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Giuseppe
Garibaldi
Garibaldi,
Giuseppe (1807-1882), Italian nationalist
revolutionary and leader in the struggle
for the unification of Italy and its
liberation from rule by the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Garibaldi
was born on July 4, 1807, in Nice, and was
largely self-educated. He spent his youth
as a sailor on Mediterranean merchant
ships. In 1833 he joined Young Italy, the
movement organized by the Italian
revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini to achieve
the freedom of the Italian people and
their unification into a self-governing
republic. Garibaldi was condemned to death
in 1834, but he escaped to South America,
where he lived for 12 years. There he
displayed unusual qualities of military
leadership while participating in the
revolt of the state of Rio Grande do Sul
against Brazil, as well as later in a
civil war in Uruguay.
Return
to Italy
When the revolutionary tide that swept
over Europe in 1848 engulfed Italy,
Garibaldi returned and again took part in
the movement for Italian freedom and
unification, thereafter known as the
Risorgimento (literally, "revival"). He
organized a corps of about 3,000
volunteers, which, in the service of the
Piedmontese ruler Charles Albert, King of
Sardinia, unsuccessfully fought the
Austrians in Lombardy. In 1849 he led his
volunteers to Rome to support the Roman
republic established by Mazzini and
others. Garibaldi successfully defended
the city against attacks by superior
French forces for 30 days but was finally
compelled to make terms with the French.
Although he was allowed to depart from
Rome at the head of about 5,000 of his
followers, the line of retreat lay through
territory controlled by the Austrians; the
larger part of his force was killed,
captured, or dispersed (his first wife
Anita, a Creole, being among the
casualties), and Garibaldi had to flee
Italy to save his life.
Garibaldi
went to the United States in 1848, settled
in Staten Island, New York, working as a
candle-maker, and became an American
citizen. In 1854 he returned to Italy and
bought a modest home on the island of
Caprera, north-east of Sardinia. At that
time Garibaldi had separated politically
from Mazzini, an undeviating republican;
Garibaldi believed that the road to
freedom and unity for Italy lay in
alliance with the liberal ruler Victor
Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, and his
premier, Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour.
Thousands of other Italian patriots and
revolutionaries were influenced by
Garibaldi's position, a fact that did much
to enhance the fortunes of the Sardinian
monarch and influence the course of
Italian history.
Struggle
for Unification
Garibaldi was deeply involved in the
complicated military and political
struggles that took place in the following
years. In 1859 he led a successful
expedition against the Austrian forces in
the Alps; in 1860 he led a force of 1,000
men from Genoa to Sicily, then ruled by
the king of Naples. Distinctively clad in
bright red shirts, Garibaldi's men became
known as the Red Shirts and as The
Thousand. Between May and August 1860,
Garibaldi conquered Sicily and set up a
provisional insular government. He then
crossed to the Italian mainland; took
Naples; defeated the Neapolitans in a
decisive engagement on the banks of the
Volturno River on October 26, 1860; and
besieged the fortress of Gaeta, which fell
in February 1861.
Later
that year, the kingdom of Italy was
established with Victor Emmanuel as king;
Rome, a papal possession garrisoned by
French troops, was not included in the new
kingdom, nor were areas in the north of
the peninsula held by the Austrians.
Garibaldi, declining all honours and
positions in the new kingdom, retired to
his island home on Caprera. In the
following year, however, he organized the
Society for the Emancipation of Italy and
visited Sicily, where he raised a force of
volunteers with the object of capturing
Rome and including it in a unified Italian
state. He was opposed by Victor Emmanuel,
who defeated him at the Battle of
Aspromonte, on August 29, 1862. Garibaldi
was wounded and captured in that battle
but was soon pardoned and
released.
In
1866, despite the opposition of the
Italian government, Garibaldi again raised
a volunteer force with the aim of annexing
the Papal States to the kingdom of Italy.
After a number of initial engagements, he
was defeated by combined papal and French
(including Zouave) forces at the Battle of
Mentana on November 3, 1867. He was taken
prisoner but was held only a short
time.
For
about two years thereafter Garibaldi lived
the life of a farmer on Caprera. In 1870
he offered his services to the French
government and fought with his two sons in
the Franco-Prussian War. Rome was annexed
to Italy in October 1870, and Garibaldi
was elected a member of the Italian
parliament in 1874. In his last years he
sympathized with the developing socialist
movement in Italy and other countries.
Garibaldi died on Caprera on June 2, 1882.
His autobiography was published in 1887.
Though he remains a great romantic figure
and a national hero in Italy, his military
contribution to the unification of Italy
is now considered less important than the
diplomacy of Mazzini and
Cavour.
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