ace of God and the will of the nation, King of
Italy."[534]

[Footnote 534: King, History of Italian Unity, II.,
Chaps. 29-32.]

*400. The Completion of Unification, 1866-1871.*--It remained but to
consolidate the kingdom and to accomplish the annexation of the two
Italian districts, Venetia and Rome, which were yet in foreign hands.
Venetia was acquired in direct consequence of Italy's alliance with
Prussia against Austria in 1866. A plebiscite of October 21-22, 1866,
following the enforced cession of Venetia by Austria, October 3,
yielded a vote of 647,246 to 47 for annexation. The union was
sanctioned by a decree of November 4, 1866, and ratified by a law of
July 18, 1867. The acquisition of Rome was made possible four years
later by the exigencies of the Franco-German war. The conviction had
been ripening that eventually Rome must be made the kingdom's capital,
and when, in 1870, there was withdrawn from the protection of the
papacy the garrison which France had maintained in Italy since 1849,
the opportunity was seized to follow up fruitless diplomacy with
military demonstrations. September 20 the troops of General Cadorna
forced an entrance of the city and the Pope was compelled to
capitulate. October 2 the people declared, by a vote of 133,681 to
1,507, for annexation; October 9 the annexation was proclaimed; and
December 31 it was ratified by act of parliament. The guarantees of
independence to be accorded the papacy were left to be determined in a
subsequent statute.[535] By an act of February 3, 1871, the capital of
the kingdom--already, in 1865, transferred from Turin to Florence--was
removed to Rome; and in the Eternal City, November 27 following, was
convened the eleventh parliament since the revolution of 1848, the
fourth since the proclamation of the kingdom of Italy, the first since
the completion of Italian unity.[536]

[Footnote 535: The resulting measure, the Law of
Papal Guarantees, was enacted May 13, 1871. See p.
388.]

[Footnote 536: For a brief account of the final
stages in the unification of Italy see Cambridge
Modern History, XI., Chaps. 14, 19. The best
presentation of the entire subject is that in the
two volumes of King, History of Italian Unity,
1814-1871. Other works of value ar