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Italy
Date: ca 1875-1896
Notes: Image Caption: "Italy, 1875-1896."
Contributed by: Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Digital Library

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Italy
Date: ca 1895-1900
Notes: Image Caption: "Italy, 1895-1900."
Contributed by: Courtesy of The New York Public Library, Digital Gallery

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Italy
Date: The 19th century
Notes: Italian unification
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      History of Italy
      Coat of Arms of Italy
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      Italian unification (Italian: il Risorgimento, or "The Resurgence") was the political and social movement that annexed different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. There is a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and the end of this period, but many scholars agree that the process began with the end of Napoleonic rule and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and approximately ended with the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, though the last citt? irredente did not join the Kingdom of Italy until after World War I.
     
      Background
      Italian unification process.
     
      The establishment of the Italian Republic and later of the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Napoleon, began to encourage nationalism in those who lived in the regions. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, other national monarchs he had installed tried to keep their thrones by feeding those nationalistic sentiments, setting the stage for the revolutions to come. Among these monarchs were the viceroy of Italy, Eug?ne de Beauharnais, who tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the Kingdom of Italy, and Joachim Murat, who called for Italian patriots' help for the unification of Italy under his rule.[1] Following the defeat of Napoleonic France, the Congress of Vienna (1815) was convened to redraw the European continent. In Italy, the Congress restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, either directly ruled or strongly influenced by the prevailing European powers, particularly Austria.
     
      But groups in several Italian states began to push the idea of a unified Italian state again, feeding the fires of nationalism that had already been ignited in the populace. At the time, the struggle for Italian unification was perceived to be waged primarily against the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, since they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of present-day Italy and were the single most powerful force against unification. The Austrian Empire vigorously repressed nationalist sentiment growing on the Italian peninsula, as well as in the other parts of Habsburg domains. Austrian Chancellor Franz Metternich, an influential diplomat at the Congress of Vienna, stated that the word Italy was nothing more than "a geographic expression." [2]
     
      Artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; and perhaps the most famous of proto-nationalist works was Alessandro Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). Some read this novel as a thinly veiled allegorical critique of Austrian rule. The novel was published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years. The 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.
     
      Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the Holy See, particularly after failed attempts to broker a confederation with the Papal States, which would have left the Papacy with some measure of autonomy over the region. The pope at the time, Pius IX, feared that giving up power in the region could mean the persecution of Italian Catholics.[3]
     
      Even among those who wanted to see the peninsula unified into one country, different groups could not agree on what form a unified state would take. Vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under rulership of the Pope. His book,Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians, was published in 1843 and created a link between the Papacy and the Risorgimento. Many leading revolutionaries wanted a republic, but eventually it was a king and his chief minister who had the power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.
     
      Giuseppe Mazzini.
      One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari (coal-burners), a secret organization formed in southern Italy early in the 19th century. Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, its members were mainly drawn from the middle class and intellectuals. After the Congress of Vienna divided the Italian peninsula among the European powers, the Carbonari movement spread into the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena and the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. The revolutionaries were so feared that the reigning authorities passed an ordinance condemning to death anyone who attended a Carbonari meeting. The society, however, continued to exist and was at the root of many of the political disturbances in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III to death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time members of this organization. (Note: Napoleon III, as a young man, fought on the side of the 'Carbonari'.)
     
      Two prominent radical figures in the unification movement were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. The more conservative constitutional monarchic figures included Count Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II, who would later become the first king of a united Italy.
     
      Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could - and therefore should - be unified and formulated his program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. After Mazzini's release in 1831, he went to Marseille, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy). The new society, whose motto was "God and the People," sought the unification of Italy.
     
      Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834, was sentenced to death, and escaped to South America. He spent fourteen years there, taking part in several wars, and returned to Italy in 1848.
     
      Early revolutionary activity (1820?1830)
     
      Carbonari insurrections (1820?1821)
     
      In 1814 the Carbonari began organizing revolutionary activities.
     
      Two Sicilies insurrection
     
      In 1820, Spaniards successfully revolted over disputes about the constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, (who, in 1812, had created their constitution) a regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, commanded by Guglielmo Pepe, a Carbonaro, mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, Ferdinand I, agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, though, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of the Holy Alliance. Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many supporters of revolution in Sicily, including the scholar Michele Amari, were forced into exile during the decades that followed.
     
      Piedmont insurrection
      The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in Piedmont was Santorre di Santarosa, who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under the House of Savoy. The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria, where troops adopted the green, white and red tricolore of the Cisalpine Republic. The king's regent, prince Charles Albert, acting while the king Charles Felix was away, approved a new constitution to appease the revolutionaries, but when the king returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from the Holy Alliance. Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to Paris.
     
      1830 insurrections
     
      By 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula.
     
      The Duke of Modena, Francis IV, was an ambitious noble, and he hoped to become king of Northern Italy by increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that he would not act against those who subverted opposition toward the unification of Italy. Encouraged by the declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize.
     
      During the July Revolution of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced the king to abdicate and created the July Monarchy with encouragement from the new French king, Louis-Philippe. Louis-Philippe had promised revolutionaries such as Ciro Menotti that he would intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops. Fearing he would lose his throne, though, Louis-Philippe did not intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again conquered his duchy with help from the Austrian troops. Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centered in Modena faded.
     
      At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal Legations of Bologna, Forl?, Ravenna, Imola, Ferrara, Pesaro and Urbino. These successful revolutions, which adopted the tricolore in favour of the Papal flag, quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed the creation of a united Italian nation.
     
      The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired similar activity in the Duchy of Parma, where the tricolore flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess Marie Louise left the city during the political upheaval.
     
      Insurrected provinces planned to unite as the Province Italiane unite (united Italian Provinces), which prompted Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against the rebels. Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be, and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe withheld any military help and even arrested Italian patriots living in France.
     
      In the spring of 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had revolted. This military action suppressed much of the fledging revolutionary movement, and resulted in the arrest of many radical leaders, including Menotti.
     
      Revolutions of 1848?1849
      Camillo Benso, count of Cavour
     
      In January 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began on January 5 with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy, as citizens stopped smoking and playing the lottery, which denied Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this, revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples against King Ferdinand, who conceded as he had in 1821 and granted The Kingdom of two Sicilies a constitution, as well as releasing political prisoners.
     
      In February 1848 there were revolts in Tuscany that were relatively nonviolent, after which Ferdinand granted the Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican provisional government formed in Tuscany during February shortly after this concession. On 21 February, Pope Pius IX granted a constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On February 23, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris, and a republic was proclaimed. By the time the revolution in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions ? four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state.
     
      Meanwhile in Lombardy tensions increased until the Milanese and Venetians rose up in revolt on 18 March 1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the Austrian garrison after five days of street fights ("Cinque giornate di Milano"). An Austrian army under Marshal Josef Radetzky besieged Milan, but due to defection and the popularity of the Milanese, they were forced to retreat. Soon, Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia (whose kingdom was actually centered around Piedmont and Savoy), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided that this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria. After initial successes at Goito and Peschiera, he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Custoza on July 24, by Radetzky. An armistice was quickly agreed to, and Radetzky was able to regain control of all of Lombardy-Venetia save Venice itself, where a republic was proclaimed under Daniele Manin.
      Giuseppe Garibaldi.
     
      While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy-Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters began to take a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had so reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March began to come into conflict with their constitutional ministers, often leading to outright conflict. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX.
     
      Pius IX had been initially seen as something of a reformer, but conflicts with the revolutionaries led him to sour on the idea of constitutional government. In November 1848, following the assassination of his Minister Pellegrino Rossi, Pius IX fled Rome. Subsequently, Garibaldi and other patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a Roman Republic on February 9. On February 2, 1849, at a political rally held in the Apollo Theater, a young Roman priest, the Abb? Arduini, had made a speech in which he had declared that the temporal power of the popes was a "historical lie, a political imposture, and a religious immorality." [4]. In early March 1849, Mazzini arrived in Rome and was appointed Chief Minister. In the Constitution of the Roman Republic[5], religious freedom was guaranteed by article 7, the independence of the pope as head of the Catholic Church was guaranteed by article 8 of the Principi fondamentali, while the death penalty was abolished by article 5, and free public education was provided by article 8 of the Titolo I.
     
      Before the powers had a chance to respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained in the meanwhile by the exiled Polish general Albert Chrzanowski, determined to renew the war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on March 23, 1849. This time the defeat was final. Charles Albert himself abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, and all Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment at least, brought to an end. The war was formally ended by a treaty signed on August 9. A popular revolt broke out in Brescia in the very day of the Novara defeat, but was fiercely suppressed by the Austrians ten days later.
     
      There remained the Roman and Venetian Republics. In April a French force under Nicolas Oudinot was sent to Rome. Apparently, the French wished to mediate between the Pope and his subjects, but soon the French were forced to take sides, and determined to restore the Pope. After a two month siege, Rome capitulated on June 29, 1849, and the Pope was restored. Garibaldi and Mazzini once again fled into exile ? in 1850 Garibaldi became a resident of New York City. Meanwhile, the Austrians besieged Venice, which was forced to surrender on August 24. Pro-independence fighters were hung en masse in Belfiore, while the Austrians also moved to restore order in central Italy, restoring the princes who had been expelled and establishing their control over the Papal Legations. The revolutions were thus completely crushed.
     
      Creation of the Italian State
      The War of 1859 and its aftermath
      Main article: Second Italian War of Independence
      Victor Emmanuel II
     
      Although Charles Albert had been crushingly defeated in his bid to drive the Austrians from Italy, the Piedmontese did not abandon all hope of aggrandizement. Camillo di Cavour, who became president of the Council of Ministers in 1852, also had expansionist ambitions. Cavour, however, saw that Piedmont would not be able to singlehandedly add to its territory. Instead, he hoped to secure aid from Britain and France in expelling the Austrians from the Italian peninsula. An attempt to gain British and French favour by supporting them in the Crimean War, which Piedmont entered in 1855, was unsuccessful, as Italian matters were ignored at the Congress of Paris. Nevertheless, the war achieved a useful objective ? it left Austria, which had uncomfortably tried to balance between the two sides during the war, dangerously isolated.
     
      On January 14, 1858, an Italian nationalist Felice Orsini attempted to assassinate Napoleon III, the French Emperor. Writing from his prison cell, Orsini did not plea for his life, accepting death for his role in the failed assassination attempt, but rather appealed to Napoleon III to fulfill his destiny by aiding the forces of Italian nationalism. Napoleon, who had belonged to the Carbonari in his youth, and who saw himself as an advanced thinker, in tune with the ideas of the day, became convinced that it was his destiny to do something for Italy. In the summer of 1858, Cavour met with Napoleon III at Plombi?res and the two signed a secret agreement, which was known as the Patto di Plombi?res ("Pact of Plombi?res").[6] Cavour and Napoleon III agreed to a joint war against Austria. Piedmont would gain the Austrian territories in Italy (Lombardy and Venetia), as well as the Duchies of Parma and Modena, while France would be rewarded with Piedmont's transalpine territories of Savoy and Nice. Central and Southern Italy would remain largely as it was, although there was some talk that the Emperor's cousin Prince Napoleon would replace the Habsburgs in Tuscany. In order to allow the French to intervene without appearing as the aggressors, Cavour was to provoke the Austrians into aggression by encouraging revolutionary activity in Lombardy.
     
      At first, things did not work out as planned. The Austrians, ignorant of the secret agreement signed at Plombi?res, were surprisingly patient in dealing with the Piedmontese-inspired insurrections. The Piedmontese mobilization in March 1859 was then something of an admission of defeat, as it appeared that the strategy of provoking the Austrians into aggression had failed. Without Austrian aggression, the French could not intervene, and without French support, Cavour was unwilling to risk war. At this time however, the Austrians conveniently made their opponents' task easier by sending an ultimatum to the Piedmontese demanding demobilization. This the Piedmontese could conveniently reject and, by making Austria seem the aggressor, allowed the French to intervene.
     
      The war itself was quite short. The Austrian advance into Piedmont was incompetent, and they were unable to secure the Alpine passes before the arrival of the French army, led personally by Napoleon. At the Battle of Magenta on June 4, the French and Sardinians were victorious over the Austrian army of Count Gyulai, leading to Austrian withdrawal from most of Lombardy and a triumphal entry by Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel into Milan. On June 24, a second battle was fought between the two armies at Solferino. This bloody engagement, at which the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph had also taken personal command of his troops, saw little skill demonstrated by the leaders on either side, but the French were again victorious. The Austrians withdrew behind the Quadrilateral of fortresses on the borders of Venetia.
     
      There were many reasons Napoleon III sought peace at this point. Fear that a long and bloody campaign would be necessary to conquer Venetia, fear for his position at home, worry at the intervention of German states, and fear of a too-powerful Piedmont-Sardinia led him to look for a way out. On July 11, he met privately with Franz Joseph at Villafranca, without the knowledge of his Piedmontese allies. Together, the two agreed on the outlines of a settlement to the conflict. The Austrians would retain Venetia, but would cede Lombardy to the French, who would then immediately cede it to Piedmont (the Austrians were unwilling to themselves cede the area to Piedmont). Otherwise, the Italian borders would remain unchanged. In Central Italy, where the authorities had universally been expelled following the outbreak of war, the rulers of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, who had fled to Austria, would be restored, while Papal control of the Legations would be resumed. Because Napoleon had not fulfilled the terms of his agreement with Piedmont, he would not gain Savoy and Nice.
     
      The Sardinians were outraged at this betrayal by their ally. Cavour demanded that the war be carried on regardless, and resigned when the more realistic Victor Emmanuel determined that acquiescence was the only realistic option. But the Villafranca agreement would prove a dead letter long before it was formalized into the Treaty of Zurich in November. Piedmontese troops occupied the smaller Italian states and the Legations, and the French proved unwilling to pressure them to withdraw and allow the restoration of the old order, while the Austrians no longer had the power to compel it. In December, Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Legations were unified into the United Provinces of Central Italy, and, encouraged by the British, were seeking annexation by the Kingdom of Sardinia.
     
      Cavour, who triumphantly returned to power in January 1860, wished to annex the territories, but realized that French acquiescence was necessary. Napoleon III agreed to recognize the Piedmontese annexation in exchange for Savoy and Nice. On March 20, 1860, the annexations occurred. Now the Kingdom of Sardinia encompassed most of Northern and Central Italy.
     
      The Mille expedition
      Main article: Expedition of the Thousand
      Carte De Visite of a Garibaldino and member of the Thousand Red Shirts, Giuseppe Barboglio. He wears the rare 'Medal of the Thousand' or 'Marsala Medal', issued by the city of Palermo in 1865.
     
      Thus, by the spring of 1860, only four states remained in Italy - the Austrians in Venetia, the Papal States (now minus the Legations), the new expanded Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There is no special reason to think that Cavour now envisaged the unification of the rest of Italy under Piedmontese rule, but events proved to have a life of their own.
     
      Francis II of the Two Sicilies, the son and successor of Ferdinand II (the infamous "King Bomba"), had a well-organized army of 150,000 men. But his father's tyranny had inspired many secret societies, and the kingdom's Swiss Mercenaries were unexpectedly recalled home under the terms of a new Swiss law that forbade Swiss citizens to serve as mercenaries. This left Francis with only his mostly unreliable native troops. It was a critical opportunity for the unification movement. In April 1860, separate insurrections began in Messina and Palermo in Sicily, both of which demonstrated a history of opposing Neapolitan rule. These rebellions were easily suppressed by loyal troops.
     
      In the meantime, Garibaldi, a native of Nice, was deeply resentful of the French annexation of his home city. He hoped to use his supporters to regain the territory. Cavour, terrified of Garibaldi provoking a war with France, persuaded Garibaldi to instead concentrate his forces on the Sicilian rebellions. On May 6, 1860, Garibaldi and his cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (called I Mille), steamed from Quarto near Genoa, and after a stop in Talamone on May 11 landed near Marsala on the west coast of Sicily.
     
      Near Salemi, Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of rebels, and the combined forces defeated the opposing army at Calatafimi on May 13. Within three days, the invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. On May 14, Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily, in the name of Victor Emmanuel. After waging various successful but hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon the Sicilian capital of Palermo, announcing his arrival by beacon-fires kindled at night. On May 27, the force laid siege to the Porta Termini of Palermo, while a mass uprising of street and barricade fighting broke out within the city.
     
      With Palermo deemed insurgent, Neapolitan general Ferdinando Lanza, arriving in Sicily with some 25,000 troops, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. With the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice was declared, leading to the Neapolitan troops' departure and surrender of the town to Garibaldi and his much smaller army.
     
      This resounding success demonstrated the weakness of the Neapolitan government. Garibaldi's fame spread and many Italians began to consider him a national hero. Doubt, confusion and dismay overtook the Neapolitan court ? the king hastily summoned his ministry and offered to restore an earlier constitution, but these efforts failed to rebuild the peoples' trust in Bourbon governance.
     
      Six weeks after the surrender of Palermo, Garibaldi attacked Messina. Within a week its citadel surrendered. Having conquered Sicily, Garibaldi proceeded to the mainland, crossing the Straits of Messina with the Neapolitan fleet at hand. The garrison at Reggio Calabria promptly surrendered. Progressing northward, the populace everywhere hailed him and military resistance faded. At the end of August Garibaldi was at Cosenza, and on September 5 at Eboli, near Salerno. Meanwhile, Naples had declared a state of siege, and on September 6 the king gathered the 4,000 troops still faithful to him and retreated over the Volturno river. The next day Garibaldi, with a few followers, entered Naples by train, whose people openly welcomed him.
     
      Defeat of Naples
      Garibaldi in 1861
     
      Though Garibaldi had easily taken the capital, the Neapolitan army had not joined the rebellion en masse, holding firm along the Volturno River. Garibaldi's irregular bands of about 25,000 men could not drive away the king or take the fortresses of Capua and Gaeta without the help of the Sardinian army.
     
      The Sardinian army, however, could only arrive by traversing the Papal States, which extended across the entire center of the peninsula. Ignoring the political will of the Holy See, Garibaldi announced his intent to proclaim a "Kingdom of Italy" from Rome, the capital city of Pope Pius IX. Seeing this as a threat to the domain of the Catholic Church, Pius threatened excommunication for those who supported such an effort. Afraid that Garibaldi would attack Rome, Catholics worldwide sent money and volunteers for the Papal Army, which was commanded by General Louis Lamorici?re, a French exile.
     
      The settling of the peninsular standoff now rested with Louis Napoleon. If the French emperor had let Garibaldi have his way the latter would likely have ended the temporal sovereignty of the pope and made Rome the capital of Italy. Napoleon, however, may have arranged with Cavour to leave the king of Sardinia free to take possession of Naples, Umbria and the other provinces, provided that Rome and the "patrimony of St. Peter" were left intact.
     
      It was in this situation that a Sardinian force of two army corps, under Fanti and Cialdini, marched to the frontier of the Papal States, its objective being not Rome but Naples. The Papal troops under Lamorici?re advanced against Cialdini, but were quickly defeated and besieged in the fortress of Ancona, finally surrendering on September 29. On October 9, Victor Emmanuel II arrived and took command. There was no longer a papal army to oppose him, and the march southward proceeded unopposed.
      Victor Emmanuel II meets Garibaldi near Teano.
     
      Garibaldi distrusted the pragmatic Cavour, particularly due to Cavour's role in the French annexation of Nice, Garibaldi's birthplace. Nevertheless, he accepted the command of Victor Emmanuel. When the king entered Sessa Aurunca at the head of his army, Garibaldi willingly handed over his dictatorial power. After greeting Victor Emmanuel in Teano with the title of King of Italy, Garibaldi entered Naples riding beside the king. Garibaldi then retired to the island of Caprera, while the remaining work of unifying the peninsula was left to Victor Emmanuel.
     
      The progress of the Sardinian army compelled Francis II to give up his line along the river, and he eventually took refuge with his best troops in the fortress of Gaeta. His courage boosted by his resolute young wife, Duchess Marie Sophie of Bavaria, Francis mounted a stubborn defence that lasted three months. But European allies refused him aid, food and munitions became scarce, and disease set in, so the garrison was forced to surrender. Nonetheless, ragtag groups of Neapolitans loyal to Francis would fight on against the Italian government for years to come.
     
      The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the brink of fruition ? only Rome and Venetia remained to be added. On February 18, 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled the deputies of the first Italian Parliament in Turin. On March 17, 1861, the Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy, and on March 27, 1861 Rome was declared Capital of Italy. Three months later Cavour, having seen his life's work nearly complete, died. When he was given the last rites, Cavour purportedly said: "Italy is made. All is safe."[7]
     
      Roman Question
      Main article: Roman Question
     
      Mazzini was discontented with the perpetuation of monarchical government, and continued to agitate for a republic. With the motto "Free from the Alps to the Adriatic," the unification movement set its gaze on Rome and Venice. There were obstacles, though. A challenge against the Pope's temporal domain was viewed with great distrust by Catholics around the world, and French troops were stationed in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the international repercussions of attacking the Papal States, and discouraged his subjects from participating in revolutionary ventures with such intentions.
     
      Nonetheless, Garibaldi believed that the government would support him if he attacked Rome. Frustrated at inaction by the king, and bristling over perceived snubs, he organized a new venture. In June 1862, he sailed from Genoa and landed again at Palermo, where he gathered volunteers for the campaign, under the slogan Roma o Morte (Rome or Death). The garrison of Messina, loyal to the king's instructions, barred their passage to the mainland. Garibaldi's force, now numbering two thousand, turned south and set sail from Catania. Garibaldi declared that he would enter Rome as a victor or perish beneath its walls. He landed at Melito on August 14, and marched at once into the Calabrian mountains.
     
      Far from supporting this endeavour, 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 Aspromonte. One of the regulars fired a chance shot, and several volleys followed, but Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire on fellow subjects of the Kingdom of Italy. The volunteers suffered several casualties, and Garibaldi himself was wounded; many were taken prisoner. Garibaldi was taken by steamer to Varignano, where he was honorably imprisoned for a time, but finally released.
     
      Meanwhile, Victor Emmanuel sought a safer means to the acquisition of the Papal States. He negotiated the removal of the French troops from Rome through a treaty, the September Convention, with Napoleon III in September 1864, by which the emperor agreed to withdraw his troops within two years. The pope was to expand his own army during that time so as to be self-sufficient. In December 1866, the last of the French troops departed from Rome, in spite of the efforts of the pope to retain them. By their withdrawal Italy was freed from the presence of foreign soldiers for the first time probably in a thousand years.
     
      The seat of government was moved in 1865 from Turin, the old Sardinian capital, to Florence, where the first Italian parliament was summoned. This arrangement created such disturbances in Turin that the king was forced to leave that city hastily for his new capital.
     
      [edit] Third War of Independence (1866)
      Main article: Third Italian War of Independence
     
      In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria contested with Prussia the position of leadership among the German states. The Kingdom of Italy seized the opportunity to capture Venetia from Austrian rule and allied itself with Prussia. Austria tried to persuade the Italian government to accept Venetia in exchange for non-intervention. However, on April 8, Italy and Prussia signed an agreement that supported Italy's acquisition of Venetia, and on June 20, Italy declared war on Austria. Within the context of Italian unification, the Austro-Prussian war is called Third Independence War, after the First (1848) and the Second (1859).
     
      Victor Emmanuel hastened to lead an army across the Mincio to the invasion of Venetia, while Garibaldi was to invade the Tyrol with his Hunters of the Alps. The enterprise ended in disaster. The Italian army encountered the Austrians and Venetians at Custoza on June 24 and suffered a defeat. On July 20 the Regia Marina was defeated in the battle of Lissa where the Austrians and Venetians completely destroyed Italian vessels. Italy's fortunes were not all so dismal, though. The following day, Garibaldi's volunteers defeated an Austrian force in the battle of Bezzecca, and moved toward Trento.
     
      Meanwhile, Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck saw that his own ends in the war had been achieved, and signed an armistice with Austria on July 26. Italy officially laid down its arms on August 12. Garibaldi was called back from his successful march and resigned with a brief telegram reading only "Obbedisco" ("I obey").
     
      In spite of Italy's poor showing, Prussia's success on the northern front obliged Austria to cede Venetia. Under the terms of a peace treaty signed in Vienna on October 12, Emperor Franz Joseph had already agreed to cede Venetia to Napoleon III in exchange for non-intervention in the Austro-Prussian War and thus Napoleon III ceded Venetia to Italy on October 19 in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy.
     
      In the peace treaty of Vienna, it was written that the annexation of Venetia would have become effective only after a referendum ? taken on October 21 and October 22 ? to let the Venetian people express their will about being annexed or not to the Kingdom of Italy. Historians suggest that the referendum in Venetia was held under military pressure,[8] as a mere 0.01% of voters (69 out of more than 642,000 ballots) voted against the annexation. [9] Many Venetian independence movements (see Venetism) refer to this deceit to claim for independence of Veneto.
     
      Austrian forces put up some opposition to the invading Italians, to little effect. Victor Emmanuel entered Venice and Venetian land, and performed an act of homage in the Piazza San Marco.
     
      Rome
      Mentana and Villa Glori
     
      The national party, with Garibaldi at its head, still aimed at the possession of Rome, as the historic capital of the peninsula. In 1867 Garibaldi made a second attempt to capture Rome, but the papal army, strengthened with a new French auxiliary force, defeated his badly armed volunteers at Mentana. Subsequently, a French garrison remained in Civitavecchia until August 1870, when it was recalled following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.
      Battle of Mentana.
     
      Before the defeat at Mentana, Enrico Cairoli, his brother Giovanni and 70 companions had made a daring attempt to take Rome. The group had embarked in Terni and floated down the Tiber. Their arrival in Rome was to coincide with an uprising inside the city. On 22 October 1867, the revolutionaries inside Rome seized control of the Capitoline Hill and of Piazza Colonna. Unfortunately for the Cairolis and their companions, by the time they arrived at Villa Glori, on the northern outskirts of Rome, the uprising had already been suppressed. During the night of 22 October 1867, the group was surrounded by papal Zouaves, and Giovanni was severely wounded. Enrico was mortally wounded and bled to death in Giovanni's arms.
     
      At the summit of Villa Glori, near the spot where Enrico died, there is a plain white column dedicated to the Cairoli brothers and their 70 companions. About 100 meters to the left from the top of the Spanish Steps, there is a bronze monument of Giovanni holding the dying Enrico in his arm. A plaque lists the names of their companions. Giovanni never recovered from his wounds and from the tragic events of 1867. According to an eyewitness[10], when Giovanni died on 11 September 1869:
     
      Negli ultimi momenti gli parve vedere Garibaldi e fece vista di accoglierlo con trasporto. Udii (cos? narra un amico presente) che disse tre volte: "L'unione dei francesi ai papalini fu il fatto terribile!" pensava a Mentana. Chiam? pi? volte Enrico, suo fratello, "perch? lo aiutasse!" poi disse: "ma vinceremo di certo; andremo a Roma!"
      In the last moments, he had a vision of Garibaldi and seemed to greet him with enthusiasm. I heard (so says a friend who was present) him say three times: "The union of the French to the papal political supporters was the terrible fact!" he was thinking about Mentana. Many times he called Enrico, that he might help him! then he said: "but we will certainly win; we will go to Rome!"
     
      Capture of Rome
      Main article: Capture of Rome
     
      In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early August, the French Emperor Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome, thus no longer providing protection to the Papal State. Widespread public demonstrations illustrate the demand that the Italian government take Rome. The Italian government took no direct action until the collapse of the Second French Empire at the Battle of Sedan. King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count Gustavo Ponza di San Martino to Pius IX with a personal letter offering a face-saving proposal that would have allowed the peaceful entry of the Italian Army into Rome, under the guise of offering protection to the pope. The Papacy, however, exhibited something less than enthusiasm for the plan:
     
      The Pope?s reception of San Martino (10 September 1870) was unfriendly. Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King?s letter upon the table he exclaimed, "Fine loyalty! You are all a set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith." He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King. After, growing calmer, he exclaimed: "I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome!" San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day.[11]
     
      The Italian Army, commanded by General Raffaele Cadorna, crossed the papal frontier on 11 September and advanced slowly toward Rome, hoping that a peaceful entry could be negotiated. The Italian Army reached the Aurelian Walls on 19 September and placed Rome under a state of siege. Although now convinced of his unavoidable defeat, Pius IX remained intransigent to the bitter end and forced his troops to put up a token resistance. On September 20, after a cannonade of three hours had breached the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, the Bersaglieri entered Rome and marched down Via Pia, which was subsequently renamed Via XX Settembre. 49 Italian soldiers and four officers, and 19 papal troops died. Rome and Latium were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy after a plebiscite held on October 2. The results of this plebiscite were accepted by decrete of October 9.
     
      Initially the Italian government had offered to let the pope keep the Leonine City, but the Pope rejected the offer because acceptance would have been an implied endorsement of the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom's rule over his former domain. Pius IX declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican, although he was not actually restrained from coming and going. Rather, being deposed and stripped of much of his former power also removed a measure of personal protection ? if he had walked the streets of Rome he might have been in danger from political opponents who had formerly kept their views private. Officially, the capital was not moved from Florence to Rome until July 1871.
     
      Historian Raffaele de Cesare made the following observations about Italian unification:
     
      The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon?s feet ? that dragged him into the abyss. He never forgot, even in August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign of a Catholic country, that he had been made Emperor, and was supported by the votes of the Conservatives and the influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not to abandon the Pontiff. [12]
     
      For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign of Rome, where he had many friends and relations?. Without him the temporal power would never have been reconstituted, nor, being reconstituted, would have endured. [13]
     
      Risorgimento in the Modern era
      The process of unification of the Italian people in a national State was not completed in the nineteenth century. Many Italians remained outside the borders of the Kingdom of Italy and this situation created the Italian irredentism.
      Dialects of the Italians during the unification of Italy
     
      Italia irredenta (Unredeemed Italy) was an Italian nationalist opinion movement that emerged after Italian unification. It advocated irredentism among the Italian people as well as other nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a movement; it is also known as "Italian irredentism." Not a formal organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its "natural borders". Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century.
     
      Irredentism and the two World Wars
      During the post-unification era, some Italians were unsatisfied with the current state of the Italian Kingdom since they wanted the kingdom to include Trieste, Istria and other areas around as well. This Italian irredentism succeeded in World War I with the annexation of Trieste and Trento, with the respective territories of Venezia Giulia and Trentino.
     
      The Kingdom of Italy had declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, officially because the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary was a defensive one, requiring its members to come under attack first. Many Italians were still hostile to Austrian historical and continuing occupations of ethnically Italian areas, and Italy chose not to enter. Austria-Hungary requested Italian neutrality, while the Triple Entente (which included Great Britain, France and Russia) its intervention. With the London Pact, signed in April 1915, Italy agreed to declare war against the Central Powers, in exchange for the irredent territories of Friuli, Trentino and Dalmatia (see Italia irredenta).
     
      Italian irredentism obtained an important result after World War I, when Italy gained Trieste, Gorizia, Istria and the city of Zara. During WWII, after the Axis aggression against Yugoslavia, Italy created the "Governatorato di Dalmazia" (from 1941 to September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily even Spalato (Split), Cattaro (Kotor) and most of coastal Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943 even Corsica (Corse) and Nizza (Nice) were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, nearly totally fulfilling in those years the requests of the Italian irredentism.
      The Vittoriano in Rome, honoring King Victor Emmanuel and celebrating the unity of Italy. The decision to build it was reached in 1878, shortly after the king's death that year; the site on the Capitoline Hill was chosen in 1882; and the design of 28 year-old Giuseppe Sacconi was selected in 1884. Construction began in 1885 and the monument was inaugurated in 1911, although features were subsequently added or altered during the fascist period.
     
      The movement had for its avowed purpose the emancipation of all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after Italian unification. The Irredentists took language as the test of the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to emancipate, which were Trentino, Trieste, Dalmatia, Istria, Gorizia, Ticino, Nice (Nizza), Corsica and Malta. Austria-Hungary promoted Croatian interests in Dalmatia and Istria to weaken Italian claims in the western Balkans before WWI.
     
      After World War II
      After WWII the irredentism movement faded away in Italian politics. Only a few thousand Italians remain in Istria and Dalmatia as a consequence of the Italian defeat in WWII and of the slaughter of approximately 2,000 Italians as reprisals for fascist atrocities and the subsequent choice of Italian citizenship by an additional 200,000 - 250,000 people in what became known as the Istrian exodus.
     
      Secession movements
      The Italian unification process was generally popular with contemporary people living in the Italian peninsula, especially with regard to the end to Austrian rule. Nevertheless, dissenters were present in the 19th century (in particular, the rulers of the annexed states), and regionalist sympathies continue to the present day. There are two chief secession movements, (that in the past reached less than 5% of the national electoral votes and currently in the last 2008 national election reached about 10% nationwide and 20% in the north) represented by active political parties: one in the North (Lega Nord), and one in the South (Due Sicilie). This southern secession movement was mainly the result of peasants revolting against the new government. The former has elected several representatives to the national parliament.
     
      The Italian region of Alto Adige/South Tyrol had a strong secession movement, headed by the German-speaking majority in the region, for unification with Austria. The movement was strongest after the Second World War. Secessionist parties still exist, but the secessionist movement has been mostly pacified by the granting of substantial autonomy by the Italian government.
     
      Italy in the European Union
      In the last fifty years the process of unification of Italy merged with the process of European unification, and Italy was one of the founding members of the European Economic Community. Ideas similar to those that promoted the Risorgimento among the Italian people are in part responsible for the wide acceptance in Italy of the political ideas related to the formation of the European Union.
     
      For original text see Wikipedia, "Italian unification."
     
Contributed by: Courtesy of Wikipedia

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Italy
Date: ca. 1875-1896
Notes: Image caption: "Italy, 1875-1896. Collection of Military Costume Illustration."
Contributed by: Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Digital Gallery

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Naples, Campania, Italy
Date: ca. 1860
Notes: "People cheering as Giuseppe Garibaldi rides into Naples on horseback." Digital ID: 3g07697.
Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

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Italy
Date: 19th century
Notes: Giuseppe Garibaldi
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
      Giuseppe Garibaldi
      Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1861.
      Born July 4, 1807(1807-07-04)
      Nice, First French Empire
      Died June 2, 1882 (aged 74)
      Caprera, Kingdom of Italy
      Nationality
      Sardinian (1814?1861)
      Italian (1861?1866)
      Occupation Soldier
      Known for Unification of Italy
     
      Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 ? June 2, 1882) was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and had to flee Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and afterwards returned to Italy as a commander in the conflicts of the Risorgimento.
     
      He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe.[1] He is considered an Italian national hero.
      Early years
      Garibaldi was born on July 4, 1807 in the city of Nice ("Nizza" in Italian, from Nicaea, founded by Romans), at that time the capital of the French department of Alpes-Maritimes, before it was given back to the House of Savoy, the rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in 1814 with Napoleon's defeat. In 1860, however, the Savoys returned the city to France (an action opposed by Garibaldi), in order to get French aid in Italy's unification wars. Garibaldi's family was involved in coastal trade, and he was drawn to a life on the sea. He participated actively in the community of the Nizzardo Italians and was certified in 1832 as a merchant marine captain. A very influential day in Garibaldi's life came while visiting Taganrog, Russia, in April 1833, where he moored for ten days with the schooner Clorinda and a shipment of oranges. In a seaport inn, he met Giovanni Battista Cuneo from Oneglia, a political immigrant from Italy and member of the secret movement La Giovine Italia ("Young Italy"), founded by Giuseppe Mazzini, an impassioned proponent of Italian unification as a liberal republic through political and social reforms. Garibaldi joined the society, and took an oath of dedicating his life to struggle for liberation of his homeland from Austrian dominance.
     
      In Geneva in November 1833, Garibaldi met Mazzini himself, starting a relationship which later would become rather troublesome. He joined the Carbonari revolutionary association. In February 1834 he participated in a failed Mazzinian insurrection in Piedmont, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Genoese court, and fled to Marseilles.
     
      South American adventures
      Garibaldi first sailed to Tunisia before eventually finding his way to Brazil. There he took up the cause of independence of the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul (the former Brazilian province of S?o Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul), joining the gaucho rebels known as the farrapos (tatters) against the newly independent Brazilian nation (see War of Tatters). During this war he encountered a woman, Ana Ribeiro da Silva (best known as "Anita"), when the Tatters Army tried to proclaim another Republic in the Brazilian province of Santa Catarina. In October 1839, Anita joined Garibaldi on his ship, the Rio Pardo. A month later, she fought at her lover's side at the battles of Imbituba and Laguna.
      Garibaldi and Anita memorialized in Pra?a Garibaldi, Azenha, Porto Alegre, Brazil
     
      In 1841, the couple moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where Garibaldi worked as a trader and schoolmaster, and married there the following year. They had four children, Menotti (born 1840), Rosita (born 1843), Teresita (born 1845) and Ricciotti (born 1847). A skilled horsewoman, Anita is said to have taught Giuseppe about the gaucho culture of southern Brazil and Uruguay. It was about this time he adopted his trademark clothing, the red shirt, cloak (poncho), and sombrero (hat) used by the gauchos.
     
      In 1842, Garibaldi took command of the Uruguayan fleet and raised an "Italian Legion" for the Uruguayan Civil War, aligned with the liberal coalition of Uruguayan Colorados of Fructuoso Rivera and Argentine Unitarios (with substantive support of France and United Kingdom) against the conservative forces of former Uruguayan president Manuel Oribe's Blancos and Argentine Federales under the rule of Buenos Aires caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas. The Legion adopted a black flag representing Italy in mourning, while the volcano at its center symbolized the dormant power in their homeland. Though there is no contemporary mention of them, popular history asserts that it was in Uruguay that the legion first wore the red shirts, said to have been obtained from a factory in Montevideo which had intended to export them to the slaughterhouses of Argentina. It was to become the symbol of Garibaldi and his followers. Between 1842 and 1848 Garibaldi defended Montevideo against forces led by Oribe. In 1845 he even managed to occupy Colonia del Sacramento and Isla Mart?n Garc?a and led the controversial sack of Gualeguaych?. Adopting skillful tactics of guerrilla warfare, he achieved two celebrated victories in the battles of Cerro and San Antonio del Santo in 1846.
     
      The fate of his homeland, however, continued to concern Garibaldi. The election of Pope Pius IX in 1846 had caused a sensation among Italian patriots, both at home and in exile. When news of the pope's initial reforms (which seemed to identify him as the liberal pope prophesied by Vincenzo Gioberti, who would provide the leadership for the unification of Italy) reached Montevideo, Garibaldi wrote the following letter:
     
      If these hands, used to fighting, would be acceptable to His Holiness, we most thankfully dedicate them to the service of him who deserves so well of the Church and of the fatherland. Joyful indeed shall we and our companions in whose name we speak be, if we may be allowed to shed our blood in defence of Pius IX's work of redemption
      ?(October 12, 1847)[2]
     
      Also Mazzini, from his exile, applauded the first reforms of Pius IX. In 1847 Garibaldi offered the apostolic nuncio at Rio de Janeiro, Bedini, the service of his Italian Legion for the liberation of the peninsula. News of the outbreak of revolution in Palermo in January 1848, and revolutionary agitation elsewhere in Italy encouraged Garibaldi to lead some 60 members of his legion home.
     
      Return to Italy and second exile
      Garibaldi defends Rome against the French on April 30, 1849.
      Giuseppe and Anita Garibaldi fleeing to San Marino.
     
      Garibaldi returned to Italy amongst the turmoil of the revolutions of 1848, and offered his services to Charles Albert of Sardinia. The monarch displayed some liberal inclinations, but treated Garibaldi with coolness and distrust. Rebuffed by the Piedmontese, he and his followers crossed into Lombardy where they offered assistance to the provisional government of Milan, which had rebelled against the Austrian occupation. In the course of the following, unsuccessful First Italian War of Independence, he led his legion to two minor victories at Luino and Morazzone. After the crushing Piedmontese defeat at Novara (march 23, 1849), Garibaldi moved to Rome to support the Republic which been proclaimed in the Papal States, but a French force sent by Louis Napoleon (the future Napoleon III) threatened to topple it. At Mazzini's urging, Garibaldi took up the command of the defence of Rome. In fighting near Velletri, Achille Cantoni saved his life.
     
      On April 30, 1849 the Republican army, under the command of Garibaldi, defeated a numerically far superior French army. Subsequently, additional French reinforcements arrived and the siege of Rome began on June 1. Despite the resistance of the Republican army, led by Garibaldi, the French prevailed on June 29. On June 30 the Roman Assembly met and debated three options: to surrender; to continue fighting in the streets of Rome; to retreat from Rome and continue the resistance from the Apennine mountains. Garibaldi made a speech in which he favored the third option and then said: Dovunque saremo, col? sar? Roma.[3] (Wherever we may be, there will be Rome).
     
      A truce was negotiated on July 1, and on July 2 Garibaldi withdrew from Rome with 4,000 troops. The French Army entered Rome on July 3 and reestablished the Holy See's temporal power. Garibaldi and his forces, hunted by Austrian, French, Spanish, and Neapolitan troops, fled to the north with the intention to reach Venice, where the Venetians were still resisting the Austrian siege. After an epic march, Garibaldi took momentary refuge in San Marino, with only 250 men still following him. Anita, who was carrying their fifth child, died near Comacchio during the retreat.
     
      The Americas
      Garibaldi eventually managed to reach Portovenere, near La Spezia, but the Piedmontese government forced him to emigrate abroad again.
     
      After a stay in Tangier, he moved on to Staten Island[4], New York. He arrived on the 30th of July 1850, and stayed in exile in an attempt to avoid publicity and exposure. His host was the inventor Antonio Meucci, where he spent some time working as a candlemaker in his plant on Staten Island, but was dissatisfied by the result. Afterwards he made several voyages as sea captain to the Pacific, the longest of which took two years from April 1851[4], during which he visited Andean revolutionary heroine Manuela S?enz in Peru.
     
      Garibaldi left New York for the last time in November 1853[4]. The cottage on Staten Island where he stayed during 1851-1853 is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is preserved as Garibaldi Memorial.
     
      Tyneside
      On March 21, 1854, Garibaldi sailed into the mouth of the River Tyne in north eastern England, as Master of the sailing vessel Commonwealth. The ship had sailed from Baltimore and was flying the American flag when it docked and unloaded its cargo in South Shields. Garibaldi, already a popular figure on Tyneside, was welcomed enthusiastically by the local working class, although the Newcastle Courant reported that he refused an invitation to dine with dignitaries in nearby Newcastle. As a memento of his stay in the area, an inscribed sword, paid for through public subscriptions, was presented to Garibaldi. His grandson carried the sword to South Africa with him almost half a century later, when he volunteered to fight for the British Army in the Boer War. In total, Garibaldi stayed in Tyneside for over a month, departing at the end of April 1854.[5]
     
      Second Italian War of Independence
      Garibaldi, in a popular colour lithograph
     
      Garibaldi returned again to Italy in 1854. Using a small legacy from the death of his brother, he bought half of the Italian island of Caprera (northern Sardinia), devoting himself to agriculture. In 1859, the Second Italian War of Independence (also known as the Austro-Sardinian War) broke out in the midst of internal plots at the Sardinian government. Garibaldi was appointed major general, and formed a volunteer unit named the Hunters of the Alps (Cacciatori delle Alpi). Thenceforth, Garibaldi abandoned Mazzini's republican ideal of the liberation of Italy, assuming that only the Piedmontese monarchy could effectively achieve it.
     
      With his volunteers, he won victories over the Austrians at Varese, Como, and other places.
     
      Garibaldi was however very displeased as his home city of Nice (Nizza in Italian) was surrendered to the French, in return for crucial military assistance. In April 1860, as deputy for Nice in the Piedmontese parliament at Turin, he vehemently attacked Cavour for ceding Nice and the County of Nice (Nizzardo) to Louis Napoleon, Emperor of the French. In the following years Garibaldi (with other passionate Nizzardo Italians) promoted the Irredentism of his Nizza, even with riots (in 1872).
     
      Campaign of 1860
      See also: Expedition of the Thousand
     
      On January 24, 1860, Garibaldi married a Lombard noblewoman, Giuseppina Raimondi, but left her immediately after the wedding ceremony due to her infidelities.
     
      At the beginning of April 1860, uprisings in Messina and Palermo in the independent and peaceful Kingdom of the Two Sicilies provided Garibaldi with an opportunity. He gathered about a thousand volunteers (practically all northern Italians, and called i Mille (the Thousand), or, as popularly known, the Redshirts) in two ships, and landed at Marsala, on the westernmost point of Sicily, on May 11.
     
      Swelling the ranks of his army with scattered bands of local rebels, Garibaldi led 800 of his volunteers to victory over a 1500-strong enemy force on the hill of Calatafimi on May 15. He used the counter-intuitive tactic of an uphill bayonet charge; he had seen that the hill on which the enemy had taken position was terraced, and the terraces gave shelter to his advancing men. Although small by comparison with the coming clashes at Palermo, Milazzo and Volturno, this battle was decisive in terms of establishing Garibaldi's power in the island; an apocryphal but realistic story had him say to his lieutenant Nino Bixio, Qui si fa l'Italia o si muore, that is, Here we either make Italy, or we die. In reality, the Neapolitan forces were ill guided, and most of its higher officers had been bought out. 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 surrendered the city and departed.
     
      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. There was a ferocious and difficult battle at Milazzo, but Garibaldi won through. By the end of July, only the citadel resisted.
      Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi.
     
      Having finished the conquest of Sicily, he crossed the Strait of Messina, with the help of the British Navy, and marched northward. Garibaldi's progress was met with more celebration than resistance, and on September 7 he entered the capital city of Naples, by train. Despite taking Naples, however, he had not to this point defeated the Neapolitan army. Garibaldi's volunteer army of 24,000 was not able to defeat conclusively the reorganized Neapolitan army (about 25,000 men) on September 30 at the Battle of Volturno. This was the largest battle he ever fought, but its outcome was effectively decided by the arrival of the Piedmontese Army. Following this, Garibaldi's plans to march on to Rome were jeopardized by the Piedmontese, technically his ally but unwilling to risk war with France, whose army protected the Pope. (The Piedmontese themselves had conquered most of the Pope's territories in their march south to meet Garibaldi, but they had deliberately avoided Rome, his capital.) Garibaldi chose to hand over all his territorial gains in the south to the Piedmontese and withdrew to Caprera and temporary retirement. Some modern historians consider the handover of his gains to the Piedmontese as a political defeat, but he seemed willing to see Italian unity brought about under the Piedmontese crown. The meeting at Teano between Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II is the most important event in modern Italian history, but is so shrouded in controversy that even the exact site where it took place is in doubt.
     
      Aftermath
      Garibaldi deeply disliked the Piedmontese Prime Minister, Camillo Benso, conte 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 Piedmontese 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. 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.
     
      On October 5 Garibaldi set up the International Legion bringing together different national divisions of French, Poles, Swiss, German and other nationalities, with a view not just of finishing the liberation of Italy, but also of their homelands. With the motto "Free from the Alps to the 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.
     
      At the outbreak of the American Civil War (in 1861), Garibaldi volunteered his services to President Abraham Lincoln and was offered a command in the northern forces. According to Italian historian Petacco, "Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis."[6]
     
      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 had guaranteed the independence of Rome from Italy by stationing a French garrison in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the international repercussions 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 1862, he sailed from Genoa and landed at Palermo, seeking to gather volunteers for the impending campaign under the slogan Roma o Morte (Rome or Death). 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 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 by a shot in the foot.
     
      This episode gave birth to a famous Italian nursery rhyme, still known by boys and girls all over the country: Garibaldi fu ferito ("Garibaldi was 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.
     
      In 1864 he visited London, where his presence was received with enthusiasm by the population[7]. He met the British prime minister Henry Palmerston, as well as other revolutionaries then living in exile in the city. At that time, his ambitious international project included the liberation of a range of occupied nations, such as Croatia, Greece, Hungary, but none of them turned into reality.
     
      Final struggle with Austria, and other adventures
      Bust of Garibaldi by Erminio Blotta
     
      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 (Third Italian War of Independence). Garibaldi gathered again his Hunters of the Alps, now some 40,000 strong, and led them into the Trentino. He defeated the Austrians at Bezzecca (thus securing the only Italian victory in that war) and made for Trento.
     
      The Italian regular forces were defeated at Lissa on the sea, and made little progress on land after the disaster of Custoza. An armistice was signed, by which Austria did cede Venetia to Italy, but this result was largely due to Prussia's successes on the northern front. Garibaldi's advance through Trentino was for nought and he was ordered to stop his advance to Trento. Garibaldi answered with a short telegram from the main square of Bezzecca with the famous motto: Obbedisco! ("I obey!").
     
      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 shot and wounded in the leg on the Aspromonte, taken prisoner, held captive for a time, and then again returned to Caprera.
     
      in the same year, Garibaldi sought international support for altogether eliminating the papacy. At an 1867 congress in Geneva he proposed: "The papacy, being the most harmful of all secret societies, ought to be abolished."[8]
     
      When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870, Italian public opinion heavily favored the Prussians, and many Italians attempted to sign up as volunteers at the Prussian embassy in Florence. After the French garrison was recalled from Rome, the Italian Army captured the Papal States without Garibaldi's assistance. Following the wartime collapse of the Second French Empire at the battle of Sedan, Garibaldi, undaunted by the recent hostility shown to him by the men of Napoleon III, switched his support to the newly-declared French Third Republic. On 7 September [1870], within three days of the revolution of 4 September in Paris, he wrote to the Movimento of Genoa:
     
      Yesterday I said to you: war to the death to Bonaparte. Today I say to you: rescue the French Republic by every means.[9]
     
      Subsequently, Garibaldi went to France and assumed command of the Army of the Vosges, an army of volunteers that was never defeated by the Prussians.
      Portrait of Garibaldi, by Th?obald Chartran, 1878
      A statue of Garibaldi erected in Washington Square Park in New York City
     
      Death
      Despite being elected again to the Italian parliament, Garibaldi spent much of his late years in Caprera, a small island off the coast of Sardinia. He however supported an ambitious project of land reclamation in the marshy areas of southern Lazio.
     
      In 1879 he founded the "League of Democracy", advocating universal suffrage, the abolition of ecclesiastical property, and maintenance of the standing army. Ill and confined to a bed by arthritis, he made trips to Calabria and Sicily. In 1880 he married Francesca Armosino, with whom he had previously had three children.
     
      On his deathbed, Garibaldi asked that his bed be moved to where he could gaze at the emerald and sapphire sea. Upon his death on June 2, 1882 at the age of almost 75, his wishes for a simple funeral and cremation were not respected. He is buried on his farm on the island of Caprera alongside his last wife and some of his children. [10]
     
      Writings
      Garibaldi wrote at least two novels, characterized by an anti-clerical tone:
      * Clelia or Il governo dei preti (1867) english translation, t. 1 english translation, t. 2
      * Cantoni il volontario (1870)
      * I Mille (1873)
     
      He also wrote non-fiction:
      * Autobiography[11] (v. 1 1807-1849)
      * Memoirs,[12] co-authored by Alexandre Dumas
      * A translation of his memoirs is The life of Garibaldi written by himself (New York: Barnes, 1859)
     
      Legacy
      Garibaldi's popularity, his skill at rousing the common people, 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 religious convictions are unclear to historians; in 1882 he wrote "Man created God, not God created Man" yet in his autobiography he is quoted as saying "I am a Christian, and I speak to Christians- I am a true Christian, and I speak to true Christians. I love and venerate the religion of Christ, because Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery..." and "you have the duty to educate the people- educate the people- educate them to be Christians- educate them to be Italians... Viva Italia! Viva Christianity!".
      Garibaldi Monument in Taganrog, Russia.
     
      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. He was eventually elected the grand master of the Grand Orient of Italy.[13]
     
      Giuseppe Garibaldi died at Caprera in 1882, where he was interred. Five ships of the Italian Navy have been named after him, among which a World War II cruiser and the current flagship, the aircraft carrier 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. On the top of the Gianicolo hill in Rome, there is a statue of Garibaldi on horse-back. His face was originally turned in the direction of the Vatican (an allusion[citation needed] to his ambition to conquer the Papal States), but after the Lateran Treaty in 1929 the orientation of the statue was changed upon request of the Vatican.
     
      A bust of Giuseppe Garibaldi is prominently placed outside the entrance to the old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, a gift from members of the Italian Society of Washington.
     
      In a recent book review in the New Yorker (July 9&16, 2007) of a Garibaldi biography, Tim Parks cites the eminent English historian, A.J.P. Taylor, as saying, "Garibaldi is the only wholly admirable figure in modern history."
     
      English football team Nottingham Forest designed their home kit after the uniform worn by Garibaldi and his men and have worn a variation of this design since being founded in 1865. The Garibaldi biscuit was named after him, as was a style of beard. The Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy has been awarded annually since 2007 within the Six Nations rugby union framework to the victor of the match between France and Italy, in the memory of Garibaldi.
     
      See also
      2 Euro commemorative coin of San Marino
      * Vittorio Emanuele II
      * Italian Wars of Independence
      * Jessie White Mario
      * Italia irredenta
      * Georgios Grivas
      * Greek War of Independence
      * Athanasios Diakos
      * Subhas Chandra Bose, a leader in the Indian independence movement who was influenced by Garibaldi and Mazzini.
      * Mount Garibaldi
      * Monumento a Giuseppe Garibaldi
      * Garibaldi Memorial
      * Garibaldi Monument in Taganrog
     
      For original text with references see Wikipedia, "Giuseppe Garibaldi."
Contributed by: Courtesy of Wikipedia

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 Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy
Date: ca. 1890 - 1900
Notes: "Military review in St. Mark's Place, Venice, Italy." Digital ID: 06670.
Contributed by: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, PPOC

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Italy
Date: World War I
Notes: Italian Campaign (World War I)
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
      Part of World War I
      Italian troops entrenched along the Isonzo river.
      Date 23 May 1915 ? 3/4 November 1918
      Location Eastern Alps
      Result Italian victory, Collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Treaty of Trianon
      Belligerents
      Flag of Italy Italy
      Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom[1]
      Flag of France France[2]
      United States[3] Austria-Hungary
      German Empire
      Commanders
      Flag of Italy Armando Diaz
      Flag of Italy Luigi Cadorna Flag of Austria-Hungary Conrad von H?tzendorf
      Flag of Austria-Hungary Svetozar Boroević
      Flag of German Empire Otto von Below
      [show]
      v ? d ? e
      Theatres of World War I
      European
      Balkans ? Gallipoli ? Western Front ? Eastern Front ? Italian Front
      Middle Eastern
      Caucasus ? Mesopotamia ? Sinai and Palestine ? Persia ? Arab Revolt
      African
      South-West Africa ? West Africa ? East Africa ? North Africa
      Asian and Pacific
      Other
      Atlantic Ocean ? Mediterranean ? Naval ? Aerial
      Italian Front
      1st Isonzo ? 2nd Isonzo ? 3rd Isonzo ? 4th Isonzo ? 5th Isonzo ? Asiago ? 6th Isonzo ? 7th Isonzo ? 8th Isonzo ? 9th Isonzo ? 10th Isonzo ? Ortigara ? 11th Isonzo ? Caporetto ? Piave River ? Vittorio Veneto
     
      The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol (todays provinces of Trento and Bolzano-Bozen), Istria, Dalmatia and the port of Trieste. Although Italy had hoped to begin the war with a surprise offensive intended to move quickly and capture several Austrian cities, the war soon bogged down into trench warfare similar to the Western Front.
      Causes for the campaign
      Although a member of the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy did not declare war in August 1914, arguing that the Alliance was defensive in nature and therefore that Austria-Hungary's aggression did not obligate Italy to take part. Italy had a long standing rivalry with Austria-Hungary, dating back to the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars, which granted several regions on the Italian peninsula to the Austrian Empire. In the early stages of the war, Allied diplomats courted Italy, attempting to secure Italian participation on the Allied side, culminating in the Treaty of London of April 26, 1915 in which Italy renounced her obligations to the Triple Alliance. On May 23, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire.
     
      Campaigns of 1915-1916
      Italian Front in 1915-1917: eleven Battles of Isonzo and Asiago offensive. In blue, initial Italian conquests.
     
      First battles of Isonzo
      Italy opened the war with an offensive aimed at capturing the town of Gorizia on the Isonzo (Slov. Soča) river. However, the Italian Army was poorly equipped in artillery, vehicles, and ammunition. At the beginning of the war, Italy had just 600 vehicles to move troops. As with most contemporary militaries, the Italian army primarily used horses for transport, and these failed to move supplies fast enough in the tough terrain of the Alps. Also, the newly appointed Italian commander, Luigi Cadorna, had no combat experience and was highly unpopular amongst his men.
     
      At the beginning of the offensive, Italian forces outnumbered the Austrians 2 to 1, but failed to penetrate their strong defensive lines along the Alps. This was mostly due to the Austrian forces being based on higher ground, and so Italian offensives had to be conducted climbing. Two weeks later, the Italians attempted another frontal assault with more artillery but were beaten back again. Another attack was mounted from October 18 to November 4 with 1,200 heavy guns, which again resulted in no gain.
     
      The Asiago offensive
      Following Italy's disastrous offensives, the Austrians began planning a counteroffensive (Strafexpedition) in Trentino and directed over the plateau of Altopiano di Asiago, with the aim to break through to the Po River plain and thus cutting off the II., III., and IV. Italian Armies in the North East of the country. The offensive began on March 11, 1916 with 15 divisions breaking the Italian lines. Though warned of an impending offensive, the local Italian commander had chosen to conduct local offensives instead of preparing a defense. The unprepared Italian positions collapsed and Italy only staved off defeat by quickly transferring reinforcements from other fronts.
     
      Later battles for the Isonzo
      Later in 1916, four more battles along the Isonzo river erupted. The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, launched by the Italians in August, resulted in a success greater than the previous attacks largely because the Austrians had depleted their lines for the Brusilov Offensive. The offensive gained nothing of strategic value but did take Gorizia, which boosted Italian spirits. The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth battles of the Isonzo (September 14-November 4) managed to accomplish little except to wear down the already exhausted armies of both nations.
     
      The frequency of offensives for which the Italian soldiers partook between May 1915 and August 1917, one every three months, was higher than demanded by the armies on the Western Front. Italian discipline was also harsher, with punishments for infractions of duty of a severity not known in the German, French, and British armies.[4]
     
      Shellfire in the rocky terrain caused 70% more casualties per rounds expended than on the soft ground in Belgium and France. By the autumn of 1917 the Italian army had suffered most of the deaths it was to incur during the war, yet the end of the war seemed to still be an eternity away.[4] This was not the same line of thought for the Austrians. On August 25th, the Emperor Charles wrote to the Kaiser the following: "The experience we have acquired in the eleventh battle has led me to believe that we should fair far worse in the twelfth. My commanders and brave troops have decided that such an unfortunate situation might be anticipated by an offensive. We have not the necessary means as regards troops."[5]
     
      1917: Germany arrives
      Battle of Caporetto and Italian retreat to the Piave river.
     
      Following the minuscule gains of the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo, the Italians directed a two-pronged attack against the Austrian lines north and east of Gorizia. The Austrians easily checked the advance east, but Italian forces under Luigi Capello managed to break the Austrian lines and capture the Bainsizza Plateau. Characteristic of nearly every other theater of the war, the Italians found themselves on the verge of victory but could not secure it because their supply lines could not keep up with the front-line troops and they were forced to withdraw.
     
      The Austrians received desperately needed reinforcements after the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo from German Army soldiers rushed in after the Russian offensive ordered by Kerensky (Kerensky Offensive) of July 1917 failed. The Germans introduced infiltration tactics (Hutier tactics) to the Austrian front and helped work on a new offensive. Meanwhile, mutinies and plummeting morale crippled the Italian Army from within. The soldiers lived in poor conditions and engaged in attack after attack that often yielded minimal or no military gain. On October 24, 1917 the Austrians and Germans launched the Battle of Caporetto (Italian name for Kobarid) with a huge artillery barrage followed by infantry using Hutier tactics, bypassing enemy strong points and attacking on the Italian rear. At the end of the first day, the Italians had retreated 12 miles to the Tagliamento River.
     
      1918: The war ends
     
      Battle of the Piave
      Advancing deep and fast, the Austrians overran their supply lines, which forced them to stop and regroup. The Italians, pushed back to defensive lines near Venice on the Piave River, had suffered 600,000 casualties to this point in the war. Because of these losses, the Italian Government called to arms the so-called '99 Boys (Ragazzi del '99), that is, all males who were 18 years old. In November 1917, British, French and US forces[citation needed] started to bolster the front line, though not in decisive numbers; the Italians were able to contain the Austrian offensive largely by themselves. Far more decisive than Allied help in troops, indeed, was Franco-British (and US) help provided in those strategic materials (coal, steel, etc.) Italy always lacked sorely. In the spring of 1918, Germany pulled out its troops for use in its upcoming Spring Offensive. The Austrians now began debating how to finish the war in Italy. The Austro-Hungarian generals disagreed on how to administer the final offensive. Archduke Joseph August of Austria decided for a two-pronged offensive, where it would prove impossible for the two forces to communicate in the mountains.
     
      The Battle of the Piave River began with a diversionary attack near the Tonale Pass named Lawine, which the Italians easily repulsed after two days of fight[6]. Austrian deserters betrayed the objectives of the upcoming offensive, which allowed the Italians to move two armies directly in the path of the Austrian prongs. The other prong, led by general Svetozar Boroević von Bojna initially experienced success until aircraft bombed their supply lines and Italian reinforcements arrived.
      Italian front in 1918 and battle of Vittorio Veneto.
     
      The decisive Battle of Vittorio Veneto
      To the disappointment of Italy's allies, no counter-offensive followed the Battle of Piave. The Italian Army had suffered huge losses in the battle, and considered an offensive dangerous. General Armando Diaz waited for more reinforcements to arrive from the Western Front. By October 1918, Italy finally had enough soldiers to mount an offensive. The attack targeted Vittorio Veneto, across the Piave. Though Austrian soldiers fought fiercely, the superior numbers of the Italians overwhelmed them. The Italians broke through a gap near Sacile and poured in reinforcements that crushed the Austrian defensive line. On November 3, 300,000 Austrian soldiers surrendered. The Battle of Vittorio Veneto heralded the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Army as an effective fighting force, and also triggered the disintegration of Austria-Hungary. During the last week of October, declarations made in Budapest, Prague, and Zagreb proclaimed the independence of their respective parts of the old empire. On October 29 the imperial authorities asked Italy for an armistice, but the Italians continued to advance, reaching Trento, Udine, and Trieste. On November 3, Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to the Italian Commander to ask again for an Armistice and terms of peace. The terms were arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, communicated to the Austrian Commander, and were accepted. The Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on November 3, and took effect on November 4, at three o?clock in the afternoon. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg Monarchy and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
     
      For original text with references see Wikipedia, "Italian Campaign (World War I)."
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World War I
Casacalenda, Molise, Italy
Date: 1910s
Notes: Here is a picture of a relative of the Ferrara family who served in World War I. At that time Italy had a conscript army -- young men had no choice but to report for military duty when the government called them to do so. World War I took place between 1914 to 1918. Over 40 million casualties resulted, half of which were civilian deaths. For more information visit: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_in_world_war_1.
Contributed by: Mary Melfi

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Larino, Italy
Date: Prior to 1912
Notes: Photo of Giuseppe Ferri with a cousin or a friend. Printed at the back of the postcard-photo are the words: "Prem. Fotografia Moderna Alfredo Naglia Ravenna."
Contributed by: The Ferri family

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