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Garibaldi in 1866.
'Giuseppe Garibaldi' (
July 4,
1807 –
June 2,
1882) was an
Italian patriot and soldier of the
Risorgimento. He personally led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy. He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in
South America and
Europe.
[1]
Biography
Early years
Garibaldi photo by
Nadar.
Garibaldi was born in 1807 in the city of Nice (Nizza). At that time the city was French before it was given back to the
Kingdom of Sardinia in 1814; the city was definitively transferred voluntarily to France and acquired the actual name of
Nice only in 1859, as a reward for the aid France had given Savoy in achieving Italy's unification. Garibaldi's family was involved in coastal trade, and he was reared to a life on the sea. He was certified in 1832 as a
merchant marine captain.
A very influential day in Garibaldi's life came during a visit to
Taganrog, Russia, in April 1833, where he moored for ten days with the schooner ''Clorinda'' and a shipment of oranges. In a seaport inn, he met Giovanni Battista Cuneo from
Oneglia, a political immigrant from Italy and member of the secret movement ''
La Giovine Italia'' (“
Young Italy”), founded by
Giuseppe Mazzini, an impassioned proponent of
Italian unification as a liberal
republic through political and social reforms. Garibaldi joined the society, and took an oath of dedicating his life to struggle for liberation of his homeland from Austrian dominance.
In
Geneva in November 1833, Garibaldi met Mazzini himself, starting a relationship which later would become rather troublesome. He joined the
Carbonari revolutionary association. In February 1834 he participated in a failed Mazzinian insurrection in
Piedmont, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Genoese court, and fled to
Marseilles.
South American adventures
After Tunisia, Garibaldi left for
Brazil and took up the cause of independence of the Republic of
Rio Grande do Sul (the former Brazilian province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul), joining the
gaucho rebels known as the ''farrapos'' (tatters) against the newly independent Brazilian nation (see
War of Tatters). During this war he encountered a woman,
Anita Ribeiro da Silva (best known as "Anita"), when the Tatter Army tried to proclaim another Republic in the Brazilian province of
Santa Catarina. In October 1839, Anita left her husband, Manuel Duarte Aguiar, to join Garibaldi on his ship, the ''Rio Pardo''. A month later, she fought at her lover's side at the battles of Imbituba and Laguna.
In 1841, the couple moved to
Montevideo,
Uruguay, where Garibaldi worked as a trader and schoolmaster, and married there the following year. They had four children, Menotti (born 1840), Rosita (born 1843), Teresita (born 1845) and Ricciotti (born 1847). A skilled horsewoman, Anita is said to have taught Giuseppe about the
gaucho culture of southern Brazil and Uruguay. It was about this time he adopted his trademark clothing, the red shirt, cloak, and sombrero (hat) used by the gauchos.
In 1842, Garibaldi took command of the Uruguayan fleet and raised an "Italian Legion" for the
Guerra Grande, aligned with the
liberal coalition of Uruguayan
Colorados of
Fructuoso Rivera and Argentine
Unitarios (with substantive support of
France and
United Kingdom) against the
conservative forces of former Uruguayan president
Manuel Oribe's
Blancos and Argentine
Federales under the rule of
Buenos Aires caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas. The Legion adopted a black flag representing Italy in mourning, while the volcano at its center symbolized the dormant power in their homeland. It was in Uruguay that the legion first wore the
red shirts, obtained from a factory in Montevideo which had intended to export them to the slaughterhouses of
Argentina. It was to become the symbol of Garibaldi and his followers. Between 1842 and 1848 Garibaldi defended Montevideo against forces led by Oribe. In 1845 he even managed to occupy
Colonia del Sacramento and
Martín García and led the controversial sack of
Gualeguaychú. Adopting skillful tactics of guerrilla warfare, he obtained two celebrated victories in the battles of Cerro and San Antonio del Santo in 1846.
The fate of his homeland, however, continued to concern Garibaldi. The election of Pope
Pius IX in 1846 had caused a sensation among Italian patriots, both at home and in exile. When news of the pope's initial reforms (which seemed to identify him as the liberal pope prophesied by
Vincenzo Gioberti, who would provide the leadership for the unification of Italy) reached Montevideo, Garibaldi wrote the following letter:
"If these hands, used to fighting, would be acceptable to His Holiness, we most thankfully dedicate them to the service of him who deserves so well of the Church and of the fatherland. Joyful indeed shall we and our companions in whose name we speak be, if we may be allowed to shed our blood in defence of Pio Nono's work of redemption" (October 12, 1847). [A. Werner, Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Vol. III, p. 68, Howard Fertig, New York, 1971.]
Also Mazzini, from his exile, applauded the first reforms of Pius IX. In 1847 Garibaldi offered the apostolic
nuncio at Rio de Janeiro, Bedini, the service of his Italian Legion for the liberation of the peninsula. News of the outbreak of revolution in
Palermo in January 1848, and revolutionary agitation elsewhere in Italy encouraged Garibaldi to lead some sixty members of his legion home.
Return to Italy and second exile
Garibaldi returned to Italy amongst the turmoils of the
revolutions of 1848, and offered his services to
Charles Albert of Sardinia. The monarch displayed some liberal inclinations, but treated Garibaldi with coolness and distrust. Rebuffed by the Piedmontese, he and his followers crossed into Lombardy where they offered assistance to the provisional government of Milan, which had rebelled against the Austrian occupation. In the course of the following, unsuccessful
First Italian War of Independence, he led his legion to two minor victories at Luino and Morazzone.
Giuseppe and Anita Garibaldi fleeing to San Marino.
After the crushing Piedmontese defeat at
Novara (
march 23 1849), Garibaldi moved to Rome to support the
Republic which been proclaimed in the
Papal States, but a
French force sent by Louis Napoleon (the future
Napoleon III) threatened to topple it. At Mazzini's urging, Garibaldi took up the command of the defence of
Rome. His wife, Anita, fought with him. Despite their efforts, highlighted by a surprising victory against a numerically far superior French army on April 30, 1849, the city fell on
June 30,
1849. Garibaldi and his forces, hunted by
Austrian,
French,
Spanish, and
Neapolitan troops, fled to the north with the intention to reach Venice, where the rebels were still resisting the Austrian siege. After an epic march, Garibaldi took momentarily refuge to
San Marino, with only 250 men still following him. Anita, who was carrying their fifth child, died near Comacchio during the retreat.
The Americas
Garibaldi eventually managed to reach
Portovenere, near
La Spezia, but the Piedmontese government forced him to emigrate again abroad.
After a stay in
Tangier, he moved on to
Staten Island[2], New York. He arrived on the 30th of July 1850, and stayed in exile in an attempt to avoid publicity and exposure. His host was the inventor
Antonio Meucci, where he spent some time working as a candlemaker in his plant on
Staten Island, but was dissatisfied by the result. Afterwards he made several voyages as sea captain to the
Pacific, the longest of which took two years from April of 1851
, during which he visited
Andean revolutionary heroine
Manuela Sáenz in
Peru.
Garibaldi left New York City for the last time in November of 1853
.
Tyneside
On
21 March 1854, Garibaldi sailed into to the mouth of the
River Tyne in north eastern
England, as
Master of the sailing vessel ''Commonwealth''. The ship had sailed from
Baltimore and was flying the American flag when it docked and unloaded its cargo in
South Shields. Garibaldi, already a popular figure on
Tyneside, was welcomed enthusiastically by the local
working class, although the ''Newcastle Courant'' reported that he refused an invitation to dine with dignitaries in nearby
Newcastle. As a memento of his stay in the area, an inscribed sword, paid for through public subscriptions, was presented to Garibaldi. His
grandson carried the sword to
South Africa with him almost half a century later, when he volunteered to fight for the
British Army in the
Boer War. In total, Garibaldi stayed in Tyneside for over a month, departing at the end of April 1854.
[3]
Second Italian War of Independence
Garibaldi returned again to Italy in 1854. Using a small legacy from the death of his brother, he bought half of the
Italian island of
Caprera (northern
Sardinia), devoting himself to agriculture.
In 1859, the
Second Italian War of Independence (also known as the
Austro-Sardinian War) broke out in the midst of internal plots at the Sardinian government. Garibaldi was appointed
major general, and formed a volunteer unit named the
Hunters of the Alps. Thenceforth, Garibaldi abandoned Mazzini's republican ideal of the liberation of Italy, assuming that only the Piedmontese monarchy could effectively achieve it.
With his volunteers, he won victories over the Austrians at
Varese, Como, and other places. Garibaldi was however very displeased as his home city of
Nice was surrendered to the
French, in return for crucial military assistance.
Campaign of 1860
:''See also:
Expedition of the Thousand
On
January 24 1860 Garibaldi married a Lombard noblewoman, Giuseppina Raimondi, but left her immediately after the wedding ceremony due to her infidelities.
At the beginning of April 1860, uprisings in
Messina and
Palermo in the absolutist
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies provided Garibaldi with an opportunity. He gathered about a thousand volunteers (called ''
i Mille'', or, as popularly known, the "Red Shirts") in two ships, and landed at
Marsala, on the westernmost point of Sicily, on
May 11.
Swelling the ranks of his army with scattered bands of local rebels, Garibaldi defeated a 3,000-strong Bourbon French garrison at Calatafimi on
May 15. The next day, he declared himself dictator of Sicily in the name of
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. He advanced then to
Palermo, the capital of the island, and launched a
siege on
May 27. He had the support of many of the inhabitants, who rose up against the garrison, but before the city could be taken, reinforcements arrived and bombarded the city nearly to ruins. At this time, a British admiral intervened and facilitated an armistice, by which the
Neapolitan royal troops and warships surrendered the city and departed.
Garibaldi had won a signal victory. He gained worldwide renown and the adulation of Italians. Faith in his prowess was so strong that doubt, confusion, and dismay seized even the Neapolitan court. Six weeks later, he marched against Messina in the east of the island. By the end of July, only the citadel resisted.
thumb
Having finished the conquest of Sicily, he crossed the
Strait of Messina, under the nose of the Neapolitan fleet, and marched northward. Garibaldi's progress was met with more celebration than resistance, and on
September 7 he entered the capital city of
Naples. However, despite taking Naples, he had not to this point defeated the Neapolitan army. Garibaldi's volunteer army of 24,000 was able to defeat the Neapolitan army on September 30th at the Battle of Volturno. Following this success, Garibaldi's plans were to march on to Rome, but he was blocked by the Piedmontese, technically his ally but unwilling to share credit for the Reunification of Italy with his volunteer army. Garibaldi chose to hand over all his territorial gains in the south to the Piedmontese and withdrew to Caprera and temporary retirement. Some modern historians consider the handover of his gains to the Piedmontese as a political defeat, but he seemed willing to see Italian unity brought about under the Piedmontese crown.
Aftermath
Garibaldi deeply disliked the Piedmontese Prime Minister,
Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour. To an extent, he simply mistrusted Cavour's pragmatism and ''
realpolitik'', but he also bore a personal grudge for trading away his home city of
Nice to the French the previous year. On the other hand, he felt attracted toward the Piedmontese monarch, who in his opinion had been chosen by Providence for the liberation of Italy. In his famous meeting with
Victor Emmanuel II at
Teano on
October 26,
1860, Garibaldi greeted him as
King of Italy and shook his hand. Garibaldi rode into
Naples at the king's side on
November 7, then retired to the rocky island of
Caprera, refusing to accept any reward for his services.
On
October 5 Garibaldi set up the
International Legion bringing together different national divisions of
French,
Poles,
Swiss,
German and other nationalities, with a view not just of finishing the liberation of Italy, but also of their homelands. With the motto "Free from the
Alps to the
Adriatic", the unification movement set its gaze on Rome and Venice. Mazzini was discontented with the perpetuation of monarchial government, and continued to agitate for a republic. Garibaldi, frustrated at inaction by the king, and bristling over perceived snubs, organized a new venture. This time, he intended to take on the
Papal States.
At the outbreak of the
American Civil War (in 1861), Garibaldi volunteered his services to President
Abraham Lincoln and was invited to serve as a major general in the Union Army. Garibaldi then reconsidered saying that he would only serve on two conditions:
★ That slavery would definitely be abolished
★ That he would be given full command of the army.
These conditions were impossible for Lincoln to accept and so the offer was quietly withdrawn.
Expedition against Rome
A challenge against the
Pope's temporal domain was viewed with great distrust by Catholics around the world, and the French emperor
Napoleon III had guaranteed the independence of Rome from Italy by stationing a French garrison in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the international repercussions of attacking the Papal States, and discouraged his subjects from participating in revolutionary ventures with such intentions. Nonetheless, Garibaldi believed he had the secret support of his government.
In June of 1862, he sailed from
Genoa and landed at Palermo, seeking to gather volunteers for the impending campaign under the slogan ''Roma o Morte'' (Rome or Death). An enthusiastic party quickly joined him, and he turned for Messina, hoping to cross to the mainland there. When he arrived, he had a force of some two thousand, but the garrison proved loyal to the king's instructions and barred his passage. They turned south and set sail from
Catania, where Garibaldi declared that he would enter Rome as a victor or perish beneath its walls. He landed at
Melito on August 14, and marched at once into the
Calabrian mountains.
Far from supporting this endeavor, the Italian government was quite disapproving. General Cialdini dispatched a division of the regular army, under Colonel Pallavicino, against the volunteer bands. On
August 28 the
two forces met in the rugged
Aspromonte. One of the regulars fired a chance shot, and several volleys followed, killing a few of the volunteers. The fighting ended quickly, as Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire on fellow subjects of the
Kingdom of Italy. Many of the volunteers were taken prisoner, including Garibaldi, who had been wounded by a shot in the foot.
A government steamer took him to
Varignano, where he was held in a sort of honorable imprisonment, and was compelled to undergo a tedious and painful operation for the healing of his wound. His venture had failed, but he was at least consoled by Europe's sympathy and continued interest. After being restored to health, he was released and allowed to return to Caprera.
In 1864 he visited
London, where his presence was received with enthusiasm by the population. He met the British prime minister
Henry Palmerston, as well as other revolutionaries then living in exile in the city. At that time, his international project included the liberation of an ambitious range of occupied nations, such as Croatia, Greece, Hungary, but none of them turned into reality.
Final struggle with Austria, and other adventures
Garibaldi took up arms again in 1866, this time with the full support of the Italian government. The
Austro-Prussian War had broken out, and Italy had allied with
Prussia against
Austria-Hungary in the hope of taking
Venetia from Austrian rule (
Third Italian War of Independence). Garibaldi gathered again his Hunters of the Alps, now some 40,000 strong, and
led them into the
Trentino. He defeated the Austrians at
Bezzecca and made for
Trento.
The Italian regular forces were defeated at
Lissa on the sea, and made little progress on land after the disaster of
Custoza. An armistice was signed, by which Austria did cede Venetia to Italy, but this result was largely due to Prussia's successes on the northern front. Garibaldi's advance through Trentino was for nought and he was ordered to stop his advance to Trento. Garibaldi answered with a short telegram from the main square of Bezzecca with the famous mot: ''Obbedisco!'' ("I obey!").
After the war, Garibaldi led a
political party that agitated for the capture of Rome, the peninsula's ancient capital. In 1867, he again marched on the city, but the Papal army, supported by a French auxiliary force, proved a match for his badly-armed volunteers. He was taken prisoner, held captive for a time, and then again returned to Caprera.
When the
Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870, Italian public opinion heavily favored the Prussians, and many Italians attempted to sign up as volunteers at the Prussian embassy in Florence. After the French garrison was recalled from Rome, the Italian Army captured the Papal States without Garibaldi's assistance. Following the wartime collapse of the
Second French Empire at the battle of Sedan, Garibaldi, undaunted by the recent hostility shown to him by the men of
Napoleon III, switched his support to the newly-declared
French Third Republic.
Subsequently, Garibaldi went to France and assumed command of the Army of the Vosges, an army of volunteers that was never defeated by the Prussians.
Death
Despite being elected again to the Italian parliament, Garibaldi spent much of his late years in Caprera. He however supported an ambitious project of land reclamation in the marshy areas of southern
Lazio.
In 1879 he founded the "League of Democracy", pushing forward the universal suffrage, the abolition of the ecclesiastical property, and of the standing army. Ill and forced to move on a bed by
arthritis, he made trips to Calabria and Sicily. In 1880 he married Francesca Armosino, with whom he had previously had three children.
On his deathbed, Garibaldi asked that his bed be moved to where he could gaze at the emerald and sapphire sea. Upon his death on
June 2,
1882 at the ripe age of almost 75, his wishes for a simple funeral and cremation were not respected.
[4]
Writings
Garibaldi wrote at least two novels, characterized by anti-clerical accents:
★ ''Clelia'' or ''Il governo dei preti'' (1867)
★ ''Cantoni il volontario''(1870)
★ ''I Mille'' (1873)
He also wrote non-fiction:
★ ''Autobiography''
[5]
★ ''Memoirs'',
[6] co-authored by
Alexandre Dumas
Legacy
Garibaldi's popularity, his skill at rousing the common people, and his military exploits are all credited with making the unification of Italy possible. He also served as a global exemplar of mid-
19th century revolutionary
nationalism and
liberalism. But following the liberation of southern Italy from the Neapolitan monarchy, Garibaldi chose to sacrifice his liberal
republican principles for the sake of unification.
Garibaldi subscribed to the
anti-clericalism common among Latin liberals and did much to circumscribe the temporal power of the
Papacy. His personal religious convictions are unclear to historians; in
1882 he wrote "Man created God, not God Man" yet in his autobiography he is quoted as saying "I am a Christian, and I speak to Christians- I am a true Christian, and I speak to true Christians. I love and venerate the religion of Christ, because Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery..." and "you have the duty to educate the people- educate the people- educate them to be Christians- educate them to be Italians... Viva Italia! Viva Christianity!".
An active
freemason, Garibaldi had little use for rituals, but thought of masonry as a network to unite
progressive men as brothers both within nations and as members of a global community.
Giuseppe Garibaldi died at Caprera in 1882, where he was interred. Five ships of the
Italian Navy have been named after him, among which a World War II
cruiser and the current
flagship, the
aircraft carrier ''Giuseppe Garibaldi''.
Statues of his likeness, as well as the handshake of
Teano, stand in many Italian squares, and in other countries around the world. On the top of the
Gianicolo hill in
Rome, there is a statue of Garibaldi on horse-back. His face was originally turned in the direction of the
Vatican (an allusion to his ambition to conquer the Papal States), but after the
Lateran Treaty in 1929 the orientation of the statue was changed upon request of the Vatican.
In a recent book review in the New Yorker (July 9&16, 2007) of a Garibaldi biography, Tim Parks cites the eminent English historian, A.J.P. Taylor, as saying, "Garibaldi is the only wholly admirable figure in modern history."
Trivia
★ Garibaldi enjoyed fame as a very skilled seaman.
★ Garibaldi named some of the animals in his Caprera farm after contemporary figures: a donkey, for example, was ironically named "Pio Nono" (Italian for Pius IX).
★ It is said that the
Garibaldi biscuit is named for the famous commander, who gave it to his men.
★ His red-shirted volunteers also lent his name to the
garibaldi, a
North American fish with a distinctive orange color.
★ In Italian, the word '' refers not only to a follower of Garibaldi: in tribute to the hero's exploits, it is also an
adjective meaning bold or audacious.
★ The red strip of the English football club
Nottingham Forest is sometimes referred to as "the garibaldi".
★ In Brazil, the city of
Garibaldi is named after him.
★ Garibaldi, Oregon in the USA was also named for the Italian patriot in 1867.
★ Garibaldi, Santa Fe in Argentina was also named after the Italian patriot in 1886.
★
Mt. Garibaldi, one of the tallest and most impressive peaks part of the
Garibaldi Belt of volcanic mountains located north of
Vancouver, Canada, is also named after him, and there is a school in
Maple Ridge,
British Columbia,
Canada named
Garibaldi Secondary School in his honor.
★ Garibaldi is known to have stayed in Tynemouth House,
Tynemouth, in the
north east of England, now part of
The King's School, Tynemouth. A room in the house is subsequently named The Garibaldi Room.
★ There is also a tower dedicated to Garibaldi standing on a hill in Blaydon, just West of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England.
★ The character
Michael Garibaldi, from the ''
Babylon 5 ''TV series, was named in honour of the real Garibaldi.
★ The
trophy awarded to the winner of the annual
Rugby union match between
France and
Italy is named after him.
★ Garibaldi's son,
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Jr., was a
Lieutenant Colonel in the anti-re-electionist army of the 1910
Mexican Revolution, serving under
Pancho Villa and
Francisco I. Madero. The famous
mariachi gathering place,
Plaza Garibaldi in
Mexico City is named in Garibaldi Jr's honor.
★ The only
via, or "wide open street" in Venice is named after Garibaldi.
★ A street near Moscow State University in Moscow Russia is named after Garibaldi.
★ The flagship of Italian Navy is
Giuseppe Garibaldi (551)
See also
★
Giuseppe Mazzini
★
Vittorio Emanuele II
★
Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour
★
Vincenzo Gioberti
★
Italian Wars of Independence
★
Jessie White Mario
★
Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy
★
Georgios Grivas
★
Greek War of Independence
★
Athanasios Diakos
Notes
1. Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807-1882)
2. The Encyclopedia of New York City, , Kenneth T., Jackson, The New York Historical Society and Yale University Press, 1995,
3. ''Ships, Strikes and Keelmen: Glimpses of North-Eastern Social History'' - David Bell, 2001 ISBN 1901237265
4. Ridley, p. 633
5. Autobiography, , Giuseppe, Garibaldi, , ,
6. The Memoirs of Garibaldi, , Giuseppe, Garibaldi, , ,
References
★
Heroes: A History of Hero Worship, , Lucy, Hughes-Hallett, Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, ISBN 1-4000-4399-9
★
Young People's History of the World for the Past One Hundred Years, , Morris, , , 1902,
★
Garibaldi, , Jasper, Ridley, Viking Press, 1976,
External links
★
1867 Caricature of Garibaldi by André Gill
★
i Mille Garibaldini
★
il Patriota dei Mille: Paolo Bovi Campeggi
★
A recent review of Lucy Riall's “Garibaldi: The Invention of a Hero” (Yale, 2007) that appeared on the Ney Yorker. It contains an interesting description of the character.
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