Before 1860, the Italian Peninsula was made up of separate states. Apart from the liberal kingdom of Piedmont, the Austrians occupied the north and the Spanish Bourbon king, Francis, ruled the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies in the south. A campaign to liberate and unify Italy had been underway for decades, including the ill-fated revolution in Sicily of 1848. In May 1860, the scene was set for General Garibaldi, with his famous Redshirts, to sail from Genoa to Sicily and join the Sicilian patriots in a final attempt to free the nation from foreign occupation and oppression.
In Britain, Queen Victoria and her German consort, Prince Albert, reigned over a prosperous nation. The Industrial Revolution was at its height, creating wealth for a few and mass migration to the cities for many others. Society was divided between the very poor, the aristocracy and a new middle class who followed a strict code of etiquette and propriety.