Kingdom of Italy proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel II as king

Proclamation. On 18 February 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled the deputies of the first Italian Parliament in Turin. On 17 March 1861, this Parliament officially proclaimed Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy. This act established the Kingdom of Italy, with Victor Emmanuel holding the title until his death in 1878. The proclamation followed the integration of southern territories and the central duchies into the Sardinian state.

International Response. Diplomatic reactions to the new kingdom varied. Spain and the Russian Empire interrupted diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Sardinia, while the Austrian Empire, which had not maintained relations with that country since 1859, after the Second Italian War of Independence, sent its troops to the Mincio border. The timing of these ruptures and deployments is not specified in the available evidence. Conversely, after the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the United Kingdom and the Swiss Confederation were the first to recognize the new state on 30 March 1861, followed by the United States on 13 April.