GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI
THE ICON OF ITALIAN UNIFICATION 1807-82
Responsible for most of the military victories of the Risorgimento, Garibaldi was born in Nice to a Ligurian family and began his career as a merchant sailor. In the early 1830s, he joined the Piedmont-sardinian Navy but had to escape to South America following a failed mutiny.
Garibaldi spent 12 years in South America where he commanded the Uruguayan Navy and formed an Italian Legion known as the ‘Redshirts’. He defended Montevideo and won several victories where he impressed observers with his guerrilla tactics. After returning to
Italy in 1848 with remnants of his Redshirts, Garibaldi fought for Milan during the First Italian War of Independence.
After travelling to North America, the Pacific and England, Garibaldi served as a major general during the Second War of Italian Independence and formed a volunteer unit called the ‘Hunters of the Alps’. He was disappointed with the war’s outcome and instead launched an audacious venture with Redshirt volunteers known as the Expedition of the Mille in 1860.
The expedition resulted in a popular revolution, spectacular victories and the conquest of Sicily and Naples for Piedmontsardinia. Garibaldi was able to proclaim Victor Emmanuel II as king of a united Italy and a new kingdom was established in 1861. Nevertheless, he clashed with the newly unified Italian government, particularly when he attempted to march on the still-independent Papal state of Rome. He was defeated and wounded by the Royal Italian Army but ultimately reconciled with the Italian government. After successfully fighting in the Third Italian War of Independence against Austria, Garibaldi supported the new French Third Republic against Prussia. He spent much of his last years in semi-retirement on Caprera where he died in 1882.
Garibaldi was much admired internationally, particularly in Britain and the USA. He was famed for his honesty, simple radicalism and lack of personal ambition for power. He was also recognised as a progressive champion of labour rights, women’s emancipation, racial equality and the abolition of capital punishment.
“HE WAS FAMED FOR HIS HONESTY, SIMPLE RADICALISM AND LACK OF PERSONAL AMBITION FOR POWER”