The life of great hero G. Garibaldi - 12th Part

4) The Epic of the Red Shirts (1859-1861)

If Garibaldi is the leon, brave and combative, Cavour is the fox, wily and wait!

Cavour, President of the Council of the Kingdom of Sardiniaand Piedmont,  decides to engage his army in the Crimean War to be closer to the France of Napoleon III. Following the maintenance of   the Treaty of Franco-Sardinian,  Cavour gets an assistance agreement with France in the event of aggression Austria.
Thus Cavour develops a series of provocations, and Austria fell into the trap.

On april 26, 1859, Austria opened hostilities against the Piedmont, which triggers the execution of the terms of the Franco-Sardinian alliance. On April 27, 1859, the Austrians crossed the border near Ticino, and the same day, the French crossed the Alps.

Cavour and  Garibaldi met for the first time in 1856. In 1858-1859 Cavour  plans to use in the war actively preparing, placing Garibaldi at the head of volunteers. He recruited 3200 men who become, March 17, the body of hunters in the Alps under the authority of General Cialdini, Garibaldi was appointed major-general. He meets for the first time Victor Emmanuel II.

The relationship between Garibaldi and Cavour meet the requirements of the situation until the end of the second war of independence (1859). Garibaldi supports government action and the preparation of the conflict to expel Austria while Cavour  says the support is for the insurgency the Lombards in order  to provoke war.

 The first disagreements arise shortly after and especially when Cavour gives the birthplace of Garibaldi, Nice, to France, in 1860. And still later, before the death of Cavour, Garibaldi strongly criticized the Italian government, because Cavour wanted to disband the army who participated in Sicily to the victorieuse conquest of the Borbonic reign.

But back to 1859, ladies and gentlemen. Garibaldi,  assumes the defense of Turin from Lake Maggiore with permission to recruit new volunteers. On May 23, he began a brilliant campaign in northern Lombardy. On May 26, he rejects the Austrian general Karl von Urban at Varese and after defeating the Austrian army at the Battle of San Fermo, he served the city of Como. For his actions, he was awarded the gold medal for military valor. Journal of the debates, The Century, The Times and the New York Daily Tribune with  Marx and Engels ' relates, speak regularly of Garibaldi's enterprises.

He continues operations with12 000 volunteers until June,  when he 8 of July 1859, Napoleon III asked an armistice was signed on 20, ending the Second Italian War of Independence.

 Lombardy joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, while Venice is Austrian. Small duchies (Florence, Parma, Bologna, Modena) say their annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia, and on 10 August, a military league was formed and entrusted to Garibaldi, who accepts after resigning from the Sardinian army.

This position of organizer, which is nothing operational is not suitable Garibaldi Turin sends Manfredo Fanti to replace, he was appointed chief of all the troops and Garibaldi second. Under the authority of Franti, it is then unable to bring the action for which he covets Mazzini supports: attempt an invasion of the Marches and Umbria pontifical. A succession of contradictory decisions leads to resign, November 15, at the request of Victor Emmanuel II.

In April 1860, Garibaldi was asked to take charge of an expedition to support the revolt that began in Palermo, Sicily. After some hesitation, he decided to participate in the invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the number of volunteers reached a thousand men, who gave his name to the business legend. Garibaldi is supported with caution by the Government of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The embarkation of the troops takes place on the night of May 5 to 6 in the port of Quarto, near Genoa, and the journey begins in the disorder due to a departure without ammunition or coal. On May 11, the two vessels, Piemonte and Lombardo arrive in Sicily and landed at Marsala, enjoying the protection of two British ships in the harbor entrance. Néanmoin ships bourbons, as told in his Memoirs Garibaldi, Garibaldi draw on already landed, but without success.

Fighting turn to the advantage of Garibaldi helped by the Sicilians: they won victory  over the troops of Francis II's at  Calatafimi May 15, 1860, seized Palermo May 27 and come to the end of a cons-offensive Neapolitan near the Strait of Messina, Milazzo, July 20.

Since May, Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator (in the Roman sense of the term) in the name of Victor Emmanuel II, and in June, he formed a government. Therefore, Garibaldi continues its conquest of the continent and walking on Naples it takes 7 September 1860.

Cavour organized an expedition to prevent the consolidation of power Garibaldi, fearing that he would form a republic. The Piedmontese troops fight the papal army at Castelfidardo. Garibaldi confronts and defeats the 20,000 soldiers of the Bourbons Volturno.

The plebiscites in Sicily and Naples ratify the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Piedmont. October 26, near Teano, Garibaldi Victor Emmanuel II meets and greets him as the King of Italy.

On 9 November 1860, Garibaldi retired to Caprera after refusing all rewards, which fascinates his contemporaries almost as much as his business.

Garibaldi is the real architect of the unification of the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed March 17, 1861. Between the day when inside the Italian parliament after being elected the first Italian parliament, MPs welcomed the standing applauding. This is an opportunity for him to stand, he expressed his disagreement with the refusal of the authorities and particularly Fanti, Minister of War, to integrate southern army volunteers in the regular army.

 Cavour reacts violently demanding, in vain, to House Speaker Rattazzi to recall  Garibaldi order. The meeting was adjourned. Nino Bixio tent in the days following a reconciliation while Cialdini attack violently. Garibaldi, who returned to Caprera, gets partially successful. After a few days, many of its officers and part of the southern army are integrated.

A 'this point, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to inform you that I wrote a novel about the true story of a Sicilian Garibaldi's red shirt.  His name is  Gaspare Nicolosi, who was integrated into the regular army on which he  advanced on career until the degree of colonel!

The granddaughter of the Garibaldian's red shirt Gaspare NIcolosi, who counted me the story, is called Silvia Nicolosi.  She lives in Cagliari and was born in Pavia on 1912! The novel was published with the title "From Sicily to Piedmont with Giuseppe Garibaldi" and is going to see now, its second edition, by another publisher, changing the title to "A  Garibaldian's love," after the title of the musical I have already written with a  Calaritan musician, who will be represented very soon (if we find the financiers for the expenses)!

Cavour died June 6 without relationships with our heroes have improved.
Sad his destiny: he saw the unified Italy and after he died. That's life, as you say, my friends!

...to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi- 8th Part

Garibaldi is divided between land and sea operations, he reconstructs a flotilla to the head of which he succeeded, in April 1842, to prevent vessels from Brown to occupy the Isla de Ratas, in the Bay of Montevideo.

In April 1843, he returned to Montevideo.  Garibaldi will organize and lead a group of volunteers called the Legión Italiana (Italian Legion), which is at the service of the Government of Montevideo, the Gobierno de la Defensa (Government of Defence). They are all inexperienced men, in need  to be trained, paled in the initial fighting.  They are more experienced at the Combate of Tres Cruces (Three Crosses of battle), November 17, 1843, near Montevideo.

Much of the defenders are foreigners, mainly French (2500 men) and Italian (500 to 700 men), in 6500 only 800 are Uruguayan defenders.

The Italian legion, like Garibaldi, wear the red shirt, garment originally designed for slaughterhouse workers in Argentina. This red shirt is an essential element of Garibaldi's myth, but many of them, nevertheless, wear the gauchos' hat and the poncho of the pampas.

He links with the Masonic lodges earned him, in 1844, being admitted at "Friends of the Country", which depends on the Grand Orient of France.

To defend the interests of their nationals, the French and the English are asking Argentines to withdraw and when they refused, they block the port Buceo and seized the Argentine fleet. Brown returns to civilian life. Relations between the three nations harden, allowing Montevideo, with the support of its allies, to loosen the stranglehold of the blockade.

In April 1845, Garibaldi embarked on a new fleet of twenty ships and 900 men, the Allies landed to occupy and plunder Colonia del Sacramento with the participation of French and British fleets.

On February 8, 1846, in the territory of Salto, near the San Antonio River, a tributary of the Rio Uruguay, Garibaldi and his Italian Legion  fight against superior forces of the Confederacy, which they inflict heavy losses and are able to withdraw after losing about a third of their workforce. The implications of this are an  immense victory he obtained the status of heroes, his fame became international and the Italian press says his feat. He gives up fame and money, the land that promised Bento Gonçalvo him, to see yet is that the waiting beyond the ocean,  leaves certain and known for unknown, safety for the adventure, to ease the hardships!

In leaving America on the boat Esperance Garibaldi is seized by a spiritual fever, longing for Italy, he knows still dominated by foreigners and shared, as we have already described. It makes me rethink the immortal words that Dante  told to Ulysses in Canto 23 of the Inferno:

"0 my companions, who have arrived in the seas of the West, having braved so many dangers, and who have, like me, only a short time to survive!  Do not refuse, walking against the run of the sun, the noble satisfaction of seeing people of the deprived hemisphere; consider your human essence: you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge! "

...to be continued...

Life of Giuseppe Garibaldi - Seventh Part

Garibaldi first settles down in Rio de Janeiro, hosted by the small community of Italian exiles and emigrants. With one of these friends, Mr. Rossetti, he embraced a    commercial activity, but the two are not meant for trade and business.

 During this time he chooses to spread revolutionary sentiments among his compatriots, and remains in contact with activists in Europe, Mazzini and his correspondents Ghiglione Antonio and Luigi Canessa.

Garibaldi becomes president of the cell Giovine Italia on the South American continent. It also adheres to the Masonic Lodge Asilo de Vertud.

 It must be said that our hero is now certain a smart man but he did not love so much frames and intrigues of politics or the Masonic meetings where  discussions and  dissertations, were a wasting of time in the evanescence! Thus he adheres to the masonry, because he believes in his ideals but he was born for action that follows the thought, not thinking to the  infinity!

 After September 1835, Bento Gonçalves da Silva proclaims the Republic Riograndense (1836), Garibaldi was ready to fight for the ideals and humanitarian, on May 4, 1837, he received a letter of mark from the government of Rio Grande do Sul, rebel to the authority of the Empire of Brazil.

He defies an empire with his boat named Mazzini. On April 11, 1838, he pushes down a battalion of the Brazilian Imperial Army (Battle of Galpon Xarqueada) and takes part in the next general Davi Canabarro the capture of the port of Laguna, the provincial capital of Santa Caterina, (25 July 1839), which facilitates the creation of the Republic or Republic Catarinense Juliana.

On November 15, the imperial army reconquered the city and the Republicans reappear on the heights where the fighting takes place with varying degrees of success. Garibaldi is involved for the first time in a fight exclusively terrestrial, near Forquillas: he attacks with his sailors and forced his enemies to retreat.

During this period, its mistress Manuela Ferreira de Paula, niece of Bento Gonçalves da Silva, in which he renounces due to the difference in social status.

In 1839, while he is in Laguna, he met Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro, barely 18 years old. A romance is born between two young men while Anita is already married to Manuel de Aguiar Durante. She abandons Manual to follow Giuseppe and they married in 1842 after the death of first husband.

In 1841, not seeing a rapid conclusion to the war, and at the request of Francesco Anzani, an exiled Lombard, with whom he befriends and who wants his presence in Uruguay, Garibaldi and his family leave, with permission of Gonçalves, Rio Grande for Montevideo where many foreigners, especially French and Italian.

There, the war between the Uruguayan president Manuel Oribe, who was overthrown but is supported by the government of Buenos Aires of Juan Manuel de Rosas, and the new government headed by General Fructuoso Rivera moved to Montevideo, which has the support Brazil, French and British fleets, and Argentine "unitary" (Partido unitario, liberal-leaning). Declared in December 1838, the war called World War lasted from 1839 to 1851.

Based in Montevideo, Garibaldi teaches mathematics.

The fleet of the Argentine Confederation operates under the command of Admiral William Brown from England, while that Montevideo is under the command of Commodore John Coe of American origin.

The government of Montevideo appealed to Garibaldi.

In Rio de la Plata, the Argentine navy is trying to block the port of Montevideo. On August 16, 1842 a naval battle takes place on the Paraná River near the town of Costa Brava. The vessels commanded by Garibaldi fought by the forces of Brown which means in ships and men are superior. After suffering heavy losses, Garibaldi fire his ships to prevent them falling into the hands of Brown, he managed to take shelter with the surviving crew.

The same year, Garibaldi married Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro, whom he met in 1839 and whom he had four children: Domenico Menotti, Rosita, who died in infancy.

...to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi- Sixth Part

2) The first exile after the sentence to death (1835-1848);

Before continuing with our history,  ladies gentlemen, we must briefly describe the situation of Brazil and  South America when Garibaldi arrives in Rio de Janeiro. He reigns in 1835 in Brazil e throughout South America a great tension because of the wars of independences and intestine.

After the Napoleonic conquest of Spain, the South American colonies engage in a process of independence that ends with the defeat of Spain. Vice-royalties are divided into a series of independent republics including cisplatin's  Province, the Argentine Confederation, Paraguay.
Regarding Brazil, after the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon, the royal family (who descended from a collateral branch of the Capetins, so this is a millennial dynasty begun by Charlemagne) went into exile in Rio de Janeiro and the colony is elevated to a kingdom. John  The VIth returned to Lisbon because of the liberal revolution of 1820 while his son Pierre became regent of Brazil. In 1822 he became emperor of Brazil under the name of Peter the First. In 1831, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Peter the  IInd, to travel to Portugal to restore his daughter to Lisbon usurped by the younger brother of the Emperor Michael I.

Peter II, however, is still a minor (age of majority is set for December 2, 1843).

 Although the Liberals, were able  to make passing a law lowering the age of the majority of Peter II from eighteen to fourteen) a regency was set up but his authority shows its limits. Brazil wins aal three international conflicts (the Plate war, Uruguayan War and the war against Paraguay).

 Believing that granting greater autonomy to provincial and local governments should calm the growing dissent, the General Assembly adopted in 1834 a constitutional amendment called Ato Adicional (Additional Act) which increases their powers. Instead of ending the chaos, this amendment only adds the ambitions and local rivalries. Violence erupts across the country. Political parties of all stripes seek by all means to direct the provincial and municipal governments, and each party took power in a province is also trying to take control of the entire electoral and political system. Parties who lost the election  raise and try to take power by force, causing several revolts, like the war of Farrapos, Cabanagem and Balaiada.

This is the situation that finds our hero in 1835 when he arrives in Rio de Janeiro.

The European dimension that Garibaldi had reached in his lifetime is also expressed in a total and sincere Masonic commitment. Giuseppe Garibaldi, Grand Master of virtually all Italian, persuasions entered the service of Freemasonry and became the figurehead of the secular and anticlerical Italy. In this he was truly the first Mason in Italy, and beyond, a strong supporter of European and universal Masonic ideals.

That's why he is naturally a fight for people who fight for their leisure. We can say that Garibaldi is a son of his time: the ideals of Enlightenment, the Napoleonic revolutional breath, the secrets of Masonry, the desires of freedom and  independency of all peoples in the world, anti-clericalism, applications, liberal instances is all that is meant and he is a close fight for all those who seek and fight for liberty!

...to be continued...