Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism means to be patriotic and to be loyal and devoted to their country. In every country, nationalism is expressed by what the citizens of that country do. For example, here, in the United States, we express nationalism on Fourth of July and we watch baseball, a pastime in America. Also, in public schools, every morning we recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Also, Puerto Ricans express there patriotic selves, by celebrating the Puerto Rican parade. I consider myself to be patriotic because I celebrate the Fourth of July. We light up fireworks as a symbol of freedom in the United States.

Before the country of Italy was united, it was ruled by many different people due to the fact the Italy was divided into Empires. The rulers of the Empires were not even natives of the land of Italy. The nation of Italy was growing apart and due to that they began to put limits on the requirements to being a ruler in Italy. One requirement was that you had to be Italian. That narrowed the amount of rulers to two rulers. They were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. They both had different views. Mazzini thought that it would be better if Italy was separated into smalls states but Garibaldi believed that Italy would be better if they were united. He fought many battles in order to united Southern Italy together, while a count united the northern states of Italy together. These united states were then ruled by King Victor Emmanuel II. Nationalism erupted now that Italy was one whole nation. They were still many difference between Mazzini and people who wanted to unite Italy. Mazzini believed that people wanted to unite Italy for money and not the the unity of the people.