Garibaldi was an Italian revolutionary leader¹, reckoned by many to be amongst the greatest men in history. He was, during his life time, a pirate, adventurer, sailor, soldier, rebel, champion of women's emancipation, socialist and criminal. He fought in France and South America, and against the Austrians in Northern Italy, playing a major part in revolutions and wars throughout this period. He is mostly remembered, though, for transforming Italy from a bunch of bickering, disorganised kingdoms into one nation. His great dream was to see a united Italy, and he followed this dream for his whole life.

Some of the defining moments of Garibaldi's life

• In 1836-1847 he fought in South America, often against overwhelming odds.
• During the period of 1836-1847 he developed his political ideas, which largely consisted of uniting Italy and killing Austrians².
• In 1848-1849 he fought armies of Naples³, Austria, France and The Pope in defense of the three month old Roman Republic, set up by his compatriot Mazzini⁴. He earned a reputation as a great leader of men during this period, despite being ulitimately unsuccesful.
• 1852-53 Sailed from Peru to the far east, then back through Australia and New Zealand
• In 1859 he again fought the Austrians, stengthening his reputation as a master tactician.
• In 1860, he began trying to make his dream of a united Italy a reality.

The Thousand

In 1860, Garibaldi decided, without even telling his closest friends, that he was going to unify Italy by force. So he banded together 1200 volunteers and landed in Sicily without weapons or ammuntion. Within 3 months he and his men had captured the whole of Sicily and by the end of the year had fought his way up the Italian mainland to Naples. This was a remarkable acheivement, considering that his private army, which swelled to 50,000, was entirely manned by volunteers, armed sometimes with only farmyard implements or with muskets that only fired one time out of four attempts.

After his astonishing victories in the South, Italy was unified with the help of the Piedmontese politician Cavour⁵. With his dream almost realised, Garibaldi took to fighting the Pope and the French. Soon Italy was completely united under Garibaldi's choice of King, Victor Emanuel, and it was free from Austrian rule.

Afterwards, Garibaldi fought the Austrians again, and took part in the 1870 Franco-Prussion war on the side of the French⁶.

Garibaldi died on June 2 1882