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 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification Scott 1470 (2011) Today marks the eightieth anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Italy. On this date in 1946, Italian citizens voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. The change took effect on June 12, 1946, after which Italian King Umberto II went into exile and a new constitution officially went into effect on January 1, 1948. This ended what was the Kingdom of Italy, which was established in 1861 following the Risorgimento campaign which led to the unification of Italy. The souvenir sheet shown above was issued as part of a seven-stamp set by Vatican City in 2011 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. 
 
 1870: Italian King Victor Emmanuel II and Pope Pius IX 1929: Italian King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI All photos from Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain Relations between the Holy See and Italy have followed a circuitous path since the mid-19th century. The Kingdom of Italy was officially founded on March 17, 1861, with Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia being proclaimed the first King of Italy. This marked the culmination of the “Risorgimento”, the movement which united the previously fragmented states of the Italian peninsula, including the annexation of the former Papal States. The timeline includes the "Fall of Rome" when, on September 20, 1870, Italian forces breached the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, defeated the Papal States, and ended the Pope's temporal reign. The pope at the time was Pope Pius IX. This ushered in a period of over fifty years where the Holy See refused to acknowledge and recognize the Kingdom of Italy and resulted in the “Roman Question” regarding the temporal status of the papacy. As a result of the dispute, the pope remained a “prisoner of the Vatican” until the ratification of the Lateran Pacts in 1929. The Pacts were negotiated during the reigns of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI. Click on the reference below from the Italian philatelic service “Vaccari News” to view the stamp and postmark being released today by Italy to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Italy. REFERENCES: |
