"It was Italian nationalism that caused the first stirrings of revolution in 1848" Discuss

1848 was a year that, according to some historians, brought many revolutions to Europe including Italy. The revolution was not caused by one factor alone, it was a combination of events that lead Italy to revolution in 1848. By 1848 the Italian peninsula was politically organised into a number of absolute dynastic and clerical states. The Vienna settlement, in 1815, created five main groups of states in Italy. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, The Papal States, The Central Duchies, The Austrian Empire in Lombardy and Venetia and The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia formed the group of five. At the beginning of 1848, the reforms of Pope Pius IX in the Papal States and of Charles Albert in Piedmont had encouraged the Italian nationalists. The first risings in the Italian peninsula were not because of Italian nationalism, which did not exist...