22-23 March: the Battle of Novara, a defeat that opened the door to the unification of Italy

By now we have forgotten the dates of history, both the happy ones and the tragic ones. No one remembers that the tragic battle of Novara was fought on 22-23 March 1849, ending with a crushing defeat of the Piedmontese army and the first instances of independence, and with a crushing victory of the Austrian Empire and of General Radetzky, a soldier career and great experience. Yet the defeat was the first step towards the unification of Italy, because, if nothing else, it made it clear what wasn't working, which characters were inadequate and led to the emergence of new figures of different quality.

If you want a description of the tactical movements of the battle, we invite you to read this link, which will lead you to a succinct and careful analysis of the battle. We just want to expose some key points of the event:

• The battle was also lost due to the timidity and inadequacy of the command of Charles Albert and his government, who looked for a foreign general for a national war and also found the worst possible one, namely the Pole Wojciech Chrzanowski who did not even speak English Italian, did not know the terrain, did not have the necessary military skills;
• the Battle also arose from the confusion of an army divided in two by the Po, between Alessandria, the army base (go and visit the crumbling, but enormous, citadel) and the need to defend the Ticino and the directrix towards the capital, Turin;
• the conjunction between these two fronts was entrusted to one of the least prepared Italian generals, Remorino, who in fact left a hole in the deployment;
• between an easy retreat, which however would have ensured the reunification of the army, towards Vercelli and then Casale Monferrato, and an easy one, but which would have condemned the army to be divided and therefore easily beatable. Chrzanowski took the easy way out;
• The King, defeat understood, tried to die on the battlefield, but in a cold way, without ability to drag the troops, and he didn't succeed. His two sons, Vittorio Emanuele and Ferdinando, did well, as their role required;
• The Piedmontese generals behaved courageously, and two of them, Perrone and Passalacqua, died in battle. Like them, the soldiers behaved well, at least until the final defeat;
  

  Giuseppe Luigi Passalacqua, first Gold Medal of the Risorgimento

• the defeat led to a complete change of leadership. Carlo Alberto abdicated in favor of Vittorio Emanuele II, who, perhaps not even fully understanding the scope of the decision, kept the statute and the Parliament. After a military interlude (De Launey), Massimo D'Azeglio came to power first and then Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour.

Without the defeat there would have been no decade of preparation and therefore the unification of Italy. Because without defeats you cannot grow.

PS: remember that the famous “Radetzky March” by Strauss was written to celebrate our defeat in Novara…

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The article 22-23 March: the Battle of Novara, a defeat that opened the doors to the Unification of Italy comes from Scenari Economici .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/22-23-marzo-la-battaglia-di-novara-una-sconfitta-che-apri-le-porte-allunita-ditalia/ on Wed, 22 Mar 2023 20:37:54 +0000.