Following Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860  eight states seceded from the Union between December 1860 and April 1861 and established a provisional government. In March 1861 in his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln indicated that although he had no intention of interfering with slavery where it existed, He would not permit secession, a confirmation of his initial intent to preserve the Union and not end slavery. 

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While The Union of the United States threatened to come to an end, in Italy a Union was being forged. the 1861 edition of the Bridge documents the unification of modern Italy. 

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Below our Spanish partners from IES Leonardo da Vinci created a video documenting the struggle to unify the country.