Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82), Italian patriot and guerrilla leader. Accused of treason for his political activities in 1934, he was forced to flee from Italy to avoid the death penalty and went to South America. There he eloped with a beautiful Creole girl, Anita Riviera de Silva, and fought in the wars of national liberation. On his return to Italy he became a leading figure in the Risorgimento, a movement that aimed to unite the country, and fought against both Austria and France (1848-49; 1859). With his ‘1000 Volunteers’, nicknamed the ‘Redshirts’, he conquered Sicily and Naples, an important step towards the unification of Italy (1860). He also made two attempts to free Rome from papal rule (1862; 1867) but was unsuccessful on both occasions.
