Guiseppe Garibaldi came from a family of fishermen and seafarers. When he was 25 he acquired his master's certificate as a sea captain and in 1833 - 1834 served in the navy of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.Italian nationalist, soldier and guerilla leader, b. 4 July 1807 (Nice, France), d. 2 June 1882 (Caprera, Italy)
Guiseppe Garibaldi came from a family of fishermen and seafarers. When he was 25 he acquired his master's certificate as a sea captain and in 1833 - 1834 served in the navy of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.
At the time Italy consisted of many independent kingdoms and city states, and Rome was under the control of the Pope, who was supported by French troops. The French Revolution reverberated through the country, and there was a general hope for a united Italian republic. But in 1834 a republican revolution in Piedmont failed and Garibaldi, who had participated in a mutiny in its support, had to flee to France and in his absence was sentenced to death.
In 1836 Garibaldi went to South America and lived there for the next twelve years. He offered his services as captain to the republic of Rio Grande do Sul, which tried to separate from the Brazilian empire. When the small republic was close to defeat he trecked to Montevideo, accompanied by Anna Maria Ribeiro da Silva (Anita), a married woman who had joined him and stayed with him for the rest of her life. In 1842 he commanded the Uruguayan navy in the liberation war against the Argentinian dictatorship. In the following year he formed an Italian Legion in support of Uruguay known as the "Redshirts", a name that became Garibaldi's trademark and made his name known even in Europe.
When Italy rose against the Austrian occupation Garibaldi, Anita and 60 Redshirts came to Europe in 1848 and offered their services to the Risorgimento ("Rising Again"). The pope and the king of Piedmont-Sardinia refused the offer, so Garibaldi fought for the city of Milan. After a few months he had to retreat before the much more numerous Austrian troops to Switzerland. With Anita and their three children he settled in Nice, the city of his birth and since 1814 part of the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.
Garibaldi's resolve to see a united Italian republic was now stronger than ever. In 1849 he participated in the liberation of Rome and was elected to the Roman assembly. But Rome could not be held against French reinforcements, and Garibaldi had to flee, pursued by Austrian troops. His dramatic escape across the mountains of central Italy made him the "hero of two worlds", but Anita died on the way. The king of Piedmont feared reprisals if he allowed Garibaldi to return to Nice, and Garibaldi lived again in exile in Tangier, Staten Island and eventually Peru.
Cavour, the prime minister of Piedmont, allowed Garibaldi to return in 1854 and live on Caprera, a small island close to Sardinia. Garibaldi entered an arrangement with king Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia to establish an army of volunteers, financed by the king but operating independently; the king would deny any connection if his operations failed but would acknowledge him publicly if they were successful.
Garibaldi now started a guerilla war. In 1859 he took Lombardy from Austria. Furious that Piedmont returned Nice to France in 1860, he moved south against the wishes of the king and took Sicily and Naples. Supported by a popular uprising he established himself as dictator in the name of the king and organised a plebiscite, which formally included Sicily and Naples in the kingdom. On the 7th of November he and the king drove through the streets in the royal carriage, and Garibaldi called Victor Immanuel the king of a united Italy.
Garibaldi was now vastly more popular than the king and considered a threat to the monarchy. The king refused his request to be appointed viceroy for Naples until the situation was normal, so Garibaldi returned to Caprera.
The kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861. In the following year the king talked Garibaldi into another campaign against Austria, still under the old arrangement. Garibaldi accepted the weapons and munitions but then decided to march against Rome. He was stopped by the king's regular troops, wounded and taken prisoner, but released soon after.
In 1866 Garibaldi was again at the head of a volunteer force and assisted in the acquisition of Venice for the kingdom. In 1867 he tried again to take Rome on his own, this time supported and financed secretely by the king; but he was defeated by the French and arrested by the Italian government - and again released soon after. In 1870 - 1871 he mounted his last millitary campaign in support of France against the war provoked by Bismarck. When the war ended he was elected a member of the French National Assembly at Bordeaux. He lived the last ten years of his life on Caprera, suffering from rheumatism and his many wounds and receiving the deputations and friends that visited him regularly.
Guiseppe Garibaldi was a man of integrity in every aspect, fortright in his dealings with others and disinterested in power for himself. He was also in many respects ahead of his time, speaking out in support of the rights of labour, the emancipation of women, racial equality and the abolition of capital punishment. He had no love for the church and towards the end of his life declared himself a socialist and pacifist.
Garibaldi's honesty and modesty secured him the love of the people and the respect of the politicians, and he is rightly considered the hero of Italian unification. President Abraham Lincoln offered him a command in the American Civil War (which he declined). The modern state of Italy named an aircraft carrier after him.
Portrait: photgraph, taken in 1866; public domain (Wikipedia)