[1] After the Treaty of Turin was signed in 1860 between the Victor Emmanuel II and Napoleon III as a consequence of the Plombières Agreement, the county of Nice was ceded to France as a territorial reward for French assistance in the Second Italian War of Independence against Austria, which saw Lombardy united with the Kingdom of Sardinia.

King Victor-Emmanuel II, on 1 April 1860, solemnly asked the population to accept the change of sovereignty, in the name of Italian unity, and the cession was ratified by a regional referendum.

[3] This was the result of a masterful operation of information control by the French and Piedmontese governments, in order to influence the outcome of the vote in relation to the decisions already taken.

The case of Levens is emblematic: the same official sources recorded, faced with only 407 voters, 481 votes cast, naturally almost all in favor of joining France.

[15] The story of the Niçard Vespers of 1871 was told by Enrico Sappia in his book Nizza contemporanea, published in London and banned in France.

[16] [...] Enrico Sappia will remember that among the immense crowd that sang and praised Italy, there were those who carried a flag with the inscription INRI which meant "The Niçards will return Italians".

The riots of 8, 9 and 10 February, the three bellicose days, provided valid arguments and solid reasons for those who advocated a return of Nice to Italy, because they had good game in supporting the arbitrariness of French power .

[17] Even the famous writer and art critic Giuseppe Bres was exiled by the French for a few years because of his participation at Niçard Vespers.