What might prevent Italian unification, without affecting the rest of the world?

What are way to prevent Italian unification, that don't necessitate changing the history of other countries? For example, a "no Napoleon" scenario or an extremely-strong Hapsburg empire might prevent the Risorgimento, but it requires changing the history of the rest of the world for it. Obviously when it comes to ramifications no-Risorgimento would mean that the history of the rest of the world would be altered, but what I'm asking for is different. I'm asking only for Italian PODs, i.e. PODs that start in Italy by Italians, and cause a chain of events limited to Italy and affecting mostly Italians, at the end of which the Risorgimento would be thwarted.
 

Anaxagoras

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No Italian unification is a major POD that would obviously impact the history of the rest of the world no matter what.
 
I'm afraid you guys missed the point. Orko isn't asking for a POD which suppresses the effects of the Risorgimento, but the Risorgimento itself, and such POD should be carried out by italians rather than other countries.

Wouldn't no unified Italy put Austria in a much stronger position vis a vis OTL?
I guess it would have, yes. Just think about WWI without an (unified) Italian front.

For what concern a possible POD, I guess that the deaths of either Giuseppe Garibaldi or Giuseppe Mazzini would have affected the Risorgimento pretty much.
 
Maybe have the King of Sardinia-Piedmont at time of Risorgimento die? Can't remember who he was though.

Likely not. Risorgimento was well underway by that point, and Piedmontese foreign policy was already geared towards unifying Italy.

Also you guys totally missed my point. I specifically said that I understand a "no Italian unification" scenario would have serious ramifications, but what my question's purpose is all about is having it happen essentially by itself, while all non-Italian actors act as OTL.
 
Garbaldi fail horrendously in Sicily, and have the Papal States become champions of a united Italy in rivalry to Sardinia. That way you get a northern, central, and southern Italian split. Otherwise, I'm not really sure
 
I think Garibaldi, Mazzini and Cavour are pretty pivotal people in the Risorgimento and if they are gotten rid of, then the process of unification could be delayed significantly, if not outright disappeared.

You could also have a much greater division between the nationalists as to what Italy they wanted to see. Republican nationalists were always torn between wanting Italy united, and wanting republican government established in their own regions. It wasn't unheard of for radicals to want the latter before wanting the former - Carlo Cattaneo in 1848 Lombardy is pretty much the archetype of this (though did accept Savoyard leadership under some duress in 1848).

So a PoD could occur in 1848, where radical republican revolters decide that they want a republic first and unification second, and convince the moderates to follow suit. With that they could do all sorts of petty things to discourage Italian nationalism, such as not inviting the Savoyard monarchy to aid them, sending a list of constitutional demands to Vienna first (like what occurred in Prague and Budapest) before declaring independence, or simply suppress the urban middle class/peasantry who were more favourably inclined towards unification.

The resultant bad blood between the monarchist and republican movements could fragment the cause of Italian unification - and if the cause is fragmented, then it becomes much harder for people like Cavour to use said movement as a tool to achieve Savoyard expansionary goals.
 
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Cavour fails to get Napoleon III's support because Napoleon reacts like a sensible person to almost being assassinated by a fanatical Italian Revolutionary and subsequently takes a dim view of Italian Unification in general. Sardinia-Piedmont eventually approaches Prussia for support and still joins the Austro-Prussian War. However as they are facing a stronger Austria and historically the last time Sardinia-Piedmont went up against Austria they managed to get their ass handed to them despite Austria also fighting several other wars with itself at the time, they fail to do much of note. Historically their initial attempts to invade Austria failed and they only succeeded after raising a massive army and Austria was forced to recall an army north. In this timeline since it is Sardinia-Piedmont and not an already mostly united Italy they cannot raise such a massive army and remain unable to penetrate through Lomdardia-Venetia.

Prussia does still manage to attain victory but Sardinia-Piedmont does not so Austria retains Lombardia-Venetia and Sardinia-Piedmont does not gain control of any other parts of the Italian Peninsula. They remain just a small Italian State. Prussia achieves leadership of Northern Germany and the Franco-Prussian War and German Unification happens more or less on schedule.

Most of the world is very similar to ours except minus a unified Italy and with a stronger Austria, the latter of which is pretty much inevitable unless you are willing to accept even larger divergences like a total Austrian Collapse.

ADDENDUM : Thinking on the subsequent effects of the Italian Vacuum, this leaves us with a Stronger Austria that is more easily able to establish a bit of Naval Power due to retaining Venetia. You may see Austria replacing Italy in the Colonial Race. With their stronger Economy and possibly a more stable government they may be looking at establishing colonies to save face, and expansion into Ottoman Tripoli would be a perfect place to do that as Austria won't be developing a major Blue Water Fleet. Tripoli however is right across the Pond. So the Balkan Wars which saw the Ottoman Empire so reduce could still happen. Of course this will obviously bring the Balkan states closer to Austria, but that's nothing a useful Dynasty Change, such as the one Serbia actually experienced, cannot change.

Overall the Italian Vacuum could mean that the only significant change on the map, other than in Italy itself, is that a bit of Africa is colored White or Gold rather than Green.
 
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Get rid of Sardinia-Piedmont as a possible nucleus for unification somehow -- turn its kings into absolutists whom nobody wants to accept, or have its lands retained or absorbed by other powers at various earlier points (Sardinia to Spain or Naples/Sicily, Savoy itself & Nice to France, Piedmont either to France or to the Habsburgs?), or even have it inherited wholesale by the Habsburgs -- and you'd probably slow things down a bit.
 
It's ASB to not have an affect on the world.

Italian unification, contrary to what a lot of people say, can still be prevented after 1815, but it requires a lot of Austrian and French interference in the peninsula at an earlier date.

Parma, Lucca and the Two Sicilies had Bourbon monarchs whilst Modena and Tuscany were Hapsburg-Lorraine. Keep the French Bourbons on the throne and you'll have both Spain and France as possible allies for the Italian states, with Austria backing Modena and Tuscany (keep in mind that the Austrians didn't want a unified Italy or a unified Germany).

Preventing German unification would also help.

This of course would have less of an impact than a Napoleonic Wars POD but you can't avoid it having an impact on the world altogether.
 
When has this to happen?
A largely Italian POD might work in 1848 (although it would affect Austria pretty quickly*) but after Sardinian involvement in the Crimean War, any POD that thwarts Risorgimento almost has to have quite immediate international ramifications.
The gist of it is that, while united Italy was mostly the working of Italians themselves, with a "little" help from their friends (Napoleon) the unification was an inherently an international phenomenon since before it began (at least since the Crimean War I would say). If you are fine with a pre-1855 POD, it is doable, after that, it gets complicated.

* You could go for Vittorio Emanuele being an asshole and going along with Austrian demands to abolish the Constitution and play the good guardian of the old Absolutist order. Even better, you could go for Carlo Alberto seeing that the 1848 had little future (hard with what was going on in France) and deciding that siding with the old order was the best bet. He was quite the opportunist, although he had some very vague but at some sincere sort-of-liberal leaning, so it is conceivable that he would stick to absolutism and refused to go to war with Austria. This is a 1848 PoD, with immediate big ramifications, but it is Italian and doesn't touch anything outside to be done.

BTW, failed Italian unification means no recognizable WWI at all.
 
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