Austria and the Papal States in the Context of the Italian Liberal-national Movement, 1838–1848

Abstract

the project SGS-2018-018 ; The aim of the study is to analyse Austro-papal relations in the period 1838–1848 in the context of the Italian liberal-national movement. The reactionary, backward, absolutist regime of the papal government had often been the cause of the crises in the Papal States in the pre-March period, with the most significant one being in 1831, when it was only through Austrian military intervention that the papal regime survived. The papal government was unwilling to change the course of its internal policy and transform the Papal States for the sake of both its subjects and its government. Therefore, when it came to reforming the papal regime, Metternich's lifelong advising of the Pope was like beating a dead horse. Austria's readiness to intervene militarily whenever requested by the Pope was the most important part of Metternich's diplomatic passivity within his papal policy during the 1840s, although none of the local uprisings in this period required the intervention of Austrian troops. The change in the Austrian chancellor's approach to Rome emerged because of the reform course of Pius IX, who was elected Pope in the summer of 1846. The Pope's utter disinterest and opposition to Austria after 1846 eventually resulted in the ultimate fall of Metternich's papal policy.