Young Europe

"In the Spring of 1834, while at Berne, Mazzini and a dozen refugees from Italy, Poland and Germany founded a new association with the grandiose name of Young Europe. Its basic, and equally grandiose idea, was that, as the French Revolution of 1789 had enlarged the concept of individual liberty, another revolution would now be needed for national liberty; and his vision went further because he hoped that in the no doubt distant future free nations might combine to form a loosely federal Europe with some kind of federal assembly to regulate their common interests. [...] His intention was nothing less than to overturn the European settlement agreed in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, which had reestablished an oppressive hegemony of a few great powers and blocked the emergence of smaller nations. [...] Mazzini hoped, but without much confidence, that his vision of a league or society of independent nations would be realized in his own lifetime. In practice Young Europe lacked the money and popular support for more than a short-term existence. Nevertheless he always remained faithful to the ideal of a united continent for which the creation of individual nations would be an indispensable preliminary."

Young Ireland was a contemporary nationalist organisation which, though not affiliated with Young Europe, took its name in reference to Young Italy and Young Europe.

Historical Background and Origins

The territorial fragmentation of Italy, cemented by the provisions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, led to the emergence of various political-revolutionary movements striving for national unity and democratic reorganization. One of the most significant movements of this kind was Young Italy, founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. Due to similar problems in other states, associations modeled after Mazzini's idea also emerged there. These included New Germany (which later renamed itself Young Germany), Young Poland, and Young France. Shaken by the failure of his attempted coup in Savoy, Giuseppe Mazzini founded Young Europe on 15 April 1834 in Bern (Switzerland) to pool the movement's forces and achieve its goals of national unity and democracy across Europe. The founding assembly was attended by seven Italians, five Germans, and five Poles.