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Historisk tidskrift 124:1 • 2004

Innehåll (Contents) 2004:1

Uppsatser (Articles)

1848: Den internationella politikens enastående år, speglat i samtida italiensk press

Rolf Hugoson

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Summary

1848: The annus mirabilis of International Politics, as Mirrored in the Contemporary Italian Press

After the Napoleonic wars great-power diplomacy dominated politics between European states until 1848. With the Congress of Vienna in 1815 nations were excluded from diplomacy, which was constructed as the prerogative of princes and elite diplomats. Yet it is not altogether anachronistic to use the term ”international politics” to describe this new regime since the term ”international” in fact originally implied the exclusion of citizens, nationals and nations from the diplomatic scene. This situation changed in 1848 however, when simultaneous rebellions took place in several European capitals. In 1848 European politics was suddenly and for a short while once again about peoples and nations. The conditions for international politics changed. Despite the general failure of the revolutions, politics in terms of the democratic international as opposed to the diplomatic international now became a possibility. In practice, this possibility never prevailed. But its mere existence changed public consciousness. This point has been overlooked both by political theorists, who have rarely taken an interest in ideas expressed in newspapers; and by historians who have taken little interest in ideas but have focused on the practical failure of 1848, and the fact that many restoration regimes were soon reinstated.

In this article, the changing conception of international politics is explored through a discussion of the revolutions in Italy and an analysis of the contemporary Italian press. In 1848, a plethora of political newspapers were published in most Italian capitals. In some Italian states the press took advantage of the relaxation of the censorship that was introduced already in 1847. The newspapers raised the Italian public consciousness about the international by presenting news about the revolutions and counterrevolutions in other European countries. Many journalists focused on Italian independence. But when the conditions for this independence were discussed, the possibilities of international alliances were also explored. By showing how a new awareness about the international was thus constructed, the article contributes towards a changed conception of the role of the European revolutions of 1848 – the annus mirabilis of international politics.