Austro-Neapolitan War
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The Austro-Neapolitan War was a military conflict between the kingdom of Naples and Austria in 1815.
[edit] Background
The French emperor Napoleon had created a system of satellite states in Europe, including the kingdom of Naples. Initially, Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte ruled, then in 1808 his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, King of Naples. Murat led a modern state, legal and social order following the same system in France, but increasingly grew away from Napoleon and as defeat loomed on the horizon, he sought a settlement with the Habsburgs. But when, during the Congress of Vienna, Napoleon returned from exile, Murat sided with him once more, making an enemy of Austria. The Italian population were also mostly against the Habsburgs, as they expected the foreign rule of Austria to again dominate those rulers, especially in Lombardy, who had been deposed by the Habsburgs under Napoleon’s rule. In Naples, the anti-Napoleonic coalition had arranged for the return of the Bourbons. In light of the supremacy of the Austrians, Murat’s endeavours had little chance of success.
[edit] Course of Events
While Napoleon failed at Waterloo, Murat was also defeated by the Habsburg troops, and was shot in Pizzo near Naples on 13th October 1815. The new King was Ferdinand IV, who with Austrian assistance, marched into Naples on 17th June 1815.
The dissatisfaction among the kingdom's population remained however, as Ferdinand reintroduced the absolutist system within the scope the restoration. In 1820 it came to great unrest, and Ferdinand felt compelled to approve a constitution which followed the Spanish example of Cadiz, and to swear an oath to it. But he did everything he could to reverse these concessions, and in 1821 travelled to Austria where at the congress of Laibach, he achieved an intervention by the Habsburgs. In this intervention, Metternich saw a legitimate action within the framework of the “Holy Alliance” to put down the liberal ideas in Europe, as France had also done against the liberals in Spain. As in 1815, the Neapolitans had little to combat the supremacy of Austria. The uprising quickly collapsed and its leaders, mostly officers of the Neapolitan army, were imprisoned or forced into exile. The intervention by Austria caused deep resentment in Italy, which further spurred on the drive towards Italian unification.
