Happy Birthday Italy!

Buon Compleanno Italia!

It was on this day in 1861, with the work of unification (mostly) done that the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed to the world with HM King Vittorio Emanuele II of Piedmont-Sardinia likewise proclaimed the first King of Italy. In one of those twists that history tends to present, it was also on this day in 1805 that the Italian Republic, a creation of Napoleone Buonaparte and of which he was President, became the (Napoleonic) Kingdom of Italy, so it is an historic date indeed. Of course, in 1861, the work of reunification was not entirely finished. Much of the northeast remained under Austrian rule and the Eternal City of Rome was still occupied by French troops. However, for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula was united from the Alps to Sicily under one Italian government with one Italian monarch. Some areas remained to still be 'redeemed' but the most difficult first steps had been taken and the majority of the work accomplished. About ten years later King Vittorio Emanuele II would enter Rome to make the Eternal City again the capital of Italy but it would be left to his successors to see the remnants of the Italian nation still under foreign rule brought into the arms of their countrymen. This historic occasion should serve as an inspiration to all patriotic Italians to see that original monarchy restored, to see true independence restored and to see all Italians again united as one family in one common cause.