The Life of Garibaldi

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The Life of Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was born in Nice, France in 1807. He spent most of

his youth as a sailor on Mediterranean merchant ships. In 1883 he

joined Young Italy, the movement organised by the Italian

revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini. He believed that all Italian people

should be free and that Italyshould not only be independent, but also

an integrated republic.

Italyhad been left completely fragmented by the settlements reached at

Congress of Vienna in 1815. The congress had divided territory among

the victors of the Napoleonic Wars. Italy was divided up, but most

people wanted to see it re-united as one country, including Garibaldi.

In 1815, Italyfaced three obstacles to unity. The first was the

Austrian occupation of

Lombardy and Venice in the North and the northeast of the Italian

Peninsula. The

second was the Papal States, under the sovereignty of the Pope. The

Papal States

straddled the centre of the Peninsula, cutting the North off the

South. The third

obstacle was the existence of several independent states. On the

French boarder was

the Kingdom of Sardinia, which had slowly expanded since the middle

ages and was

now the most advanced state in Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia

consisted of the

region called Piedmont in north western Italy and the island of

Sardinia. The

Kingdom of the two Sicilies occupied the Southern half of the

Peninsula and the

Island of Sicily. Other small states included Tuscany, Parma and

Modena. All these

states had to be bolished if Italy was to be re-united.

In 1834, Garibaldi was ordered to seize a Warship, but the plot was

dis...

... middle of paper ...

...nd the Papal

States. In 1866,

the government went to Garibaldi again. Italy had made an alliance

with Prussia to

defeat the Austrians. Italy was promised Veniceif the alliance was

victorious.

Garibaldi successfully invaded Tyrol with a volunteer force.

Venicefinally became a

part of Italyin 1866. Garibaldi now turned his attention to raising a

volunteer force

with the aim of returning the Papal States to the kingdom of Italy.

After a number of

initial engagements, he was defeated by combined Papal and French

forces at the

Battle of Mentana on 3rd November 1867. A successful and united Italy

was finally

complete in 1870, when Rome was annexed to Italy.

Garibaldi was elected as a member of Parliament in 1874, and was

involved in the

politics of Italyuntil his death in 1882.

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