Subalpine Republic | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1800–1802 | |||||||||||
Motto: Liberté, Égalité Liberty, Equality | |||||||||||
Status | Client state of France | ||||||||||
Capital | Turin | ||||||||||
Common languages | Italian, French | ||||||||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism Waldensianism | ||||||||||
Government | Provisional Republic | ||||||||||
Provisional Executive | |||||||||||
• 1801–1802 | Jean-Baptiste Jourdan | ||||||||||
Historical era | French Revolutionary Wars | ||||||||||
• Established | 20 June 1800 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 11 September 1802 | ||||||||||
Currency | French franc | ||||||||||
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The Subalpine Republic (Italian : Repubblica Subalpina) was a short-lived republic that existed between 1800 and 1802 on the territory of Piedmont during its military rule by the French Consulate.
Piedmont was the main part of the Kingdom of Sardinia which, despite its name, had its core on the mainland. The kingdom suffered a first French invasion in 1796, which led to the Treaty of Paris and the loss of Savoy and Nice. After a second invasion in 1798, King Charles Emmanuel IV escaped to Rome, but he never agreed to sign a new peace treaty, approving a final arrangement of its continental territories according to international law.
The Piedmontese Republic was declared on 10 September 1798 and it existed until 20 June 1799, when it was conquered by Austro-Russian troops. However, Russian Marshall Alexander Suvorov was the sole political actor showing the will to restore the Kingdom of Sardinia's authority in Piedmont: as the old Republic’s fate was the annexation to France, the Austrian goal was the union of the region to the Holy Empire. More, this dispute was one of the main reasons of the political collapse of the Second Coalition.
In 1800 Napoleon returned to Italy, taking back much of the new republics. The Piedmontese Republic was re-established on 20 June 1800. To mark a difference with the Austrian occupation, the First Consul temporary suspended his annexation desires, and the local government took the name of Piedmontese Nation (Italian : Nazione Piemontese). [1]
The republic had its capital at Turin. On 9 July 1800, it adopted a new flag, which consisted of a red-blue-gold triband (based on the flag of the earlier Republic of Alba). [2] Its motto was Liberté, Égalité, which was taken from the French motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité . [3]
The Subalpine Republic was heavily dependent on France and was never really independent as it was under French military occupation. The state was not recognized by the international community. Its government changed a number of times during its brief existence, and was made up of the following people: [4]
Government | Members |
---|---|
Commission of Government 27 June – 24 December 1800 | Filippo Avogardo, conte di Quarenga e Cerreto |
Innocenzo Maurizio Baudisson | |
Ugo Bottone, conte di Castellamonte | |
Francesco Brayda | |
Giuseppe Cavalli, conte di Olivola | |
Pietro Gaetano Galli, conte della Loggia | |
Stefano Giovanni Rocci | |
Executive Commission 24 December 1800 – 19 April 1801 | |
Giuseppe Carlo Aurelio di Sant'Angelo | |
Carlo Stefano Giulio | |
Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta | |
Provisional Executive 20 April 1801 – 11 September 1802 | Jean-Baptiste Jourdan |
Paris introduced French-style reforms within the Subalpine Republic. It used the French franc, and also minted its own coins. [5]
In March 1801, when the Treaty of Lunéville ended the war with Austria, Paris resumed its annexation goals, the Piedmontese Army was incorporated into the French Army, and a few months later the administrative management of the region ended up completely in French hands as the Subalpine Gaul. Scholars in Paris underlined the resemblance of the Piedmontese language, at time the popular speaking while the Italian language was limited to the universities, with the French language. On 4 June 1802, Charles Emmanuel abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I, who was in Cagliari under British naval protection. Napoleon took this opportunity to declare the final forfeiture of the old sovereignty over Piedmont, and plans were made to annex it to France.
The Subalpine Republic ceased to exist on 11 September 1802, when it was divided between the French Republic and the Italian Republic. The French Republic annexed the départements of Doire, Marengo, Pô (briefly named "Éridan", after Eridanos), Sesia, Stura, and Tanaro, while the Italian Republic annexed Novara (as the department of Agogna).
Victor Emmanuel I was the Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from 4 June 1802 until his reign ended in 1821 upon abdication due to a liberal revolution. Shortly thereafter, his brother Charles Felix ascended the throne as the new King of Sardinia. Victor Emmanuel was the son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and his wife, Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. In 1789, he married Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, with whom he had seven children, including the future Empress of Austria. He was the King of Sardinia during the Napoleonic Wars, where he regained Piedmont after Napoleon's defeat in 1814.
The Cisalpine Republic was a sister republic or a client state of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802.
The War of the Second Coalition was the second war targeting revolutionary France by many European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join the coalition, while Spain supported France.
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The Ligurian Republic or Republic of Liguria was a French client republic formed by Napoleon on 14 June 1797. It consisted of the old Republic of Genoa, which covered most of the Ligurian region of Northwest Italy, and the small Imperial fiefs owned by the House of Savoy inside its territory. Its first Constitution was promulgated on 22 December 1797, establishing a directorial republic. The directory was deposed on 7 December 1799 and the executive was temporarily replaced by a commission. In 1802, a doge was nominated for a 5-year term, according to the second Constitution imposed by Napoleon, and a Senate was established.
The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the Italian War of 1859, was fought by the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in 1859 and played a crucial part in the process of Italian Unification.
The Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801) were a series of conflicts fought principally in Northern Italy between the French Revolutionary Army and a Coalition of Austria, Russia, Piedmont-Sardinia, and a number of other Italian states.
The Republic of Alba was a revolutionary municipality proclaimed on 26 April 1796, in Alba, Piedmont, when the town was taken by the French army. The municipality had a very short life of only 2 days because, with the Armistice of Cherasco on 28 April 1796, King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia was given back the civil control of all Piedmont.
A sister republic was a republic established by the French First Republic or by local revolutionaries during the French Revolutionary Wars. These republics, though nominally independent, relied heavily on France for protection, making them more akin to autonomous territories rather than independent states. This became particularly evident after the declaration of the French Empire, when several states were annexed, and the remaining turned into monarchies ruled by members of the Bonaparte family.
The United Provinces of Central Italy, also known as the Confederation of Central Italy or General Government of Central Italy, was a short-lived military government established in 1859 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It was formed by a union of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, and the Papal Legations, after the Second Italian War of Independence.
The Republic of San Marco or the Venetian Republic was an Italian revolutionary state which existed for 17 months in 1848–1849. Based on the Venetian Lagoon, it extended into most of Venetia, or the Terraferma territory of the Republic of Venice, suppressed 51 years earlier in the French Revolutionary Wars. After declaring independence from the Habsburg Austrian Empire, the republic later joined the Kingdom of Sardinia in an attempt, led by the latter, to unite northern Italy against foreign domination. But the First Italian War of Independence ended in the defeat of Sardinia, and Austrian forces reconquered the Republic of San Marco on 28 August 1849 following a long siege.
The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom ofSardinia-Piedmont, Sardegna and Corsica or Piedmont–Sardinia as a composite state during the Savoyard period, was a country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century; officially 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of this kingdom.
The Piedmontese Republic was a revolutionary, provisional and internationally unrecognized government established in Turin between 1798 and 1799 on the territory of Piedmont during its military rule by the French First Republic.
The Plombières Agreement of 21 July 1858 was a secret verbal agreement which took place at Plombières-les-Bains between the chief minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and the French Emperor, Napoleon III. Some older English sources refer to it as the Treaty of Plombières. In modern times, it is merely referred to as an "agreement", since nothing was signed.
The flag of Piedmont is one of the official symbols of the region of Piedmont in Italy. The current flag was adopted on 24 November 1995.
The Convention of Alessandria was an armistice signed on 15 June 1800 between the French First Republic led by Napoleon and Austria during the War of the Second Coalition. Following the Austrian defeat at the Battle of Marengo, they agreed to evacuate Italy as far as the Mincio and abandon strongholds in Piedmont and Milan. Great Britain and Austria were allies and hoped to negotiate a peace treaty with France, but Napoleon insisted on separate treaties with each nation. The negotiations failed, and fighting resumed on 22 November 1800.
The Regiment "Nizza Cavalleria" (1st) is a cavalry unit of the Italian Army based in Bellinzago Novarese in Piedmont. The regiment is the reconnaissance unit of the Alpine Brigade "Taurinense". The regiment is named for the County of Nice in France, which makes the regiment, along with the Regiment "Savoia Cavalleria" (3rd), one of two Italian Army units named for a French region, which once was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
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