GIUSEPPE MAZZINI, (1805-1872) Italian nationalist and patriot, who,
together with Giuseppe Garibaldi, Camillo Benso di Cavour, and
Victor Emmanuel II, is considered one of the "patron saints" of the
Italian Risorgimento. While still in his teens
Mazzini committed himself to the cause of Italian independence and
unity. Forced into exile in 1831 for his revolutionary activities,
he began to recruit followers and organize uprisings against the
rulers of the various Italian states. His association,
Giovine Italia (Young Italy), founded in the 1830s,
attracted adherents throughout the peninsula and among Italian
political exiles everywhere. With the exception of Giuseppe
Garibaldi, no other Italian Risorgimento leader
enjoyed greater international renown than Mazzini in his time. His
revolutionary vision extended beyond the limited objective of
Italian national unity. Mazzini's primary goals were the end of
Austrian hegemony in Italy and of the temporal power of the pope,
Italian unity, republicanism, democracy, and the liberation of all
oppressed peoples. Imbued with a messianic zeal, he believed that,
united under the banner of "God and people", Italians would succeed
in ridding themselves of their various rulers and establish a
democratic unitary republic with its capital in Rome. This new
Italy would lead other subject peoples to freedom and liberty and
embody a "third" Rome, successor to ancient and papal Rome. A new
Europe, controlled by the people and not by sovereigns, would
replace the old order. By the 1840s Mazzini had become the
recognized leader of the Italian nationalist revolutionary
movement. His appeal to Italians, restive under oppressive
governments, was unrivaled, if not unchallenged. Intellectuals and
artisans, men and women, all responded to him. Many lost their
lives in abortive revolts inspired by his teachings.
In 1848 Mazzini's dreams seemed to be realized, when news of the successful revolutions throughout Europe reached him in his English exile. As the revolutions progressed like brush-fires up the Italian peninsula, Mazzini arrived in Milan. He was greeted enthusiastically by the people, less so by their leaders. Divided among themselves on whether to accept the invitation of Piedmont-Sardinia to become part of a greater kingdom under its king Charles Albert in return for the latter's military help against Austria, they resented Mazzini's presence and his advice to set political differences aside for the moment and to cooperate with Charles Albert in the name of national unity. On April 30, 1848, Carlo Cattaneo, Giuseppe Ferrari, and other republican leaders of the Milanese revolt proposed to overturn their pro-Piedmontese provisional government and request French assistance against Austria. Mazzini opposed them, urging support for the efforts of the Italian monarch and army, rather than appealing to foreign troops. This drew angry criticisms from the republican leaders who accused Mazzini of betraying his republican principles. The quarrel proved futile. Marshall Radetzky was already regrouping his forces against the Piedmontese army which he would eventually defeat at Custozza on July 25, 1848, to reestablish Austrian control over Lombardy. Meanwhile events in Rome were becoming radicalized. After the assassination of the papal minister Pellegrino Rossi and the departure of Pope Pius IX from the city on November 24, 1848, the Romans proclaimed a republic in January 1849 and invited Mazzini to join them. Mazzini's arrival marked the beginning of the most dramatic period in his life. Elected to the Triumvirate, the republic's executive body, he finally had the opportunity to participate actively in laying the foundations for what he hoped would be a new democratic united republican Italy. His slogan "thought and action" became reality. Since 1834, he had planned revolutions from afar, while others had risked their lives. Now, as Triumvir of the Roman Republic he became an active participant in what was to remain his supreme revolutionary experience.
Like the other insurgent regimes throughout the peninsula, the
Roman republic had a brief, intense life. In response to an appeal
by Pope Pius IX, French soldiers appeared at the outskirts of Rome
on April 30, 1849, and there began the city's futile, brave
defense. The various reforms planned by Mazzini could never be
effected as survival became the dominant concern. Finally, the
city could no longer hold out against the French, and Rome opened
its gates to the troops of the Second Republic on July 3, 1849. On
July 1, two days before the entry of the French troops, the
Constitution of the Roman Republic, was passed by the popularly
elected Assembly, and it was solemnly proclaimed in the
Campidoglio (City Hall) two days later while the
French occupied the city. A disconsolate Mazzini, unmolested by
the French garrison, lingered in Rome until the middle of July,
when he left Italy once more for exile. He continued to conspire,
but the revolutionary élan that had inspired Italian nationalists
to follow Mazzini before 1848 faded in the 1850s. The revolutions
of 1848-1849 ended the revolutionary phase of the
Risorgimento and marked the beginning of a realignment
of political forces in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. While
Mazzini continued to be held in high esteem, respect, and even
affection, Italian nationalists began to turn to the monarchical
leadership offered by Camillo Benso di Cavour and his king Victor
Emmanuel in Piedmont-Sardinia. In 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was
proclaimed at Turin, capital of Piedmont-Sardinia, by a Parliament
in which sat elected representatives from all of Italy except
Venetia and Rome. A disillusioned Mazzini never accepted
monarchical united Italy and continued to agitate for a democratic
republic until his death in 1872.
Ivanoe Bonomi. Mazzini triumviro della Repubblica
romana. (Turin, 1936).
Franco Della Peruta. Giuseppe Mazzini e i democratici.
(Milan-Naples, 1969).
F. Della Peruta. Mazzini e i rivoluzionari italiani: Il
Partito d'Azione, 1830-1845. (Milan, 1974).
Giorgio Falco. G. Mazzini e la Costituente. (Florence,
1946).
Gwylim Griffith. Mazzini, Prophet of Modern Europe.
(London, 1932).
Bolton King. Mazzini. (London, 1902).
Giuseppe Mazzini e la repubblica romana. (Rome, 1949).
G. Mazzini. "Note autobiografiche," Scritti editi ed
inediti. (Imola, 1935), vol. 77, 3-397.
Emilia Morelli. Giuseppe Mazzini: Quasi una
biografia. (Rome, 1984).
E. Morelli. Giuseppe Mazzini. Saggi e ricerche.
(Rome, 1950).
Emiliana P. Noether. "Mazzini and the Nineteenth Century
Revolutionary Movement," Consortium on Revolutionary Europe
Proceedings 1984. (Athens, GA: Consortium on Revolutionary
Europe, 1986), 277-285.
_______. "Mazzini and the Radical Movement in
Nineteenth Century Italy," International Journal of Social
Education, 3 (April 1987), 59-72.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/mazzini.htm) on
October 23, 2004.
Please
E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
Emiliana P. Noether
Bibliography