[2][3] The Moderate Party was thus formed in Italy, representing all those personalities in favour of national unification but against revolutionary methods, especially after the failure of the uprisings of 1820–1821 and 1830–1831 organized by the Carboneria.
[4] Preceded by neo-Guelphism, of which it was the practical development, among its main protagonists and propagandists were Cesare Balbo with Le spera d'Italia (1844) and Massimo d'Azeglio; Moderates aimed at the birth of a confederation between the states of the peninsula, a series of reforms, and then of liberal constitutions.
In the Kingdom of Sardinia, the leaders were d'Azeglio and Cavour, representing the parliamentary Right, and Urbano Rattazzi, representing the Left; in the Papal States, the movement was headed by Terenzio, Count Mamiani della Rovere, and Pellegrino Rossi, the last murdered by a republican plot in 1848; and in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, prominent Moderates were brothers Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa.
[3] Differently by democrats and radical republicans, Moderates were only circles of intellectuals, aristocrats, soldiers, and businessmen with patriotic tendencies, being placed in among Romantic nationalists.
Initially, the movement was not too nationalist, preferring a federation or coalition between the several Italian states,[7] and later supported its reformist policies within legalist means.