United Provinces of Central Italy

The United Provinces of Central Italy, also called the Confederation or General Government of Central Italy, was the short-lived military government set up in 1859 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It was formed by the union of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany with the duchies of Modena and Parma and the Papal Legations of Romagna, after the Second Italian War of Independence, and it covers the modern regions of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. In 1859 an assembly of the central provinces was elected to discuss the union, and its delegates met in the old town hall of Florence, in the ancient hall of the Five Hundred, where the union was agreed. In December the union was proclaimed under a Piedmontese governor. A plebiscite of March 1860 voted to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, the provinces were formally annexed, and the union paved the way for the Kingdom of Italy of 17 March 1861.