Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence. Between 1820 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (except for Veneto and the province of Mantua, Lazio, Trentino-Alto Adige and Julian March, known as Italia irredenta, which were united with the rest of Italy in 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence, in 1870 after the capture of Rome, and in 1918 after the First World War respectively); this period of Italian history is known as the Risorgimento. The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the Cittadella of Alessandria, during the revolutions of 1820s, after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes. See also Sister republic 130 departments of the First French Empire (including former Italian territories annexed by the First French Empire) List of historic states of Italy King of Italy (including the list of the modern kings of Italy) References Further reading Carpanetto, Dino, and Giuseppe Ricuperati. Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685–1789 (1987). Lists more than 15,000 titles External links Text of the "Albertine Statute" (Constitution of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1848 to 1861, and of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946) "Italy." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. April 30, 2006.