The war between Naples and Sicily, 594. Revolt against the pope; Rome a republic, 595. The French restore the pope, 597. Revolutions in Tuscany and elsewhere, 598. Charles Albert’s war with Austria, 598. Charles Albert abdicates: Victor Emmanuel II succeeds, 600. Venice fails to acquire freedom, 601. Louis Napoleon’s intervention, 603. Austria declares war: Magenta and Solferino, 603. The papacy _versus_ unity, 606. Garibaldi drives the Bourbons from Sicily, 607. The death of Cavour and the revolt of Garibaldi, 611. Florence becomes the capital, 613. The war of 1866 and annexation of Venice, 614. CHAPTER XXI THE COMPLETION OF ITALIAN UNITY (1867-1878 A.D.) 616 The revolt of Garibaldi, 617. The French intervene again: Mentana, October 31st, 618. The Roman question renewed, 620. Papal infallibility proclaimed, 621. Rome taken from the pope, 621. The plebiscite, 622. Rome again the capital of Italy, 624. The Minghetti ministry, 625. Death of Victor Emmanuel and Pius IX, 626. CHAPTER XXII RECENT HISTORY (1878-1903 A.D.) 628 Irredentism, the Triple Alliance and “Trasformismo,” 630. The power of Crispi, 632. Death of King Humbert, of Crispi, and of Leo XIII, 633. BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 635 A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN ITALY 639 A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF ITALIAN HISTORY 646 INTRODUCTION THE SCOPE OF ITALIAN HISTORY: A PREFATORY CHARACTERISATION THE DARK AGE It has been observed again and again that the sweep of history is a continuous stream, and that all attempts to divide it into epochs are more or less arbitrary. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the tendency to classify, and memory is greatly aided by such arbitrary divisions. The largest and perhaps the most uniformly accepted of such arbitrary parcelling out of history is the classification into ancient, mediæval, and modern. Everyone is aware that the general historian usually regards ancient history as closing either with the later decades of the fourth century, when the northern barbarians began their invasions, or, perhaps more generally, with the precise date 476, when the last emperor of old Rome was dethroned. The ensuing epoch, comprising a period of about a thousand years, is known as the mediæval period; which epoch is usually considered as closing with the discovery of the New World in 1492. The earlier centuries of this epoch are usually spoken of as constituting the dark age.