In Italy, the distance between Milan in the north and Palermo, Sicily, in the south is about 550 miles. In the United States, the distance between Boston, Massachusetts, and Savannah, Georgia, is about 900 miles. Do you think the American Revolutionaries of 1776 in the 13 colonies faced some of the same challenges as the patriots who struggled for Italian unity in the 1860s?

The challenges of the patriots of the American Revolution and those who struggled for Italian unification have both similarities and differences.

Similarities: The American colonies were each their own independently-operating governments, so getting them to work together in common cause presented some challenges. The Italian states were each their own independently-operating governments prior to the unification of all of Italy, so they also had some challenges to come together as a united group.

Differences: The American colonies were uniting together in their common desire to shed the control of the British government overseas. The Italian patriots were liberals and nationalists in an era where conservative governments held power in most of the Italian states. So uniting all Italy meant the liberal, nationalist revolutionaries needed to win military victories over those conservative kingdoms in order to pull all of Italy together as one nation.