1859 conflict between Sardinia (with France) and Austria
"Franco-Austrian War" redirects here. For other uses, see Franco-Austrian War (disambiguation).
Second Italian War of Independence
Part of the wars of Italian unification and the French-Habsburg rivalry
Napoleon III at the Battle of Solferino, by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, oil on canvas, 1863
Date
26 April – 12 July 1859 (2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Lombardy–Venetia, Piedmont and the Austrian Littoral
Result
Franco-Sardinian victory
Armistice of Villafranca
Territorial changes
Sardinia annexes Lombardy from Austria, occupies and later annexes Habsburg-ruled Tuscany, Modena and Emilia. France gains Savoy and Nice from Sardinia.
Belligerents
France Sardinia
Austria
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon III P. de MacMahon Victor Emmanuel II Giuseppe Garibaldi Alfonso La Marmora
Franz Josef I Ferenc Gyulay Ferdinand Maximilian Ludwig von Benedek Karl von Urban
Strength
: 128,000 312 guns Sardinia: 56,000 90 guns[1]
: 198,000 824 guns
Casualties and losses
: c. 11,000 killed or died of wounds 1,128 missing 17,054 wounded 2,040 disease related deaths Total: 25,720 casualties : 1,533 killed 3,572 wounded 1,268 missing[2] Total: unknown
: c. 23,000 killed or died of wounds[2] Total: unknown
v
t
e
Second Italian War of Independence
Montebello
Varese
San Fermo
Palestro
Turbigo
Boffalora
Magenta
Melegnano
Treponti
Solferino
The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the Italian War of 1859 (Italian: Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; German: Sardinischer Krieg; French: Campagne d'Italie),[3] was fought by the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in 1859 and played a crucial part in the process of Italian Unification.
A year prior to the war, in the Plombières Agreement, France agreed to support Sardinia's efforts to expel Austria from Italy in return for territorial compensation in the form of the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice. The two states signed a military alliance in January 1859. Sardinia mobilised its army on 9 March 1859, and Austria mobilized on 9 April. On 23 April, Austria delivered an ultimatum to Sardinia demanding its demobilization. Upon Sardinia's refusal, the war began on 26 April. Austria invaded Sardinia three days later, and France declared war on Austria on 3 May.
The Austrian invasion was stopped by the arrival of French troops in Piedmont that had begun in late April. The Austrians were defeated at the Battle of Magenta on 4 June and pushed back to Lombardy, where the Franco-Sardinian victory at the Battle of Solferino on 24 June resulted in the end of the war and the signing of the Armistice of Villafranca on 12 July.
Austria ceded Lombardy to France, which, in turn, gave it to Sardinia. Exploiting the collapse of Austrian power in Italy, Sardinia annexed the United Provinces of Central Italy, consisting of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio and the Papal Legations, on 22 March 1860. Two days later, Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France at the Treaty of Turin as compensation for its assistance.
^Micheal Clodfelter. "Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000", 4th Edition. 2017. Page 181.
^ abClodfelter, p. 181
^Arnold Blumberg, A Carefully Planned Accident: The Italian War of 1859 (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990); Arnold Blumberg, "Russian Policy and the Franco-Austrian War of 1859", The Journal of Modern History, 26, 2 (1954): 137–53; Arnold Blumberg, The Diplomacy of the Austro-Sardinian War of 1859, Ph.D. diss. (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 1952).
and 24 Related for: Second Italian War of Independence information
The SecondItalianWarofIndependence, also called the Sardinian War, the Austro-Sardinian War, the Franco-Austrian War, or the ItalianWarof 1859 (Italian:...
The Third ItalianWarofIndependence (Italian: Terza guerra d'indipendenza italiana) was a war between the Kingdom ofItaly and the Austrian Empire fought...
The First ItalianWarofIndependence (Italian: Prima guerra d'indipendenza italiana), part of the Italian Unification (Risorgimento), was fought by the...
ofwarsofindependence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal ofindependence. Lists of active...
of 1855 in the Crimean War. The Grand Crimean Central Railway was just 7 miles (11 km) long, and was purpose built. During the SecondItalianWarof Independence...
Bonaparte SecondItalianWarofIndependence, an 1859 campaign fought by Napoleon III of France and Kingdom of Sardinia against Austria Italian campaign...
actions during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849, and his participation in the SecondItalianWarofIndependence in 1859. Von Urban was the first commander...
in the SecondItalianWarofIndependence in 1859 and the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and also featured prominently in the American Civil War. The Lorenz...
an Italian soldier and politician who was the eldest son of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Anita Garibaldi. He fought in the Second and Third warsofItalian Unification...
World War is also considered the Fourth ItalianWarofIndependence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the...
the Papal Legations, after the SecondItalianWarofIndependence. After August 1859, the pro-Piedmontese regimes of Tuscany, Parma, Modena and the Papal...
Italy until the SecondItalianWarofIndependence. After witnessing the liberal friendly events that were occurring in Rome, the people of other states...
The national flag ofItaly (Italian: bandiera d'Italia, pronounced [banˈdjɛːra diˈtaːlja]), often referred to in Italian as il Tricolore (pronounced [il...
rights on the other. After the SecondItalianWarofIndependence, much of northern Italy was unified under the House of Savoy's government; in the aftermath...
occasion of the 50th anniversary, and also celebrated, in the Republican era, in 1961 and 2011. Following the SecondItalianWarofIndependence and the...
the alliance with the Kingdom of Sardinia, initiating the SecondItalianWarofIndependence. During the conflict, the Sardinian-French army achieved two...
Carignano, and Maria Theresa of Austria, he fought in the First ItalianWarofIndependence (1848–1849) before being made King of Sardinia following his father's...
American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American WarofIndependence, was a military conflict...
Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire, during the SecondItalianWarofIndependence. It resulted in a French-Sardinian victory under Napoleon...
Adelaide of Austria, Umberto took part in the ItalianWarsofIndependence as a commander of the Royal Sardinian Army. He assumed the Italian throne in...
the Italian unification and Third ItalianWarofIndependence in 1866, there were areas with Italian-speaking communities within the borders of several...
Global Information
France
Sardinia
Austria