DO AS THE SPANIARDS DO. THE 1821 PIEDMONT INSURRECTION AND THE BIRTH OF CONSTITUTIONALISM Haced como los españoles. Los movimientos de 1821 en Piamonte y el origen del constitucionalismo PIERANGELO GENTILE Universidad de Turín
[email protected] Cómo citar/Citation Gentile, P. (2021). Do as the Spaniards do. The 1821 Piedmont insurrection and the birth of constitutionalism. Historia y Política, 45, 23-51. doi: https://doi.org/10.18042/hp.45.02 (Reception: 15/01/2020; review: 19/04/2020; acceptance: 19/09/2020; publication: 01/06/2021) Abstract Despite the local reference historiography, the 1821 Piedmont insurrection still lacks a reading that gives due weight to the historical-constitutional aspect. When Carlo Alberto, the “revolutionary” Prince of Carignano, granted the Cádiz Consti- tution, after the abdication of Vittorio Emanuele I, a crisis began in the secular history of the dynasty and the kingdom of Sardinia: for the first time freedoms and rights of representation broke the direct pledge of allegiance, tipycal of the absolute state, between kings and people. The new political system was not autochthonous but looked to that of Spain, among the many possible models. Using the extensive available bibliography, I analyzed the national and international influences of that 24 PIERANGELO GENTILE short historical season. Moreover I emphasized the social and geographic origin of the leaders of the insurrection (i.e. nobility and bourgeoisie, core and periphery of the State) and the consequences of their actions. Even if the insurrection was brought down by the convergence of the royalist forces and the Austrian army, its legacy weighed on the dynasty.