Famous Men and Great Events of the Nineteenth CenturyMorris, Charles
History
Famous Men and Great Events of the Nineteenth Century
Morris, Charles
Nineteenth century -- History
It will not suffice to give all the credit for these revolutionary
movements to Mazzini, the organizer, Garibaldi, the soldier, and the
ambitious monarchs of France and Sardinia. More important than king
and emperor was the eminent statesman, Count Cavour, prime minister
of Sardinia from 1852. It is to this able man that the honor of the
unification of Italy most fully belongs, though he did not live to see
it. He sent a Sardinian army to the assistance of France and England
in the Crimea in 1855, and by this act gave his state a standing among
the powers of Europe. He secured liberty of the press and favored
toleration in religion and freedom of trade. He rebelled against the
dominion of the papacy, and devoted his abilities to the liberation and
unity of Italy, undismayed by the angry fulminations from the Vatican.
The war of 1859 was his work, and he had the satisfaction of seeing
Sardinia increased by the addition of Lombardy, Tuscany, Parma and
Modena. A great step had been taken in the work to which he had devoted
his life.
[=Garibaldi's Invasion of Sicily=]
The next step in the great work was taken by Garibaldi, who now
struck at the powerful kingdom of Naples and Sicily in the south. It
seemed a difficult task. Francis II., the son and successor of the
infamous "King Bomba," had a well-organized army of 150,000 men. But
his father's tyranny had filled the land with secret societies, and
fortunately at this time the Swiss mercenaries were recalled home,
leaving to Francis only his unsafe native troops. This was the critical
interval which Mazzini and Garibaldi chose for their work.
[=Capture of Palermo=]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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