Republic of San Marco

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Republic of San Marco" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Republic of San Marco Repubblica di San Marco (Italian) Repùblega Vèneta (Venetian)
1848–1849
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Viva San Marco! ( Italy (via France )		12 October 1866
Currency	Venetian lira
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia Austrian Empire Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia Austrian Empire
See also: Republic of Venice (697–1797)

The Republic of San Marco (

Heavy-handed policing in response to an economic boycott of state monopolies in Austrian-held Milan led to the popular expulsion of the Austrian garrison in the city for five days in March 1848.

Shortly after, the news of revolt in Vienna reached Venice and lead the city to revolt against Austrian rule.

Insurrection and independence

A few days after the independence of Milan and Venice and their affiliation to the

Maintaining independence

King

Despite enthusiastic support for Sardinia by the revolutionaries (the Republic of San Marco and

While Austria was pressed on every front, the divided Italians allowed her time to regroup and to reconquer Venice and the other troubled areas of the empire one by one.^[1]

Militarily, misreadings of the fluctuating political status in northern Italy—combined with Manin's indecision and ill-health, which confined him to bed at critical moments

The Venetian revolutionaries also failed to incorporate the terra ferma (the Venetian mainland) into the lagoon-based republic effectively. While revolutionary reform generated some popular support for the new régime, the revolutionaries recruited few troops there. Mainlanders were mistrustful of Venetian power, probably as a result of old assumptions about the earlier Mariner Republic. This combined with destructive foraging and other damage, which might have been avoided had the revolutionaries recruited across terra ferma.[1] While most of the middle and upper classes still supported the fight for independence, the lower classes of terra ferma were largely indifferent. The Venetian and Lombard troops of Radetzky's army remained mostly loyal and actively fought for Austria.^[3] Mainland recruits could have combined with the 2,000 Papal guards and Neapolitan soldiers under General Pepe, who ignored orders to retreat in favor of supporting the infant republics.^[1] But when Austrians under Nugent marched on Verona, and General Durando led a Piedmontese force to defend, Venice could only supply a few volunteers, later joined by Colonel Ferrari's Papal regulars. This was of no avail, as Nugent's force met up with Radetzky's forces and took Verona easily.^[1]

Meanwhile, Manin retreated from his republican fervor, for fear of offending Charles Albert; this move was, however, both transparent and ineffectual.^[1] He also relied on reinforcement by Piedmontese and Papal troops, not understanding that Piedmont would not welcome a powerful republican neighbour when monarchies were under threat across Europe, or that Pope Pius IX could not continue to support war between two Catholic monarchs practically on his border.^[1] After the Italian rout at the Battle of Custoza on 29 July, Charles Albert abandoned Milan. When Radetzky offered its citizens free passage from the city, half the population left.

On 4 July 1848, the Venetian assembly voted 127–6 to approve Manin's proposal of subsumption into the Kingdom of Sardinia. This lasted only a month, as on 9 August Charles Albert signed an armistice that restored the Piedmontese border at the river Ticino. At the same time, the Piedmontese navy abandoned its support of Venice.^[2]

In early October, followers of Giuseppe Mazzini tried to organize a great republican demonstration, hoping to gain aid from the French Second Republic, convert the city into a centre of Italian liberation, and inspire Garibaldi into an anti-Austrian crusade. But Manin, to avoid offending Charles Albert, suppressed them.^[1] A "federal congress" was to meet in Turin on 12 October 1848, and Prime Minister Vincenzo Gioberti of Piedmont invited Venice to send delegates, but the Venetians declined.^[1] The revolutionary authorities' reaction to Piedmont's declaration of war on Austria illustrated their failure to grasp realities — the Venetian assembly recessed for two weeks.^[1]

Return to Austrian control

The crushing defeat of Italian forces at the

By August, with famine and cholera sweeping the city, Manin proposed that the assembly vote for surrender, threatening to resign if the assembly voted to fight to the last. The assembly, however, agreed, and provided the president with authority to seek terms, which were agreed on 22 August. Radetzky's entrance to Venice on 27 August marked the complete surrender of Venice to the Austrian Empire, restoring the status quo ante bellum and causing Manin to flee Italy, with his family and 39 fellow-revolutionaries, into exile.^[1] Manin's wife died of cholera within hours of their departure for Paris.^[2]

Leadership

Leadership was effectively provided by Daniele Manin throughout the republic's brief existence, but the following heads of state were in place during the 17 months:^[4]

See also

• Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states

References

45°26′N 12°19′E / 45.433°N 12.317°E / 45.433; 12.317