Milan, Peace Treaty of 1849

Milan, Peace Treaty of (1849) 

signed on August 6 in Milan by representatives of Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont). It brought to a conclusion the Austro-Italian War of 1848-49, in which Piedmont had been badly defeated, and reaffirmed the decisions of the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) regarding the borders of the northern Italian states. The king of Sardinia renounced his claims to territories outside his kingdom. The dukes of Modena and Parma, who had been banished from their possessions in 1848 by popular insurrections, were restored to their rights and required to subscribe to the treaty. Under its terms, Piedmont was to pay Austria an indemnity of 75 million francs. In northern and central Italy the treaty restored Austrian dominance, which had been almost completely eliminated as a result of the Revolution of 1848–49. The conclusion of the treaty left the revolutionary Venetian Republic in a desperate situation and forced it to surrender on Aug. 22, 1849. The Peace Treaty of Milan signified the end of the Italian Revolution of 1848–49.