Roman Republic (19th century)

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See also ancient Roman Republic and Roman Republic (18th century).

Image:Flag of the Repubblica Romana 1849.pngThe Roman Republic was a short-lived (four months) state established in February 1849 when the theocratic Papal States were temporarily overthrown by Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi.

According to the Roman Republic's constitution, all religions could be practiced freely and the pope was guaranteed the right to govern the Catholic Church. Under the regulations of the Papal States at that time, Judaism could be practiced freely by those who were born Jewish and not baptized, although Jews were in many respects discriminated against, and all other religions besides Catholicism and Judaism were forbidden except to visiting foreigners. Additionally, the Constitution of the Roman Republic was the first in the world to abolish capital punishment in its constitutional law.

History

On 15 November 1848, Pellegrino Rossi, Minister of Justice of the papal Government was assassinated; the following day the Romans uprose, asking for social reforms, war against Austria, democratic government (not all the requests were made by the whole people). Pope Pius IX left Rome disguised as an ordinary priest, and went to Gaeta, a papal fortress in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, whence he allowed the formation of a liberal government led by archibishop Carlo Emanuele Muzzarelli. The new government issued some liberal reforms, but Pius IX rejected them and designed a new government, established in Gaeta.

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Without a local government in Rome, popular assemblies decided to issue universal elections on the following 21 January 1849: since the Pope had forbidden Catholics to vote at those elections, the resulting constitutional assembly had republican inclination (in every and each part of the Papal States more than 50% of the potential voters expressed their vote). The Constitutional Assembly proclaimed the Roman Republic February 8. When news reached the city of the decisive defeat of Piedmontese forces at the battle of Novara, the Assembly proclaimed the Triumvirate, of Carlo Armellini (Roman), Mattia Montecchi (Roman) and Aurelio Saliceti (from Teramo, Papal States), and a government, led by Muzzarelli and composed also by Aurelio Saffi (from Forlì, Papal States). Among the first acts of the Republic, there was the proclamation of the right of the Pope to continue his role as head of the Roman Church. The Triumvirate passed popular legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes and give work to the unemployed.

Giuseppe Garibaldi formed the "Italian Legion" with many recruits coming from Piedmont and the Austrian territories of Lombardy and Venetia and took up a station at the border town of Rieti on the border with the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. There the legion rose to about 1000 and gained discipline and organization.

The Pope asked for military help from Catholic countries. Saliceti and Montecchi left the Triumvirate, substituted by Saffi and Giuseppe Mazzini, the Genoese founder of the journal La Giovine Italia, who had been the guiding spirit of the Republic from the start. Mazzini dramatically improved the status of the poor, distributing some of the Church's large landholdings to grateful peasants. He inaugurated prison and insane asylum reforms, freedom of the press, secular education, but shied away from the "Right to Work," having seen this fail in France. Runaway inflation might have doomed the Republic, and sending troops to defend the Piedmont from Austrian forces put Rome at risk of attack from Austria, but the Roman Republic would fall to another, unexpected enemy. In France, President Louis Napoleon, who would soon declare himself emperor Napoleon III was torn. He had participated himself in an attempted insurrection in the States of the Church in 1831, but he needed the endorsement of the Catholics, though he hesitated to betray Italian liberals, and he decided to send troops to restore the Pope.

In April, some eight to ten thousand French troops under General Oudinot landed at Civitavecchia on the coast northwest of Rome. The French expected little resistance from the "usurpers". But after Giuseppe Garibaldi's triumphal entry into Rome at last, on April 27, and the arrival on the 29th of the Lombard Bersaglieri, who had recently driven the Austrians from the streets of Milan in modern house-to-house fighting and the fiercely anti-clerical Romans of Trastevere fought off the French attack, on July 30, and sent them back to the sea. But the Republicans were loth to follow up their advantage with an unexpected enemy who might still prove a friend, and Oudinot was able to regroup and await reinforcements. The Constituent Assembly passed a resolution of protest (May 7). A letter from Louis Napoleon encouraged Oudinot and assured him of French reinforcements. Neapolitan troops entered in Roman Republic territory. Many Italians from outside the Papal States went to Rome to fight for the Republic: among them also Goffredo Mameli, who had tried to form a common state between Roman Republic and Tuscany, and who died because a wound suffered in the defence of Rome.

After a long siege that began in earnest on June 1 and the resistance of the Republican army, led by Garibaldi, the French army entered Rome June 29, reestablishing the Holy See's temporal power. In August Napoleon issued a sort of manifesto in which he asked of Pius IX a general amnesty, a secularized administration, the establishment of the Code Napoléon, and in general a Liberal Government. Pius, from Gaeta, promised reforms that he declared motu proprio, of his own volition, not in answer to the French.

The Pope did not return to Rome itself until April 1850, since the French were considered liberals all the same, and the Pope did not return until assured of no French meddling in his affairs. French soldiers supported the Papal administration in Rome until the end of 1866.