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Prologue

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Visiting Modern War in Risorgimento Italy

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Abstract

In the spring of 1859, French and Austrian armies numbering together in the hundreds of thousands converged on northern Italy. Many traveled to this centuries-old battleground as their predecessors had, by ship, wagon, and their own feet. Many more came by train, the new mode of travel that was about to transform the art of war as it had transformed so much else. Waiting for them was the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, recently allied to France and hoping a war would break the power of Austria in the region. The war that ensued lasted ten weeks, surprising contemporaries by its brevity. In recent memory there had not been a short war between the great powers. The late war in the Crimea had lasted the better part of two years, the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s nearly a decade, and the wars of Napoleon a generation.

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Notes

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  1. Jonathan Marwil
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© 2010 Jonathan Marwil

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Marwil, J. (2010). Prologue. In: Visiting Modern War in Risorgimento Italy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117556_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117556_1

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-29105-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-11755-6

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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