Giuseppe Garibaldi - Como, Italy
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vraatja
N 45° 48.365 E 009° 05.100
32T E 506604 N 5072505
Statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi dedicated by town Como in 1889 to Italian national hero and one of the three great leaders who freed the Italians from foreign rule and unified the country.
Waymark Code: WMA0KZ
Location: Lombardia, Italy
Date Posted: 10/27/2010
Views: 11
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82)was Italian revolutionary and irregular general. Garibaldi began his long and varied career as a revolutionary striving for the liberation and unification of Italy by joining in Giuseppe Mazzini's unsuccessful insurrection at Genoa in 1834. Forced to leave Piedmont, he fled to South America where he spent the next fourteen years, gaining experience fighting in various wars. First, he fought as a guerrilla general and privateer for the province of Rio Grande del Sol against Brazil. He then served as a commander of an Italian legion for Uruguay against Argentina.
When Italy rose in revolt in 1848, he returned and raised 3, 000 men to help the king of Piedmont, Carlo Alberto. Forced to flee the country once again after defeat at the first battle of Custoza, Garibaldi soon returned to organize the defence of the last vestiges of the revolution—Mazzini's Roman republic. He was able to hold off the combined armies of the French, Austrians, Spanish, and Neapolitans for several weeks. However, the republic finally fell and Garibaldi escaped to America.
Although Garibaldi fought for Piedmont during the Franco-Austrian war of 1859, he is perhaps best remembered for his role in overthrowing the monarchy of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In May 1860, he set out to liberate southern Italy from the repressive regime of King Francis II. On 11 May, he landed with his ‘Thousand Redshirts’ at Marsala, Sicily, and destroyed the Neapolitan army in several battles. Garibaldi crossed the Straits of Messina on 22 August and advanced up the peninsula, being greeted enthusiastically by the people along the way. On 7 September, his forces occupied Naples.
In March 1861, Garibaldi surrendered his conquests to King Vittorio Emanuele of Piedmont in order to realize his lifelong dream, a united and independent kingdom of Italy. Although most of the Italian peninsula was under the rule of Vittorio Emanuele, the Papal States remained separate. In August 1862 and again in January 1867, he attempted to take Rome. These attempts failed due to French intervention, and the Papal States were only incorporated into the kingdom when the French withdrew their troops in 1870.
Garibaldi continued his career as a general by commanding Italian troops, with some success, during the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, which resulted in Austria ceding Venetia to the kingdom of Italy. He again commanded an Italian volunteer force, this time in support of the new French republic during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. After the latter, Garibaldi's long career as a soldier came to an end. After serving some years as a deputy for Rome in the Italian parliament, he spent his last years on a farm in Caprera writing novels.
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