!!!Sardinischer Krieg

Sardinian War, 1) 1848/1849: The  Revolution of 1848 had the character 
of a national revolution against foreign rule in the Italian provinces 
held by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, i.e. Lombardy and Veneto. After 
the  March Revolution in Vienna, Venice (March 17) and Milan (March 
18) rose up and drove out the Austrian military which, under the 
command of J.  Radetzky retreated at first to its fortresses. The 
Italian kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) supported the rebellion, 
invaded Lombardy and seized the capital, Milan. But the Austrian army 
defeated the Sardinians under the leadership of Radetzky at Santa 
Lucia (May 6) and Custozza (July 25), and again in 1849, when the 
armistice concluded thereafter was broken by the King of Sardinia, at 
Mortara (March 21) and Novara (March 23). The city of Brescia was 
defeated by General J. v.  Haynau with particular force. The 
Treaty of Milan (August 6, 1849) restored conditions in the region to 
what they had been before the uprisings, which included reinstating 
the Habsburg archdukes who had been driven out of the Italian 
provinces (Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany and Duke Franz V 
of Modena). On August 22, 1849 even the rebellious Venice (which had 
again become a republic) was forced to capitulate to Radetzky, whose 
fame and popularity in Austria stemmed primarily from these victories.

\\
2) 1859: War broke out when the Italian Kingdom of Sardinia, allied 
with France (Napoleon III), supported the Italian nationalists in 
the then Austrian provinces of Lombardy and Veneto. The Austrian army 
under the leadership of Field Marshall F.  Gyulai suffered a decisive 
defeat at the hands of the Sardinian and French armies at Magenta 
(June 4) and at Solferino (June 24). Under terms agreed upon at the 
Conference of Zurich (November 10, 1859) Austria ceded Lombardy (with 
the exception of the fortresses Mantua and Peschiera) to 
Napoleon III, who then gave them to Sardinia. The house of 
Habsburg was also forced to accept the loss of its Italian 
secundogenitures (Grand Duke Leopold III of Tuscany and Duke Franz V 
of Modena were removed from power by means of plebiscites) and Italy 
was united as a nation-state. The defeat shook Austria ( Neoabsolutism 
) and became one of the catalysts for Emperor Franz Joseph´s 
democratisation measures. - The tremendous loss of life and bloodshed 
at the Battle of Solferino was the stimulus for the founding of the  
Red Cross.

!Literature
Der Krieg in Italien 1859, 3 vols., 1872-76 (Oe. 
Generalstabswerk); La guerra del 1859 ..., 1910-12 (Ital. 
Generalstabswerk); G. Porzio, La guerra regia in Italia nell´ 
1848/49, 1955; B. Wallnig-Mazohl, Die Uebergabe der Lombardei an 
Sardinien-Piemont 1859, Roem. historische Mttlg. 15, 1973.


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