How to study History well?     |     home
                                                  
Sardinia, Kingdom of
Sardinia, Kingdom of, Italian kingdom (1720-1861) formed by the union of the duchy of Savoy and the island of Sardinia. It is sometimes known as the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.

By the Treaty of London (1720) Austria ceded the island of Sardinia to the house of Savoy, and the duke of Savoy adopted the title king of Sardinia. The mainland part of the kingdom of Sardinia, originally comprising Savoy, Piedmont (Piemonte), and Nice, was gradually expanded over the next century and a half. In 1734 King Charles Emmanuel III acquired Novara and Tortona for Sardinia and, in 1748, Vigevaresco. Throughout the century, social and economic conditions on the island were improved, and the settlement of Piedmontese, Corsicans, and Ligurians was encouraged to cement ties with the mainland. Sardinia saw its power diminish after the Seven Years' War and the French Revolution, but at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 it recovered Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy and acquired Genoa.

Sardinia exercised vital leadership for Italians during the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian unity and independence. After the Revolution of 1848 the Sardinians received a constitution. In 1858-1859 the kingdom annexed Lombardy (Lombardia), Modena, Parma, and most of the Papal States. Upon creation of the kingdom of Italy in 1861, Sardinia's King Victor Emmanuel II became king of Italy, and the kingdom of Sardinia came to an end.