Mazzini, Giuseppe

mat-see'nee, Giuseppe (1808-1872), an Italian patriot. He was born at Genoa and died at Pisa. He was educated at the University of Genoa and entered upon the practice of law in his native city. He was an ardent republican, and desired to see the petty states into which Italy was cut up united in an Italian republic. He became a member of the secret society known as the Carbonari. In 1830 he was arrested by the monarchical government of Piedmont as a conspirator, but was released for want of proof. He then left Italy and resided in Marseilles, Paris, and London, keeping up a correspondence with the agitators in Italy. He founded a secret political society known as Young Italy. In 1848, the year of revolutions, he returned to Italy and established a short-lived republic in the city of Rome, then a papal state. In the following year he again went into exile. He was the terror of rulers. He organized insurrections in Mantua in 1852; Milan in 1853; and in Genoa in 1857. When unification came finally in the expansion of Victor Emmanuel's kingdom of Piedmont to include all Italy, Mazzini held back. He desired a republic. He even organized a republican insurrection at Palermo in 1870; but the government, remembering his earlier service for a united Italy, treated him leniently. His name is associated in history with that of Garibaldi.

See Italy; Cavour; Emmanuel; Garibaldi