Protest movements in Piedmont during Bonaparte’s Italian campaign (according reports of Russian diplomates)
Mitrofanov Andrei
In 1796 at the beginning of Bonaparte’s Italian campaign the Sardinian kingdom was in a social, economic and political crisis. The secret Jacobin clubs elaborated plans to overthrow the monarchy. There was a lack of food in many regions of the state. The taxation was difficult, the inflation destroyed economy. Popular uprisings in provinces gained strength. It was possible to suppress them only by the armed force. The insurgents actively acted in remote and mountainous areas of the country. The island of Sardinia was captured by the civil war against the Piedmont administration since 1794. The royal government could not put things in order, and the deep crisis did not end even after the overthrow of the king Charles Emmanuel IV in December, 1798. The diplomatic correspondence of the Russian Ambassador in Turin Gustav von Stakelberg is a rich and valuable source for the history of all these popular movements.