After getting bored while studying law, he joined the Carbonari (a secret that society which in translation means coal burners) in 1827 and soon became secretary of the group in Genoa. He got distressed with their vagueness of their aims and ambitions and in November 1830 was betrayed by one of his friends. He was sent to prison for three months where he thought out political ideas and decided that his life would from now on be dominated by the ideas of a unified Italy. He then formed the movement Young Italy among exiled Italians. Unlike the Carbonari it would have clearly defined aims.
His own political believes were based on believing that God existed, in the right of all men and human races, in the progress of human kind and the duties of individuals to society.
After being released from prison in 1831, he went to live in Marseilles in the south of France where he launched his new secret society, Young Italy. The main aim of this society was to establish a free and united Italian Republic. This was to be achieved through education and revolutions.
In 1833, due to a chance meeting, Guiseppe Garibaldi joined Young Italy and got involved in the planning of an uprising. He got caught but fortunately he managed to escape before he was sentenced to death. Mazzini also went into exile to London where he spent the next few years planning many uprisings and riots.
In 1848 Mazzini’s dreams seemed to be realized when news of the Revolutions throughout Europe reached him. He returned to Milan where he was greeted enthusiastically and after the assassination of the papal minister, Pellegrino Rossi, and the departure of Pope Pius IX, he was asked to join the Triumvirate. The new united Republic of Italy had a short life since Pope Pius IX appealed to the French to come to his aid, which they did in July 1849. Soon afterwards Mazzini left again and went to exile. Although he was still respected and people thought highly of him, the people started to turn to the monarchial leadership offered by King Victor Emmanuel. Mazzini never accepted the monarchial united Italy and continued to fight for a democratic republic until his death in 1872.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour (1811- 1861)
He was born in Piedmont while it was still under Napoleonic rule. He was the second son of a rich noble family and his father was a minister in the absolutist government of Victor Emmanuel I. After leaving the army in 1835, Cavour returned home and took an active part in the running of the family estate whilst furthering his education in political and economic studies.
Once Charles Albert freed the press censorship in 1847, Cavour founded the newspaper Il Risorgimento and used it to publish his ideas for the future of Piedmont and Italy. He soon stood for the first Piedmontese Parliament but only got in a few months later after in a by-election. He soon got a reputation as a liberal, non-revolutionary politician. In 1850 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and the navy. Cavour then put his economic beliefs into reality by making free trade treaties with France, Britain, Belgium and even Austria. Since the Prime Minister of the time, D’Azeglio, did not like administration work he let Cavour do it, which means that Cavour was doing most of the day to day running of the State. By 1852 he started disagreeing with the right wing government and allied with the political leader of the moderate left wing party in Parliament, to form a new centre party. By the end of May his position got too difficult in D’Azeglios’s government and he resigned.
Cavour started traveling but was asked to become Prime Minister in Nov 1852 after D’Azeglio resigned and had suggested Cavour as the new Prime Minister. What had happened was that the Parliament had put forward a new bill to allow civil marriages to occur without a Church service. The Church had pressured the King into asking the Parliament to reject the bill but D’Azeglio was against that and resigned. Cavour did reject the bill since that was the term if he wanted to become Prime Minister.
In 1854 Italy joined the Crimean War (The war began as a quarrel between Russian Orthodox monks and French Catholics over who had precedence at the holy Places in Jerusalem and Nazereth. Britain declared war against Russia and Italy joined in on the side of Britain so as to keep her relationship with Britain and France.) After the war, Cavour went to the Congress of Paris where he denounced Austrias occupation of Italy, arranged to meet Napoleon III and established Cavour as the voice for Italy.
Cavour signed a treaty with Napoleon that France would help Sardinia if she got attacked by Austria. Cavour then provoked Austria to attack. This was so Cavour could unite northern Italy but Napoleon pulled out during the war and the treaty signed after losing the war allowed Austria to keep Venetia and transferred the territories conquered by Sardinia back to their original rulers. Sardinia received only Lombardy. Soon the citizens of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, Bologna and Romagna voted to become part of Sardinia. Soon after, Garibaldi marched with his thousand soldiers into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Victor Emmanuel led his troops into the province of Umbria. Both these two areas voted for union with Sardinia and the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861. Two months later Cavour died.
Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
He was born a French citizen in Nice but was always an Italian at heart since eight years after he was born Nice became part of Piedmont again. He was a rough, ill educated and passionate soldier. He first joined the merchant navy which led to his meeting with Mazzini. He quickly became part of Mazzini’s followers and after the failed attempt at a mutiny, he escaped to South America and settled in Rio de Janeiro. There he met Anita Riveira de Siloba, the love of his life. He raised an Italian legion of guerillas to fight Argentineans annexion of Uruguay. During this campaign, his men wore the uniform of red shirts for the first time. He returned to Italy in 1848 after hearing rumours of a Revolution. He took along some old weapons and sixty of his soldiers.
When he arrived back in Nice, many recruits joined his army and they were soon called The Garibaldini. Although he was involved in many scandals, due to his love for women, his men still worshipped him and the ordinary folk adored him. Garibaldi offered his services to King Charles Albert, King of Piedmont but he was turned down, but later on was asked to assist Lombardy with an extra five thousand men. After hearing about the defeat of Piedmont at Custoza, most men deserted him again but he still fought and had some minor successes but still no one wanted to employ them. He soon became a royalist because he believed that only Charles Albert could defeat the Austrians and therefore achieve unity. Mazzini thought that Garibaldi had deserted him, by changing sides. Garibaldi was put in charge of defending the short lived Republic which had been created after the Pope fled. Garibaldi did not succeed and four months after the creation, the Republic was overrun by the French. He then marched over 800km towards the Adriatic coast with nearly five thousand soldiers. Garibaldi was then arrested and released on the terms that he would leave Italy. His loyal wife had also died on the march and they did not even have enough time to bury her.
He fled to North America where he did odd work until he inherited a bit of money from his brother and with that he bought half of the island of Caprera where he started to farm. In 1859, the new King, Victor Emmanuel, and Cavour sent him an invitation to visit them in Turin. There they showed him their plan on how to defeat Austria. Garibaldi quickly offered to train volunteers and by now had abandoned all of Mazzini’s ideas and had become a follower of Victor Emmanuel. In spring 1859, the Second War of Independence against Austria began. The French and Piedmontese troops were able to capture Lombardy and Garibaldi’s men had played an important role in this war. The next year, all the states which had been taken over during the war were officially annexed and as part of the bargain, Nice went back to France which angered Garibaldi and embittered his relations with Cavour.
In 1860 a revolt happened in Palermo in Sicily against the King of Naples. Garibaldi who had been planning an armed expedition to save Nice from being annexed back to France, rushed to the aid of Sicily with 1200 volunteers he had gathered. They were called The Thousand. Cavour was against this but could not do anything against it since Garibaldi had already sailed off in two boats. Once there, they defeated the Neapolitian army. By the time they reached Palermo, the army had tripled, but still had to face an army of twent thousand. Garibaldi quickly drove them out by outflanking them and pronounced himself Dicator of Sicily until he would give it to King Victor Emmanuel.
Soon Garibaldis army had multiplied by sixty and most of them were Mazzinians. Cavour wanted to stop Garibaldi from invading Rome and therefore Victor Emmanuel led an army through the Papal States and defeated the Papal army on its way. Plebiscites ( voting by people on an important issue) were held and the wish for a united Italy was great. Garibaldi then finally handed over all his conquests to Victor Emmanuel.
After the fateful march to conquer Rome, Garibaldi moved back to his island where he died in 1882.
Victor Emmanuel (1820-1878)
He was born in Turin, the Capital city of Piedmont, and during his fathers reign, Charles Albert, the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Piedmont were united. He became King of Sardinia in 1849 after his father abdicated after two humiliating defeats by Austria. His first task was to make peace with Austria, which he achieved in Aug 1849 by signing the Treaty of Milan. He met various crises in the early years of his reign and by 1850 Piedmont-Sardinia was the only constitutional state in Italy. By joining Frances side during yet another war against Austria, King Victor Emmanuel managed to get Lombardy. He also supported his Prime Minister Cavour, but seemed to also try and please Garibaldi. He and Cavour worked very closely with each other and both wanted a unified Italy. King Victor Emmanuel became the first King of the Unified Italy on 17th March 1861. To the disappointment of the Italians, he kept his dynastic name Victor Emmanuel II instead of being called Victor Emmanuel I of Italy.
Papal States
Although Garibaldi tried twice to invade the Papal States, he was hindered both times. Once by Napoleon III and another time by Victor Emmanuel II himself. Only French intervention at Rome prevented the total absorption of the Papal States. Napoleon III did this to protect the Popes rights. After Napoleon III fell from power in 1870, Victor Emmanuel could finally take control over the Papal States and include them in his newly formed State. Pope Pius IX refused to accept this and became a ‘prisoner’ in the Vatican. His successors did the same until the Lateran Treaty was signed, which stated that the Vatican City would be created.
Venetia was obtained by promising Prussia that when they went to war against Austria, Italy would stay out of the war. After Prussia won the Austro-Prussian war, Prussia handed over Venetia to Italy.
France also played a role in the unification of Italy by firstly protecting the Papal States and therefore keeping the unification from occurring earlier. Napoleon III also formed an alliance with Sardinia and therefore playing a double game. France also lost territory when Garibaldi attacked Sicily and pronounced himself dictator.
