Too Many Italies

Napoleon Bonaparte launched Italian nationalism when he invaded in 1796. For the next century, many famous men with different beliefs fought and argued with each other to decide what “Italy” should mean. Yet this is your story. You are a woman who lived through it.

You were born a Venetian and will die an Italian. In between, you’ll be many things.

Your parents lived in the Republic of Venice. At the time of your birth in 1805, the city had been conquered three times: first by the French under Napoleon, then by the Austrians, then by Napoleon again. Napoleon was defeated in 1815. Your parents hoped for a free Venice, but at the Congress of Vienna, the great powers gave Italy to Austria.

Before 1861, the last people to rule a unified Italy were Roman emperors. For the next 1,200 years, people were Florentines, Milanese, Genoese, Neapolitans, and Venetians. Many did not even speak Italian.

For centuries, Italy was Europe’s battlefield. France, Spain, and Austria fought over the Italian city-states. The city-states often used these wars to fight each other and build their own power. Venetians would rather pay tribute to Paris than be conquered by Naples.

Napoleon’s invasion changed everything. Now Italians had a common enemy, the French and later the Austrians. Italian nationalism was born.

A Risorgimento Life

Three famous nationalist men shaped your political life. They disagreed on politics, but united under the cause of Italian unification—Risorgimento or “revival.” These men were:

• Count Cavour: a liberal monarchist who wanted a united Italy ruled under a constitution by the king of Piedmont-Sardinia.
• Giuseppe Mazzini: a republican who wanted an Italian republic.
• Giuseppe Garibaldi: a true radical. After a failed 1834 uprising in Genoa he was sentenced to death and fled to South America where he became a famous general.

Across Italy, people of every political ideology supported nationalism.

When you were a girl, your father joined a secret society to resist Austrian control. Revolts in the south inspired uprisings in northern Italy in 1820. Your father headed to Milan and died in battle in 1821. Several years later, you met your husband and moved to Genoa. Genoa is a city in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.

During the 1830s, rebellions erupted all over Europe. Garibaldi led a failed uprising in Genoa. The Austrian army crushed the uprising, but nationalism did not die.

A Fire Across Europe

In 1848, Europe erupted in revolution. Revolutionaries took to the streets across Italy. They wanted a constitution. King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia marched to Milan and Venice. He fought against Austria in the hopes of uniting northern Italy. This convinced you to support Garibaldi.

In the autumn of 1848, you joined Garibaldi’s volunteer army. They fought a guerilla war on their way from Venice to Rome. The revolutionaries fighting with Garibaldi and Mazzini then declared a new Roman Republic.

The Roman Republic lasted a few months, but the disunity of the Italian revolutionaries caused their downfall. Florentines failed to cooperate with Romans. Republicans failed to cooperate with monarchists. In the north, the Austrians defeated Charles Albert and other rebellions. The last two cities to remain free were Venice and Rome.

The republic eventually fell, and you fled the city with a few hundred revolutionaries, including Garibaldi and his wife and comrade Anita. Two months later, Venice fell to the Austrians. In 1849, you fled from Rome to Genoa. Revolutionary leaders fled to exile abroad while you stayed in Italy.

The Kingdom of Italy

Independence on the sidelines. You were older. The disappointments of 1848 lingered. Your children were full of patriotism. When Prime Minister Cavour and King Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia decided to unify Italy in 1859, your sons marched to war.

Piedmont-Sardinia had French allies against the Austrians. In exchange for their support, the French received Nice and Savoy in northern Italy. Radical revolutionaries in 1859 made compromises that were not made in 1848. The biggest compromise was that Italy would be a kingdom, not a republic. Victor Emmanuel would be the king. Your sons served in his army.

You would later read a book. The book had an account of the battle that killed your oldest son:

“[I]t is a sheer butchery; a struggle between savage beasts, maddened with blood and fury. Even the wounded fight to the last gasp…”

from A Memory of Solferino, by Harry Dunant

You take some comfort knowing that the book helped create the International Committee of the Red Cross. They want laws to protect soldiers in war. You wish them well, but you’re not hopeful.

You reflect back on your life. In 1861, you became an Italian. Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, and Garibaldi waged another war against Austria. They united the Italian Peninsula. By 1871, Victor Emmanuel II sat on a throne in the capital of Rome as the first king of a united Italy since the Romans. The nationalist dream became reality.

However, your dreams were not quite fulfilled. You should have seen this coming. The Italian nationalists often spoke of a “Fatherland”. You bled for Italy and wanted an Italy free of kings. Now a king rules Italy and women are not allowed to vote.

A Calatafimi Obituary

On the same day Garibaldi dies in his bed, you die in yours. While many books will tell his story, only your children and grandchildren will tell yours. Even so, your story is also a “Risorgimento” story.

You never meet any of your great-grandchildren. Most of the boys die in the trenches of the First World War. The ones who survive will resent how little Italy receives after the war. They join a leader promoting fascism. Fascism is an extreme form of Italian nationalism. The leader’s name is Benito Mussolini. His ideas will help inspire some of the world’s greatest violence and its deadliest war.