Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini spent his life conspiring for an Italian republic and lived to see a monarchy instead. Born in Genoa in 1805, the son of a doctor, he trained as a lawyer, joined the Carbonari, and was arrested and exiled in 1831 at twenty-six. He spent almost all the rest of his life abroad. In Marseille that year he founded Young Italy, which broke with the older secret societies in method and in aim. It was open about its goal — a unitary Italian republic, achieved by popular insurrection rather than by court intrigue — and it recruited the young in tens of thousands. He extended it to Young Europe, on the principle that each nation had a distinct mission and that free nations would be natural allies, which makes him one of the founders of the nationalist idea in its liberal form. His insurrections almost all failed, at considerable cost in other people's lives. The Bandiera brothers were shot in 1844 after landing in Calabria on his encouragement. His one period in power was the Roman Republic of 1849, which he governed as a triumvir with genuine distinction — abolishing the Inquisition, freeing the press, and defending the city with Garibaldi against a French army sent to restore the Pope. He rejected the kingdom proclaimed in 1861 as a betrayal, was elected to its parliament and refused the seat, and was arrested by it. He died in Pisa in 1872 under a false name. Perhaps a hundred thousand attended the funeral. His insistence that nationality and democracy belonged together, rather than being opposed, is the part of him that lasted.
- Lived: 1805 CE – 1872 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: nationalist, revolutionary, writer
