The War
The Piedmontese army was composed of two corps and a reserve division, for a total of 12,000 troops. Artillery and cavalry were the best units. On March 21 the Grand Duke of Tuscany also declared his entrance in the war against Austria, with a contingent of 6,700 men. The Papal Army had a similar sized force, backed by numerous volunteers. On March 25 the vanguard of the II Piedmontese Corps entered Milan and two days later also Pavia was freed.
After an initial successful campaign, with the victories at Goito and Peschiera del Garda, Pope Pius IX recalled his troops due to fear of possible expansions of Piedmont in case of victory. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies also retired, but the general Guglielmo Pepe refused to return to Naples and instead went to Venice to protect it against the Austrian counter-offensive. King Ferdinand II's retreat was mainly due to the ambiguous behaviour of Charles Albert of Piedmont, who had not clearly refused the proposal to obtain the Sicilian crown received from representatives of the rebellious island.
The Piedmontese Army was defeated by the Austrians at Custoza on July 1, 1848. An uneasy armistice was made in 1848 between Austria and Sardinia which lasted less than seven months, before Charles Albert denounced the truce on March 12, 1849. The Austrian army took the military initiative in Lombardy and heavily defeated the Piedmontese at Novara. After this victory the Piedmontese were driven back to Borgomanero at the foot of the Alps, and the Austrian forces occupied Novara, Vercelli, Trino and Brescia, with the road to the Piedmontese capital, Turin, lying open to them.
Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel, and a peace treaty was signed on August 9, 1849 and Piedmont-Sardinia was forced to pay an indemnity of 65 million francs to Austria.
The war marked the failure of Sardinia to defeat Austria singlehandedly. This caused Sardinia to seek allies against Austria and ultimately only with French (1859) and Prussian (1866) help would Sardinia be able to drive out the Austrians from Northern Italy.
Read more about this topic: First Italian War Of Independence
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