September 19: The Italian army under the command of General Raffaele Cadorna passed through the Aurelian Wall and besieged Rome on September 19, 1870: The capture of Rome and the Italian Unification.

General Raffaele Cadorna

During the unification of Italy, the Papal States occupied a fifth of the Italian peninsula, or downtown, including the city of Rome.

Drawing of the refufe Castel Gaeta of Pius IX from 1848-1850

The Popes did not allow the Italian unit unless it was done through them, and they would be the rulers.

Fathers of Italy.

Pope Pius IX would not accept any formula of conciliation, with Vittorio Emmanuel II, who was already being recognized as the monarch who led the unification of Italy along with Giuseppe Mazzini (The soul of unification), Giuseppe Garibaldi (the sword unification) and Camilo Benzo, Count of Cavour (the brain of unification).

Pope Pius IX declared himself a prisoner of the Vatican. The capture of Rome ended the ancient papal monarchy over Rome and central Italy. Over the next 59 years, the popes refused to leave the Vatican, and even the Piazza de San Petro, as a rejection of the new Italian authority king Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Pontifical Theocracy on the Papal States was reduced to the Vatican which still retains its political independence as a sovereign state.

King Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia became king on March 24, 1849 and from there led the unification of Italy with his minister Camilo Benzo, Count of Cavour, and with the collaboration of Mazzini and Garibaldi.

Thus, the Kingdom of Piedmont grew to include all of Italy, in a process of 10 years between 1860 and 1870.

Victor Emmanuel meets Garibaldi near Teano.