Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian icon. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.
Giuseppe Garibaldi Meets Giuseppe Mazzini "The Master"
Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi played an integral role in the unification of the Italian states in 1861 and the installation of King Victor Emmanuel II from the House of Savoy as the monarch of the new Italy.
He was a liberal thinking republican at heart. He worked with the monarchy to achieve his dream of unification and he was revered and feared by the government led by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour. Ironically, when Italy was unified the reality didn't match Garibaldi's expectations.
Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi was born in Nice in Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire on 4th July 1807. After Bonaparte's era, Nice was awarded to the House of Savoy's Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. (It was granted to France again in 1860).
The Garibaldi family earned their money from the sea and in 1832 Giuseppe became a merchant ship's captain. He then served in the navy of Piedmont-Sardinia. In Marseille in 1833 he met the prominent nationalist and republican Giuseppe Mazzini. Garibaldi referred to him as "the master" and he joined Mazzini's Young Italy and the Italian National Movement.
Garibaldi's Exile in South America
In 1834 he participated in a failed coup in Piedmont and he fled to France. In absentia, he was sentenced to death by the authorities.
In 1836 he travelled to South America where he remained until 1848. He found employment as a ship's captain based in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and during his time there he helped the local Italian communities to oppose Brazilian rule.
The Brazilians far outnumbered the rebels and Garibaldi, his future wife Anita, full name Anna Maria di Ribiero da Silva, and their first child, Domenico Menotti, fled to Montevideo in Uruguay in 1841.
Garibaldi worked as a teacher and a commercial traveller but neither career suited him so he became a captain in Uruguay's navy in 1842. Uruguay wanted to break ties with Argentina. Giuseppe Garibaldi established the Italian Legion and the Montevideo Redshirts acquired their name after red shirts were found and liberated from a factory for their use.
A successful battle record and his expertise in guerilla warfare led to his name being mentioned around Europe. In 1847 Garibaldi met Alexandre Dumas (Pere or Senior) and Dumas endorsed his reputation as a professional rebel.
The Risorgimento and the Papal States
Despite his 1834 death sentence, in spring 1848 Garibaldi returned to revolutionary Europe. The Italian states were unsettled and Sicily suffered a revolution. He arrived on Italian shores with approximately sixty men to fight against Austria in the First Italian War of Independence.
The House of Savoy brokered peace with Austria although Garibaldi continued to fight. With fewer soldiers than the Austrians Garibaldi found himself retreating into Switzerland. From there he went to Nice.
Garibaldi's determination to unite the Italian states didn't diminish. The Risorgimento (resurgence) was a movement that aimed to unify Italy under one democratic ruler. Garibaldi founded the political arm of Mazzini's Action Party to help achieve their aim.
The 1848 revolt in the Papal States led to a republic and Garibaldi's selection as a deputy in the Roman Assembly. The French sent troops into the Papal States to ensure that the republic was short-lived.
War With Austria and His Wife
Garibaldi and his Risorgimento army withstood a siege and all that the French could fire at them for longer than anyone expected. Garibaldi refused to concede defeat and he and a few hundred loyal men retreated and took refuge in San Marino, a neutral state. The bravery of the Risorgimento's army was commended. Anita and their unborn fifth child died during the retreat.
Garibaldi relocated to Tuscany but the government and members of the House of Savoy were frightened by his immense popularity and they sent him into exile in Africa and then South America. He was permitted to return home in 1854. He proved indispensable during the Second War of Independence against Austria in 1859.
After the war, he acquired a large part of the island of Caprera off Sardinia and he made his home there. Prime Minister Camillo Benso di Cavour angered Garibaldi when he returned Nice to France but the patriot remained loyal to the king and government, or much more likely, to the goal of unification.
In 1860 Garibaldi married again. Just minutes after the ceremony ended he learned that his bride was five months pregnant by one of his soldiers. He walked away from the union. It took him two decades to nullify the marriage.
He began a long relationship with Francesca Armosino and his children with her were legitimised when the annulment was finally granted.
Italian Unification 1861 and Abraham Lincoln's Offer
Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Risorgimento conquered Sicily in May 1860 and Naples fell in September 1860. Referendums were held and King Victor Emmanuel from the House of Savoy was selected to rule the united Piedmont, Sardinia, Sicily and Naples (Southern Italy). Mazzini wanted a republic but Garibaldi bowed to the public view that it was too revolutionary to discard the monarchy.
Garibaldi was more popular than the king and his politicians wondered whether he might switch his allegiance back to Mazzini's republicans and abandon the king. Therefore, his request to act as the king's viceroy in Naples was denied. Garibaldi travelled home to the island of Caprera and he refused the honours that were offered to him.
Italy was officially unified in 1861. Garibaldi cared little for the politics, the administration and the poor treatment of soldiers in Italy that he played a leading role in creating.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln asked Garibaldi to command soldiers during the American Civil War. Garibaldi refused because Lincoln wouldn't give him as much responsibility as he craved and he was opposed to slavery; Lincoln wasn't yet ready to abolish it.
"The Hero of the Two Worlds"
In 1862 Victor Emmanuel II commanded him to lead a campaign against their old enemy Austria. Garibaldi diverted his soldiers to the Papal State. He failed to evict the French because di Cavour's government instructed the Italian army to halt his incursion to save French-Italian relations. He was badly wounded, taken prisoner, and released.
Four years later the king sent Garibaldi to fight in the Tyrol, Austria. The campaign was successful.
His victories on two continents led to his name "Hero of the Two Worlds."
In 1867 Garibaldi led yet another unsuccessful assault on the Papal States. In all probability, this time the government had sponsored his "independent" campaign. He was arrested, released and sent home to Caprera.
During the 1870-1 Franco-Prussian War Garibaldi worked with the French. The Prussians won. This was Giuseppe Garibaldi's last foray into fighting.
His final years were spent on the island of Caprera. He was plagued by his battle wounds and rheumatism. As he lay dying Garibaldi asked for his bed to be moved so that he could see the sea. He expressed his wish for a simple funeral but he was given a grand send-off after he died on the 2nd June 1882.
The Garibaldi biscuit (a.k.a. the squashed fly biscuit) may have been named in his honour but this is disputed.
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