The second act of the Italian Risorgimento begins (the first was 1820-21): in Modena, a young liberal businessman, Ciro Menotti, under the illusion of having Duke Francis IV on his side, organizes a daring conspiracy calling for the independence, unity, and freedom of Italy, with a monarch to be designated and Rome as its capital. The duke, who in reality is an ultra-reactionary, has Menotti arrested and then shot. But the episode sparks the uprising in Modena and other cities of the Po Valley, Marche, and Umbria.
