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1860: May—October

CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN

in Francesco Crispi 1818-1901: From Nation to Nationalism

The final days before Giuseppe Garibaldi's departure for Sicily were a time of feverish preparations. In Salemi, Francesco Crispi's main task was to start forming a provisional government. This ... More

The final days before Giuseppe Garibaldi's departure for Sicily were a time of feverish preparations. In Salemi, Francesco Crispi's main task was to start forming a provisional government. This chapter chronicles the revolution in Italy and the role of Crispi and Garibaldi in it; the victory of Garibaldi and his men over the Bourbon forces that were blocking the road to Palermo a few miles to the northeast at Calatafimi; Garibaldi's emergence as the leader of an alternative government to that of the Bourbons and his creation of a new post of Secretary of State, with Crispi as its first incumbent; Garibaldi's capture of Palermo; Crispi's power struggle with his rival, Giuseppe La Farina; Crispi's attempt to bolster the position of the democrats in Sicily; Garibaldi's sending of Agostino Depretis to Palermo to serve as Pro-Dictator in his absence; the surrender of Garibaldi's men to Victor Emmanuel's troops; and the annexation of the southern provinces to Piedmont.Less

From London to Quarto, 1858–1860

CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN

in Francesco Crispi 1818-1901: From Nation to Nationalism

Francesco Crispi returned to England on the eve of his fortieth birthday. He did not exactly like London, but some of his friends were there, including Rosalino Pilo. Pilo and Crispi were to be close ... More

Francesco Crispi returned to England on the eve of his fortieth birthday. He did not exactly like London, but some of his friends were there, including Rosalino Pilo. Pilo and Crispi were to be close neighbours over the next nine months, discussing developments in Italy as the dramatic events of 1859 unfolded. The situation in the South, and above all in Sicily, drew Crispi's particular attention. The war against Austria and the revolutions in central Italy had given heart to many southern liberals, though they were still deeply confused as to their goals and tactics. Aside from launching an insurrection in the South, the main task facing the democrats at this time was trying to win the backing of the newly established liberal governments in central Italy for their cause of achieving unification. This chapter also chronicles Crispi's travel to Quarto in Genoa, where Giuseppe Garibaldi was hatching plans for his expedition to Sicily.Less

1861–1865: ‘The monarchy unites us and a republic would divide us’

CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN

in Francesco Crispi 1818-1901: From Nation to Nationalism

The left was a badly disunited force in Italian politics after 1860. The issue of constitutionalism versus revolution became more complicated with the advent to power early in March of a centre-left ... More

The left was a badly disunited force in Italian politics after 1860. The issue of constitutionalism versus revolution became more complicated with the advent to power early in March of a centre-left government headed by Urbano Rattazzi. This chapter discusses the tragic second march on Rome, where Giuseppe Garibaldi was wounded and some of his followers were arrested and summarily executed as deserters from the regular army in a battle in Aspromonte in southern Calabria; Francesco Crispi's defence of constitutionalism given the persistent chaos in the South, and particularly Sicily; the Greco affair, in which Giuseppe Mazzini was accused of being involved in plans to assassinate Napoleon III; the impact of the Greco episode on Crispi's conviction that the left should distance itself from revolution; the September 1864 convention — which tackled the issue of transferring the capital of Italy from Turin to Florence — and the question of the monarchy; and the conflict between Crispi and Mazzini.Less

Viva l’Italia

Lucy Riall

in Under the Volcano: Empire and Revolution in a Sicilian Town

This chapter offers a new interpretation of the revolt at Bronte and its repression. In early August 1860, the peasants of Bronte rebelled over the refusal of the town council to implement the land ... More

This chapter offers a new interpretation of the revolt at Bronte and its repression. In early August 1860, the peasants of Bronte rebelled over the refusal of the town council to implement the land reforms promised by Garibaldi's new government. A large mob took control of the town and rampaged through the streets, looting and burning municipal buildings, record offices and private houses. In all, sixteen landowners were dragged out of their homes, tortured and brutally murdered in what one historian has called an ‘orgy of terror’. After two attempts by local militias to halt the violence were thrown back by the crowd, the fighting was halted by the arrival in the town of Nino Bixio, the most trusted general in Garibaldi's army. Bixio organised summary trials that resulted in the execution of five of the leaders, while hundreds more were rounded up and sent to Catania for trial.Less

The New Deputy

CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN

in Francesco Crispi 1818-1901: From Nation to Nationalism

Francesco Crispi resigned from Giuseppe Garibaldi's government, but the magnanimity that he was determined to show in defeat was not displayed by the moderates in victory. The hostility of the ... More

Francesco Crispi resigned from Giuseppe Garibaldi's government, but the magnanimity that he was determined to show in defeat was not displayed by the moderates in victory. The hostility of the moderates towards those who had fought to free Naples and Sicily from the Bourbons gathered momentum after Garibaldi had left for Caprera. Crispi agreed to stand for parliament in the third college in Palermo, but he was defeated in the first ballot by the moderate candidate, the Marquis di Torrearsa. He was then elected to the college of Castelvetrano. Crispi entered parliament with a set of ideas forged over a period of more than twenty years in politics. The idea of ‘the nation’ was a crucial element in Crispi's political thought. After the capture of Rome in 1870, Crispi's idea of an ongoing national revolution in Italy began to assume a more problematic character.Less

Masters

Maurizio Viroli

in As If God Existed: Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy

This chapter focuses on the Risorgimento's moral and political leaders: Vincenzo Gioberti, Giuseppe Mazzini, Camillo Benso Count of Cavour, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Albeit in different ways, all of ... More

This chapter focuses on the Risorgimento's moral and political leaders: Vincenzo Gioberti, Giuseppe Mazzini, Camillo Benso Count of Cavour, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Albeit in different ways, all of them lived by a religious conception that regarded Italy's liberty as the fundamental principle of life. They were aware that national emancipation required a religious sentiment. Gioberti, the main advocate of the project of national unification under the aegis of the pope, fought against the religion of idleness in the name of the religion of virtue. Mazzini, the most influential apostle of the religion of the fatherland, taught a theory of political emancipation based on the principle that a people can resurrect themselves only by means of virtue and the “religion of truth”—that is, not by means of Machiavellian devices or Jesuitical reticence. Cavour considered Christian religion a support for the construction of secure liberal institutions, but only if religion emancipated itself from the superstition and profound corruption that rendered it a prop for reactionary regimes.Less

Revolution

Lucy Riall

in Under the Volcano: Empire and Revolution in a Sicilian Town

In 1848, a revolution broke out in Palermo that was the starting-point for a European wide conflagration. During the two years (1848–49) of revolution, the exercise of power was transformed, and the ... More

In 1848, a revolution broke out in Palermo that was the starting-point for a European wide conflagration. During the two years (1848–49) of revolution, the exercise of power was transformed, and the effects were felt clearly in the Sicilian countryside. Its clearest manifestation was the outbreak of factional violence and the spread of land occupations. Peasants were infuriated by the failure of land reform to bring about the redistribution of property. Bronte saw its share of problems, most notably in attacks on Duchy property. What happened in 1848 in Bronte was a dress rehearsal for the more violent scenes of 1860: 1848 shows the extent of peasant unrest and how far the land issue had divided the community. During the 1850s, and despite the restoration of Bourbon power, stability was never really re-established. The arrival of Garibaldi in Marsala in May 1860 then completely revolutionised the situation and led to the final collapse of Bourbon power in Sicily over the summer.Less

Monuments without Idols

Sharon Hecker

in Moment's Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture

This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment ... More

This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment immediately rejected them. In these public projects, Rosso dared to criticize what he saw as falsely reassuring nation-building myths. Rosso also was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his first radical funerary monument, La Riconoscenza, was removed from the local cemetery for its frank and emotionally explicit portrayal of mourning and death. The chapter argues that Rosso adopted an artistic language of protest to experiment with new forms of expression that rejected the heroic idioms of traditional sculpture. His original antiheroic monument proposals expressed far-reaching ideas that aimed to revolutionize the concept of the monument in modern times.Less

The Risorgimento and the Origins of Anarchist Violence

Nunzio Pernicone and Fraser M. Ottanelli

in Assassins against the Old Order: Italian Anarchist Violence in Fin de Siècle Europe

Chapter 1 highlights the continuity between the Risorgimento and Italian anarchist activities during the movement’s formative years. Specifically, it describes how anarchist violence based on ... More

Chapter 1 highlights the continuity between the Risorgimento and Italian anarchist activities during the movement’s formative years. Specifically, it describes how anarchist violence based on insurrections, guerrilla warfare and tyrannicide was an amalgam of two revolutionary ideologies and traditions inherited from the Risorgimento: the revolutionary democracy of Carlo Pisacane (specifically his articulation of “propaganda of the deed,”) Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi along with lesser known republicans, and the anarchist socialism introduced into Italy by Mikhail Bakunin.Less

Fascism: The Antecedents

in Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History

This chapter focuses on the individuals who sought the reunification of Italy during period of the Risorgimento (resurgence) in the nineteenth century—Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi—and ... More

This chapter focuses on the individuals who sought the reunification of Italy during period of the Risorgimento (resurgence) in the nineteenth century—Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi—and describes their struggle for nationhood and the legacy they left that influenced Italian politics. It also examines the role that the Roman Catholic Church played in the reunification of the Italian peninsula.Less

Prologue: 1860

Lucy Riall

in Under the Volcano: Empire and Revolution in a Sicilian Town

The prologue describes the murderous revolt that broke out in Bronte in 1860 at the climax of Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily. The revolt provoked a brutal crackdown that was applauded at the time. ... More

The prologue describes the murderous revolt that broke out in Bronte in 1860 at the climax of Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily. The revolt provoked a brutal crackdown that was applauded at the time. However, later generations took a very different view and Bronte became the starting point for an alternative ‘anti-nationalist’ narrative of Italian unification that has persisted, and indeed grown in popularity, until today.Less