The mid to late 19th century was a momentous period in Europe. Ever since the end of the Napoleonic Era, attempts to gradually return to societies prior to the French Revolution was struggling to re-stablish itself. By the late 1840s, the ideals of the French Revolution, as well as plenty more ideologies that were forming around this time became too many to ignore, and the pressure and hope for change would culminate in Revolutions, both successful and unsuccessful, all over the Continent.
Many of these Revolutions were not only focused on improving the societies they lived in (such as the March Unrest in Sweden and the drafting of the Constitution in Denmark, in 1848 and 1849 respectively), but also aimed at either unifying a divided country or achieving independence for subjugated nations. However, these attempts gave largely mixed results. Past attempts at independence in Poland with the November Uprising or in Ireland with the Young Irelander Rebellion and the Hungarian War of Independence all ultimately failed in achieving their objectives, and would not see independence until the end of World War One.
Nonetheless, the seeds of revolutionary thought remained and, approximately twenty years after the Revolutions of 1848, independence movements flared up again and, this time, were much more successful. By 1861, after decades of fighting which had begun in 1848, Italy had been unified. The journey to get to such a position had been rife with conflict, diplomatic alliances and mediations, and would not be fully completed until 1871 (some even say it was not completed until 1918). The four founding fathers who made all this possible can be described as such:
- Victory Emanuel II, the provider of the armed forces for the unification;
- Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, the diplomatic unifier;
- Giuseppe Garibaldi, the martial unifier;
- Giuseppe Mazzini, the ideological unifier.
The Risorgimento well deserves its own article. With that being said, this article itself will touch upon a very crucial individual who helped make it possible, in more ways than one. This is the profile of Giuseppe Mazzini, his ideologies, and how his dreams of a united Italy could translate into a reality of an eventual united Europe.
Giuseppe Mazzini: life and beliefs
Born and raised into a family of both Jacobin and Jansenist ideals, Mazzini’s call to life was employment in journalism, law and politics. Dubbed the “poor man’s lawyer”, Mazzini became very early on active in revolutionary politics, participating in a number of failed insurrections across France, Switzerland and Italy. His radicalism (at the time, a term used to indicate a branch of liberal politics) caused him to live in hiding as his beliefs had brought on the ire of Savoy authorities in Italy who sentenced him to death in absentia in 1833. The failures and the death of many of his friends profoundly affected Mazzini, still intent on his ideas of unifying Italy as an independent republic based on democracy, class collaboration and Christian liberalism. Despite the odds stacked against him, the persistence to see it through and succeed, any way he could, remained firm.
Mazzini’s political thought, despite some small changes here and there considering the outcome of failed uprisings and the conclusion of the Risorgimento phase itself, remained steadfast throughout his life. In 1844 (and later readjusted in 1858), just four years before Europe would be swept with ambitious uprisings and revolutions, he had written An essay on the duties of man, a long address to (as he put it) working class people, highlighting the importance of their role in society, and the importance of committing to values vital for the dignity, respect and education of all in work and in life. A massive emphasis on equality between men and women remains a cornerstone of his social thinking as he wrote in 1860. Such ideas became part and parcel of the establishment of the Roman Republic in 1849, a State established after overthrowing the Pope’s authority in the Papal States that lasted six months before being overrun by French troops sent in to re-establish Papal authority. This attempt had become one of Mazzini’s most ambitious goals in creating a stepping stone of Italian unification, as well as the most concrete formation of a country that reflected the ideologies he believed in: the banning of the death penalty, the freedom of religious faith and universal suffrage to name only a few. It was during these attempts at a revolution that Mazzini and his ideologies soon attracted the interest of another, very ambitious founding father of Italy.
Garibaldi and Mazzini
Giuseppe Garibaldi is perhaps the most renown figure among the four founding fathers. His military experience fighting in South America aided him greatly in his – and his soldiers’ – successes on the battlefield as they marched from Sicily all the way north, taking all of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the successor State to the Norman Kingdom established nearly eight hundred years before. He had been a close follower of Mazzini, sharing the same goal of achieving independence for Italy as best they could. However, as time progressed, and Garibaldi grew closer to the Savoy authorities, their alliance waned, but never to the point that they had a complete falling out that could have compromised their goals. Garibaldi had been attracted to Mazzini’s democratic and anti-authoritarian beliefs, and remained so in his struggle for Italian independence right up until the very end. And, just like Mazzini, Garibaldi also died in a voluntary exile, long after Italy had been unified.
Giuseppe Mazzini and Europe
Giuseppe Mazzini did not just stop at promulgating ideologies focused on establishing an Italian republic. One of his most well-known organisations was the Young Italy, a political movement aiming at promulgating Italian civic nationalism by way of the establishment of a Republican form of government. However, he did not believe that such causes should be exclusive to Italy alone; in 1834, he founded Young Europe, an international political association with the goal of extending Republican ideals and unification and independence causes all over the continent. This brought together unification movements primarily from Poland and Germany, providing support, sharing of ideas and coordination in the face of the challenges these nations were currently affected by. The movement, headquartered in Bern, did not last long as the Swiss authorities promptly expelled its members and dissolved the organisation over fears of it getting out of control. This caused the opposite effect, as despite such a setback, Mazzini’s example quickly spread all over the continent, with political movements echoing its concepts springing up all the way up to the early 20th century. Although generally unrelated to each other, these include notable movements such as Young Ireland, Young Bosnia, Young Ukraine, Young Wales, Young Latvians, Young Swiss, Young Czechs and Young Finns (just to name some), all of which played important roles in the progression of their country’s aspirations for independence and reform.
Legacy
Giuseppe Mazzini died of pleurisy in Pisa, in a building now dedicated to his memory. Mazzini’s legacy has been vast, drawing admiration – and oftentimes criticism – from all over the political spectrum, and from all over the world, garnering interest by influential civil servants and independence activists such as Gandhi, Sun Yat-Sen or David Lloyd George (who had been a member of Young Wales in his youth). Attempts by the fascist regime to incorporate him into their ideological mythos were met with failure, considering the founding father’s emphasis on democratic values, equality in society and social justice. Marx labelled him a reactionary, whilst the Action Party, an anti-fascist, left-leaning partisan organisation during World War Two, took its name directly from Mazzini’s own party founded in 1853. Many members of the organisation either joined the Italian Socialist Party or the Italian Republican Party by the time the war was over.
The Italian Republican Party, founded in 1895 – and being the oldest political party in Italy – is the primary political organisation carrying on Mazzini’s thought. A small party quietly nestled in the political centre today, it had been in the forefront of advocating Italy’s Republican future, to which they contributed enormously in the 1946 institutional referendum where the monarchy was voted out. To this day, Mazzini’s legacy party continues to participate in politics regularly advocating for the advancement of pro-EU, equal rights between men and women, societal justice values, harking back to his establishment of Young Europe, as well as the writings of the philosophical founding father of Italy.
Thank you for reading my article. Let me know what you think of Mazzini and his teachings, his ideals and his legacies, and how they could still be possibly applied (or not) to today’s world.
Thank you again, and have a lovely day!
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