ИТАЛИАНСКОТО РИЗОРДЖИМЕНТО И НАЦИОНАЛНОТО ВЪЗРАЖДАНЕ НА БАЛКАНИТЕ
THE ITALIAN RISORGIMENTO AND THE NATIONAL REVIVAL OF THE BALKANS

Summary/Abstract: Professor Francesco Guida’s lecture, delivered in connection with his election as Doctor Honoris Causa of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is a synthesis of the historical relations of Italy with the peoples and states in the Balkan Peninsula at the time of the struggles for national unification, for liberation and for political emancipation in the 19th and 20th century. The author examines successively Italy’s relations with Greece, with Serbia, with Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro and Romania. The stages of Italian-Balkan relations are outlined: from the interaction in the struggle for national liberation to the political and diplomatic relations after the formation of national states and their inclusion in military and political blocs on the eve of World War I, shedding light on the Italian economic interest in the region as well.Guida also discusses the ideas of Garibaldi and Mazzini, which had a wide impact in the Balkans, too, at the time of national-liberation movements. In conclusion, he points out that the national revival movement of Italy (Risorgimento) and the national revival movements of the Balkan peoples had close and important ties. However, these ties should not be overestimated, because the ideas and the political figures of Italy did not exercise a greater influence on the political fate of the Balkan peoples than the Russian Pan-Slavism or than the political and diplomatic initiative of Austria-Hungary.

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