848 when the spirit of revolution rolled over most of Europe?
How and why was the Roman Republic proclaimed in February 1849?
What did the Roman Republic do while it existed?
What were the policies and the plans of the Roman Republic?
How did the European powers respond to the proclamation and the existence of the Roman Republic?
How and why was the Roman Republic defeated in June 1849?
What happened after the Roman Republic was defeated?
What is the historical significance of the Roman Republic?
How is the Roman Republic connected with the movement for the unification of Italy (known as il risorgimento in Italy)?
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Writer and director: Luigi Cozzi
** Narrator: Vittorio Viscardi
** Music: Vince Tempera
** Language: Italian
** Subtitles: English
** Available on Tubi TV
** Run time: 107 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in this film.
Here are the names of the participants
(listed in alphabetical order):
** Professor Giovanni Adducci – historian – author of the book Un Garibaldino a Casa Giacometti: Roma 1849-1943 (2015)
** Luigi Barion – Presidente Associazione Varese per l’Italia
** Dottore Stefano Bisi – Gran Maestro del Grande Oriente d’Italia
** Dottore Massimo Capone – a student of military medicine and ancient weapons
** Enrico Galetti – Curatore del Museo Storico Nazionale di Artigleria di Torino
** Costanza Samuelli Ferretti Ravizza Garibaldi – a descendant of Giuseppe Garibaldi
** Dottore Enrico Luciani – Presidente Associazione Cipriani
** Professor Aldo Giovanni Ricci – historian
In 1848, there was no country called Italy.
The Italian peninsula was divided into several kingdoms and territories which were controlled by different kings and powers.
In the south, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
(Sicily and Naples)
(1816-1861)
In the west, the Kingdom of Sardinia
(Sardinia-Piedmont)
(1720-1861)
The northern region (the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia) was a part of the Austrian Empire 1815-1866
The Papal States was a conglomeration of territories in the central part of the peninsula under the sovereignty of the Pope and the Catholic Church for more than a thousand years (756-1870).
But the size of the Papal States was not constant from the beginning in 756 to the end in 1870.
Many Italians had a dream: they wanted a unified Italy which should cover the whole peninsula from the south to the north plus the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
The movement for unification is know as il risorgimento in Italy.
Supporters of il risorgimento tried several times to create the state of their dream, but for many years their attempts to create such a state were unsuccessful.
In 1848, a spirit of revolution rolled over most of Europe. The people of many countries wanted and demanded a change of the world in which they lived.
They wanted freedom and democracy. They wanted to put an end to the absolute monarchy. The monarch could stay, but they wanted a constitutional monarchy.
Some of them went even further than that.
They asked:
** Why should there be a monarch?
** Why should there be a monarchy?
** Why not put an end the monarchy and establish a democratic republic?
The absolute rulers of many kingdoms were taken by surprise. They were not prepared for a situation in which the call for reforms were supported by a large part of the population.
Since they were taken by surprise and since they did not know how to stop this massive call for reforms, many of them gave in. They let the people have what they wanted. They accepted the demand for a constitutional monarchy in which the role of the monarch was mostly ceremonial.
They did this in order to survive. But in many cases, they were not honest. They were not serious. It was a trick. They did not really mean it.
They were simply stalling. Hoping that they might after a while find a way to restore their former position.
One or two years later, when they had recovered, the reforms were often cancelled. The former rulers were restored to their old position and power. The people could not be allowed to control the political system.
The Italian peninsula was also affected by the spirit of revolution which rolled over most of Europe in 1848.
The call for nationalism and liberalism - for freedom and democracy - was supported by the people in several kingdoms.
In Rome, the capital of the Papal States, there was a rebellion against the power of the Catholic Church.
On 15 November 1848, the minister of the interior Pellegrino Rossi was assassinated.
Pope Pius IX feared for his safety. He decided to leave the city. On 24 November 1848, he escaped from Rome disguised as an ordinary monk.
He went into exile in Gaeta which is located on the western coast of southern Italy. About halfway between Rome and Naples (Napoli).
Four months later, in February 1849, the Roman Republic was proclaimed. The government of the new republic was led by a triumvirate:
** Carlo Armellini (1777-1863)
** Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)
** Aurelio Saffi (1819-1890)
The word “triumvirate” was borrowed from the past. It was an echo of the ancient Roman Republic in which there were two famous cases of a triumvirate:
** The first triumvirate established in 60 BC by Caesar, Pompey (Pompeius) and Crassus
** The second triumvirate established in 43 BC by Octavian, Mark Antony (Antonius) and Lepidus
What did the Roman Republic do? What were the policies and the plans? They made some major decisions:
** They abolished the death penalty
** They introduced freedom of religion
** They wanted to separate church and state
Compared with other countries at the time, such measures were quite progressive.
How did the Pope respond to the establishment of the Roman Republic? He was extremely upset. He had lost control of the Papal States.
The Roman Republic said the Pope was welcome to return to Rome, but only as the head of the Catholic Church. Not as the ruler of Rome or the Papal States.
He regarded this offer as an insult. He declined the offer. He contacted the governments of the major European powers and asked them for help.
How did they respond to his plea? They were positive. The governments of Austria, France and Spain said they were ready to offer support. Not only moral or political support but also military assistance.
In these countries, there was a large Catholic population. The leaders of these countries were eager to show that they were good Catholics. They were going to help the Pope in this difficult moment.
** Austria sent a military force which restored the northern part of the Papal States to the Pope
** Spain sent a military force which restored the southern part of the Papal States to the Pope
** France sent a military force which focused on Rome. The purpose of this force was to defeat the Roman Republic
The people of Rome were asked to surrender. They said no. They decided to meet force with force. They prepared to defend their republic. They had to create an army.
The army of the Roman Republic was under the command of the famous freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882).
The French campaign against the Roman Republic came in two stages. During the first stage, in April, the French forces were not well-prepared.
They did not imagine that the citizens of Rome could offer any meaningful resistance to a professional army. They were wrong.
The first stage was a defeat for the French forces and a victory for the Roman Republic. The French forces were stopped and pushed back towards to sea.
The French withdrew and waited for reinforcement. The second stage in May and June was a siege. Not a frontal attack. The French forces were going to bomb the city and starve the citizens to death.
This was the death of the Roman Republic. At the end of June 1849, the Roman Republic had been defeated by the French army.
The French attack on the Roman Republic caused death and destruction. Many lives were lost on both sides. The material damages were extensive.
In the film, actress Maria Christina Mastrangeli portrays the famous American journalist Margaret Fuller who was in Rome during the time of the Roman Republic.
While in Italy, she met and married the Italian marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. When the Roman Republic was bombarded by French forces, Margaret and her husband did what they could to support the citizens of Rome.
Margaret worked as a nurse in a hospital where she helped those who were wounded, while her husband was active in the army which tried to oppose the French attack.
In the film, Margaret Fuller presents a personal statement about the terrible conditions which existed in Rome during the French siege of the city.
Citizens were killed and wounded by French bombs. Citizens were starving, because the French forces had isolated the city from the outside world. No provisions or supplies could be delivered to the defenders of the city.
In April 1850, ten months after the Roman Republic had been defeated, the Pope returned to Rome. He had been restored to his previous position. He was once again in control of the Papal States.
Pope Pius IX had been chosen as Pope in 1846.
He began his term with a liberal and tolerant line.
But it seems his exile in Gaeta and the establishment of the Roman republic changed him. When he returned, he was a different person. He had become a hard-core reactionary.
The liberal and tolerant policy had disappeared. Now he followed an authoritarian policy.
He did not realise that the world was changing. He had been restored to power, but the world was no longer the same.
Supporters of il risorgimento had been defeated when the Roman Republic was crushed by military force. But this moment had also revealed the truth about the Pope.
The Pope had no real power. He only had as much power as the major European states were willing to give him.
The movement for the unification of Italy was not finished. The dream lived on. And the movement continued.
In 1859, citizens of Bologna began a rebellion against the Pope. At the time, Bologna was a city in the northern part of the Papal States. The rebellion was successful. The Pope lost control of Bologna.
In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi and the thousand Red Shirts landed on the coast of Sicily where they began a military campaign which was very successful. The army moved slowly but surely towards the north.
In 1861, a unified Italy was proclaimed. The Kingdom of Sardinia, which had transformed itself into the Kingdom of Italy, now controlled almost the whole peninsula.
Two items were still missing:
** Veneto, which was controlled by Austria
** Rome, which was controlled by the Pope and protected by France
In 1866, in connection with the war between Austria and Prussia, the Italians took control of Veneto.
In 1870, in connection with the war between France and Prussia, the Italians took control of Rome.
In 1871, Rome was proclaimed the capital of the unified Italy. The supporters of il risorgimento had finally reached their goal.
Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the state of Italy. He also refused to leave the Vatican. He said he was a prisoner in his own home.
He was allowed to remain where he was. He was allowed to serve as Pope until his death in 1878. He was the head of the Catholic Church. But his sovereignty of the Papal States had come to an end.
What do reviewers say about this film?
This question is not easy to answer. I have not been able to find many reviews of this film.
It is listed on IMDb, but there is no rating. There are no user reviews.
On Amazon there are at the moment two global ratings, but no reviews. One rating offers five stars, while the other rating offers three stars.
This means the average rating is four stars, which corresponds to a rating of 80 percent.
A review of the film is posted on the Italian website Taxidrivers.
This review, written by Riccardo Rosati and posted on 08 March 2020, does not offer a specific rating, but it is quite positive.
In my opinion, the rating on Amazon is very appropriate.
This film is good but not great.
This film offers much useful information, but when maps are shown on the screen, they disappear too quickly. There is not enough time to study the details of the map.
The story of the 1849 Roman Republic is a significant chapter of the movement for the unification of Italy (il risorgimento).
The story of the 1849 Roman Republic deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done quite well.
This is why La Bataglio di Roma 1849 deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was president of France 1848-1852.
When his time as president was coming to an end, he staged a coup d’état against himself. The coup was successful.
He proclaimed himself Emperor of the French. Under the name Napoleon III he ruled France 1852-1870.
His empire was dissolved in 1870 when he lost the war with Prussia. He went into exile in the UK where he died in 1873.
PS # 2. The French army which was sent to the Italian peninsula was under the command of General Nicholas Charles Victor Oudinot (1791-1863).
PS # 3. Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850) was a famous American writer. In 1845, she published a book about the American woman.
In 1846, she travelled to Europe where she was going to work as a foreign correspondent.
In Europe she met several prominent persons, including the famous leader of the movement for Italian unification Giuseppe Mazzini.
In 1848, she was in the Italian peninsula when the spirit of revolution rolled over most of Europe.
She met and married Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. In September 1848, the couple had a son Angelino.
In 1850, the family decided to go to the US. In July, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly before arrival, there was a terrible storm and the ship went aground on a sandbar, not far from the shore.
Many passengers jumped into the water and swam to the shore. But Margaret and her husband could not swim, so they remained on the ship.
No help was coming from the shore. Suddenly, there was a huge wave and they were washed overboard.
The body of Angelino was later found. But the bodies of Margaret and her husband were never found.
REFERENCES
The Italian Risorgimento:
State, Society and National Unification
By Lucy Riall
(1994)
The Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy
By Derek Beales and Eugenio F. Biagini
(2002 = first edition)
(2015 = second sedition)
The Pope Who Would be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe
By David Kertzer
(2018)
*****
Member of the triumvirate (1849)
The Roman Republic
Carlo Armellini
(1777-1863)
*****
Member of the triumvirate (1849)
Giuseppe Mazzini
(1805-1872)
*****
Member of the triumvirate (1849)
Aurelio Saffi
(1819-1890)
*****
The famous freedom fighter
Giuseppe Garibaldi
(1807-1882)
*****
The famous American journalist
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli
(1810-1850)
*****
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