The History Book

238

LET US ARM.

LET US FIGHT

FOR OUR

BROTHERS

THE EXPEDITION OF THE THOUSAND (1860)

O

n May 11, 1860, the Italian

patriot and guerrilla fighter

Giuseppe Garibaldi landed

in Sicily, then part of the Bourbon-

ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,

in southern Italy, leading a force of

volunteers drawn from across Italy

and just over 1,000 strong, hence

their name, I Mille (The Thousand).

Their goal was to overthrow the

Bourbons, but there was much

uncertainty as to what government

would replace the ruling family.

Like the other great 19th-century

stalwart of Italian liberty, Giuseppe

Mazzini, who in 1849 had briefly

established a Roman republic,

Garibaldi was committed to ending

royal, clerical, and aristocratic

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Nationalism

BEFORE

1830 Greece obtains its

independence from the

Ottomans.

1848 Nationalist revolutions

sweeping across Central

Europe and Italy are crushed.

1859 Austria is driven out

of Lombardy, which is then

annexed by Piedmont.

AFTER

1861 The Italian kingdom is

established.

1866 Austria is forced to cede

Venetia in northeast Italy to

the new Italian kingdom.

1870 The Papal States are

incorporated within Italy.

1871 Germany is united under

Prussian control. Rome is

declared the capital of Italy.

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239

See also: The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■

The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57 ■ The Young Turk Revolution 260–61 ■ France returns to a republican

government 265 ■ The October Revolution 276–79 ■ The Treaty of Versailles 280

privilege. He was also driven by the

goal of ending Austrian rule in the

north of the country and by the

idea of a united Italy. The desire to

form new political entities based on

common national elements such as

geography and history came to be

known as nationalism.

Reaching a compromise

In 1859, much of Italy had already

been united under the state of

Piedmont-Sardinia, in the northwest

of Italy, a process directed by its

shrewd and pragmatic prime

minister Camillo Cavour and

critically boosted by French

military assistance in expelling

the Austrians.

For Cavour, unification meant

the creation not of a republican

Italy, but of a centralized state

under a constitutional monarchy. He

believed this was the only way that

Italy could realize its potential—

above all, to press ahead with

industrialization and compete with

the leading powers of Europe.

The Redshirts’ forces, swelled

by locals flocking to join them, soon

overcame the ineptly led armies

of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

When it came to deciding upon

a government for the newly united

Italy—Venice and Rome excepted,

though both would subsequently

be incorporated, in 1866 and

1870 respectively—Garibaldi

recognized the inevitability of

Piedmontese domination. In

November 1860, with Garibaldi

CHANGING SOCIETIES

at his side, Victor Emmanuel II of

Sardinia entered Naples. In March

1861, he was crowned king of Italy.

Divided goals

The difference between Garibaldi’s

and Cavour’s goals illustrates the

contradictions at the heart of

nationalism in 19th-century Europe.

Prompted by the notions of liberty

and equal rights promised by the

French Revolution, nationalism

developed an idealistic view of a

more just society. National groups

oppressed by alien rule believed

they should be able to assert their

independence as a natural right. ❯❯

Ideas of national self-determination, inspired by the

French Revolution, begin to proliferate across Europe.

The Greek War of Independence epitomizes the struggles

necessary to free nations from foreign domination.

The failed revolutions of 1848 illustrate the ruling

elites’ resistance to notions of national independence.

German unification under Prussia reinforces conservative

nationalism at the expense of republican liberties.

Garibaldi lands in Sicily and overthrows

the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but Italy

remains a constitutional monarchy.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the red shirt

that symbolized his makeshift army,

managed to overthrow Bourbon rule in

the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies but had

to compromise on governmental form.

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