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Why did France send an army to Rome in 1849?

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Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi wearing a beret and cloak, with a full beard and mustache, looking toward the camera. — Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Garibaldi, c. 1860–82.

In 1849, France sent an army to Rome primarily to restore the authority of Pope Pius IX, who had been forced to flee the city following a democratic revolution in the Papal States in late 1848.123

The intervention was orchestrated by Louis-Napoleon (later Napoleon III), the president of the French Republic. His decision was driven by two main political motivations:

Appeasing French Catholics: By restoring the pope to power, Louis-Napoleon sought to gain the support of French Catholic voters.23
Forestalling Austrian Intervention: France aimed to intervene in Italy to prevent Austria from taking unilateral action to restore the papacy, thereby maintaining French influence in the region.2

Although the French forces, commanded by General Nicolas Charles Victor Oudinot, initially expected to be welcomed as liberators, they were met with fierce resistance from the Roman Republic, which had been proclaimed in February 1849 and was defended by a volunteer force led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.123