After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the empire's home province of Italia became fragmented among several small kingdoms established by the invading barbarians that precipitated and hastened the corrupt empire's demise. The Italian peninsula - though inhabited by many peoples that eventually coalesced into a single Italian national identity, remained fragmented politically until the latter half of the 19th century. During this time, of course, there was no single flag that represented all of the many kingdoms that occupied the Italian peninsula. It was not until Napoleon Bonaparte entered the scene that the idea of Italian emblems and colors emerged Though the colors of green, white, and red originated in Italy itself, it is largely believed that Napoleon chose the color combination in an attempt to create an Italian puppet state willing to cooperate with his mission to conquer Europe. It is for this reason that the colors on the Italian flag are organized in a tri-band design very similar to the tri-band of republican France, only using Italian colors instead of French.
The first known use of the Italian colors - green, white, and red - occurred on the military uniforms of the civic militia of Milan in 1796. The uniforms of the Milanese militia were originally simply green and white. Because of this, the local citizenry referred to the troops as Remolazzitt, or the Little Radishes. Red was added when the miiltia was upgraded to the status of the national guard by Napoleon. One year later, Napoleon and his troops erected the Cispadana Republic as the first of several Italian client states. For this republic's flag, Napoleon chose the colors of the Milan militia. However,the flag was arranged horizontally with the red band at the top and the green band on the bottom. When this republic was combined with the Transpadane Republic in 1797 to form the Cispadane Republic, the flag was rearranged to form the now familiar Italian tricolor. The vertical tricolor was most notably used by the Legion Lombarda in the military proportions of 1:1.
When Napoleon was finally brought under control with his exile to St. Helena in the South Atlantic, Europe was left in chaos. The old Europe was but a memory and a new status quo had to be established if order was to be established in Napoleon's wake. The Congress of Vienna was convened in order to create the new European reality. The Congress was given the authority to determine the status of states and nations in Europe in an attempt to redraw the boundaries of Europe in a manner that its delegates believed would be the least contentious. Nationalism was on the rise in Europe at this time, ironically because of Napoleon's political philosophy - but nationalism was still mistrusted. After all, it was nationalistic zeal that gave rise to Napoleon's rampage. Some nations emerged through the Congress of Vienna intact, others were specifically denied the right to unify if they were deemed as threats to the new stability of Europe. With the exception of Venice and Genoa, almost all of the pre-Napoleonic Italian city-states were restored. (Venice was transferred to the Austrians and Genoa was transferred to the Duchy of Savoy.) In spite of this, and in spite of the chaos Napoleon left throughout Europe, he did have one redeeming quality. Wherever he planted client states, he sowed the seed of the ideas of the French Revolution, including the idea of national self-determination. Following Napoleon's exit from the political scene in Europe, nationalistic patriots attempted to establish states based on national identities. In Italiy, most of these nationalists failed in their attempts. However, in the 1860s. the House of Savoy in Sardenia became patrons of the idea of Italian national identity. The Kingdom of Italy was the first relatively successful attempt to unify the Italian peninsula, though Italy did not become completely unified until 1871. |
