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Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 – June 2,
1882) was an Italy|Italian patriot and soldier of
the Italian unification|Risorgimento.  He
personally led many of the military campaigns that
brought about the formation of a unified Italy. 
He was called the "Hero of the Two Worlds," in
tribute to his military adventures in South
America and Europe.

He was born in 1807 to Domenico Garibaldi and Rosa
Raimondi.  They lived in the coastal city of Nice,
then part of Savoy, in the Kingdom of
Piedmont-Sardinia  The family was involved in
coastal trade, and Guiseppe was reared to a life
on the sea.  He was certified in 1832 as a
merchant marine captain.  

== Early activity ==
In Marseilles in 1834, Garibaldi met Giuseppe
Mazzini, an impassioned proponent of Italian
unification as a liberal republic through
political and social reforms.  He joined the Young
Italy movement and the Carbonari revolutionary
association .  Garibaldi participated in a failed
republican uprising in Piedmont in February 1834. 
Sentenced to death in Genoa, he escaped to France
later that year, then later traveled to Tunisia. 

== Adventures in South America ==
In 1836 Garibaldi sailed to Brazil, where he met
"Anita," Anna Maria Ribeiro da Silva, the daughter
of a southern Brazilian herdsman,  who became his
lover and comrade-in-arms.  They were married in
1842.  In 1839, he joined the rebel cause in the
War of Tatters revolt in southern Brazil, which
had broken out a few years before.  Six years of
tenacity proved unsuccessful, and the rebels
finally surrendered in 1845.  He later commanded
the Uruguayan navy in defence against Juan Manuel
de Rosas of Argentina, who was trying to reannex
the country.  Garibaldi was inducted into a
Freemasonry|Masonic lodge in Montevideo in 1844.

== Return to Italy ==
Garibaldi returned to Italy in the tumult of the
The Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian
States|revolutions of 1848, and offered his
services to Charles Albert of Savoy|Charles Albert
of Sardinia.  The monarch displayed some liberal
inclinations, but treated Garibaldi with coolness
and distrust.  Meanwhile, a Roman Republic (19th
century)|Roman Republic had been proclaimed in the
Papal States, but a France|French force sent by
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 effort, the city fell on June
30, 1849, and Garibaldi was forced to flee to the
north, hunted by Austrian troops.  Anita died near
Ravenna during the retreat. 

Garibaldi eventually managed to escape abroad.  In
1850 he became a resident of New York, where he
met Antonio Meucci.  For some time he worked in a
manufactory of candles on Staten Island, New York
| Staten Island.  Afterwards he made several
voyages to the Pacific Ocean|Pacific, during which
he visited Andes|Andean revolutionary heroine
Manuela Sáenz in Peru.

Garibaldi returned to Italy in 1854.  In 1859, the
Austro-Sardinian War broke out through the
machinations of the Sardinian government. 
Garibaldi was appointed major general, and formed
a volunteer unit named the Hunters of the Alps. 
With his volunteers, he won victories over the
Austrians at Varese, battle of San Fermo|Como, and
other places.  One outcome of the war, though,
left Garibaldi very displeased.  His home city of
Nice was surrendered to the France|French, in
return for crucial military assistance.

== Campaign of 1860 ==
At the beginning of April 1860, uprisings in
Messina, Italy|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.

=== Conquest of Sicily ===
Swelling the ranks of his army with scattered
bands of local rebels, Garibaldi defeated an
opposing army at Calatafimi on May 13.  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 departed
and surrendered the city.

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
conclusion of July, only the citadel resisted him.

=== Crossing to the mainland ===

Having finished the conquest of Sicily, he crossed
the Straits 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 7th he entered
the capital city of Naples.  However, he had never
defeated the house of Bourbon|Bourbon king,
Francis II of the Two Sicilies|Francis II.  Most
of the Sicilian army remained loyal, and had
gathered north of the river Volturno.  Though by
then his volunteers numbered some 25,000,
Garibaldi could not oppose it.  A major battle was
fought on the Volturno on the 1st and 2nd of
October, but the bulk of the fighting was left to
the Sardinian army under the command of Victor
Emmanuel.

=== Aftermath ===
Garibaldi deeply disliked the Sardinian Prime
Minister, Camillo 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 Sardinian 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.  He resigned the next day,
telegraphing the single word Obbedisco ("I obey").
 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.

Garibaldi's fellow revolutionaries were not
satisfied.  With the motto "Free from the Alps to
the Adriatic Sea|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.

== 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 of
France|Napoleon III had guaranteed the
independence of Rome from Italy by stationing
French troops in Rome.  Victor Emmanuel was wary
of the international reprecussions 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.  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 di Porto Salvo|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.

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.

== 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. 
Garibaldi gathered again his Hunters of the Alps,
now some 40,000 strong, and led them into the
Tyrol.  He defeated the Austrians at battle of
Bezzecca|Bezzecca and made for Trento.

The Italian regular forces, on the other hand,
suffered defeat by land and sea.  Austria did cede
Venetia to Italy, but it was compelled to do so
not by Italy's poor showing, but by Prussia's
successes on the northern front.  Garibaldi's
advance through Trentino was for nought.

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.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in
1870, French troops withdrew from Rome, and the
Italians captured the Papal States without
Garibaldi's assistance.  Following the wartime
collapse of the Second French Empire, Garibaldi
led a force of volunteers against Prussia in
support of the new French Third Republic.


On his deathbed, Garibaldi asked that his bed be
moved to where he could gaze at the emerald and
sapphire sea.

== Legacy ==
Garibaldi's popularity, his skill at rousing the
masses, 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 convictions bordered on atheism; he
wrote in 1882, "Man created God, not God Man."  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 on the island of Caprera,
where he was interred.  Five ships of the Italian
Navy have been named after him, among which is the
current flagship, the aircraft carrier Italian
aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi|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.

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 (fish)|garibaldi, a North American fish
with a distinctive orange color. A pub located in
Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, England is also named
after the biscuit or, according to some, for the
general.

== References ==
* Garibaldi, by Jasper Ridley (2001).
* Autobiography, by Giuseppe Garibaldi, trans. A
Werner (1971, 1889). 
* The Memoirs of Garibaldi, by Giuseppe Garibaldi
and Alexander Dumas (1931, 1861) 

* Morris, Charles, LL.D (1902). Young People's
History of the World for the Past One Hundred
Years.  W. E. Scull.