 Complete the following phrase:  The city soon gained a reputation as a hotbed of anti-Savoy republican agitation. Genoa was the centre of an important reform movement that put constant pressure on Piedmont to grant the freedom of the press and more liberal laws. The citizens of the republic would not accept being subjects of an absolute monarchy, wanting to be Italian rather than Piedmontese, though relations with Piedmont improved with the war against Austria. However, after the defeat in the 