Explain the political situation of Italy before its unification.
Italy had a long history of political fragmentation. This is shown in the points below
(i) Italians were scattered over several dynastic states as well as the multi-national Habsburg empire.
(ii) During the middle of the 19th century, Italy was divided into seven states of which only one, Sardinia- Piedmont was ruled by an Italian Princely House.
(iii) The North was under Austrian Habsburg, the center was ruled by the pope and the Southern regions were under the domination of the Bourbon kings of Spain.
(iv) Even the Italian language had not any standard common form. It had many’regional and local variations.