<P> Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic, which proved too extreme for most nationalists . The middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo (1789--1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont . </P> <P> One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carboneria, a secret political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century; the members were called Carbonari . After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections . A void was left that the Carboneria filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government . The response came from middle class professionals and business men and some intellectuals . The Carboneria disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity . They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical . The Carboneria movement spread across Italy . </P> <P> Conservative governments feared the Carboneria, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members . Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification . The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III (who, as a young man, had fought on the side of the Carbonari) to death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858, when Felice Orsini, Giovanni Andrea Pieri, Carlo Di Rudio and Andrea Gomez launched three bombs at him . Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization . The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government . Though contributing some service to the cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions . </P> <P> Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic, two of the most prominent being Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi . Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined . While in prison, he concluded that Italy could − and therefore should − be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital . Following his release in 1831, he went to Marseille in France, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy), whose motto was "Dio e Popolo" (God and People), which sought the unification of Italy . </P>

Events that led to the unification of italy in the 19th century