The "Fab Four" of Italian unification

Mar 14, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Rome - Italy this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of its unification, a process known as the Risorgimento. Here are four of its greatest protagonists:

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)

Garibaldi, the Risorgimento's most enduringly popular figure, was also its foremost military leader, one who did not shy away from the firing line when leading his red-shirted volunteers into battle.

Dubbed 'Hero of The Two Worlds,' for his exploits in struggles for freedom in Latin America - from where he gained his penchant for wearing ponchos - and Europe.

His military feats included 1849 rout of a superior French army sent to restore the Pope in Rome from where the pontiff had been forced to flee by Italian revolutionaries led by Giuseppe Mazzini.

But Garibaldi's most famous venture, and one of the most decisive of the Risorgimento, was in 1860 when with a group of volunteers 'The Thousand,' he invaded Sicily and then Naples paving the way for the incorporation of southern Italy into the future unitary state.

Garibaldi's ultimate ambition to conquer Rome remained frustrated and he retired to the island of Caprera where he led a frugal life until his death.

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)

Born in Genoa, Mazzini a republican journalist and activist, is often considered the 'soul' of the Risorgimento and the main inspirator of many of its ideals.

His association, Giovine Italia (Young Italy), founded in the 1830s, attracted adherents throughout the peninsula and among Italian political exiles as it campaigned for an end to both Austrian hegemony in northern Italy and the temporal power of the Pope.

In 1848 a series of revolutions throughout Europe prompted him to abandon his exile in England and return to Italy where in Milan revolutionaries who had gained control of the city from the Austrians greeted him enthusiastically.

But amid the bickering between the leaders of the uprising, the Austrians regrouped and re-established control over the city and the rest of Lombardy.

Mazzini then accepted an invitation to join the leaders of a revolt in Rome which had forced Pope Pius IX to flee the city. But the Roman Republic, as the entity was named, thrived only briefly before an occupying French army restored the Pope in his seat.

From then on the Risorgimento became driven by monarchist forces under King Victor Emmanuel and his Prime Minister Cammilo Benso Di Cavour and Mazzini played no further active role in the process.

While still a respected figure, Mazzini was disillusioned by the course of events and never accepted monarchical united Italy, refusing to the offer of a seat in the country's new parliament.

Camillo Benso di Cavour (1810-1861)

If Mazzini was the 'soul' of the Risorgimento, and Garibaldi the 'sword,' then Cavour was certainly the 'brain'.

It was his diplomatic skills in forging alliances, in particular with France and Britain, that enabled his home country of Piedmont to emerge as most powerful unifying force of the new Italy.

Born in Turin to an aristocratic family Cavour in 1820 enrolled in the military academy of Turin.

Following a stint in local politics and as the editor of a newspaper Il Risorgimento that championed constitutional reform, Cavour entered the Piedmontese parliament in 1848, in time to witness his country's military defeat against Austria

Cavour warned against resuming the war without French assistance, but his words were not heeded. The reopening of hostilities with Austria in 1849, was followed by the defeat at Novara and the abdication of Piedmontese king Charles Albert in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.

Cavour became prime minister of Piedmont at the end of 1852 and actively began pursuing a policy aimed at securing powerful allies including siding Piedmont with England and France during the Crimean War.

In 1858 he struck a first deal with France's Napoleon III whereby France would help in the reshaping of the Italian peninsula - an enlarged Piedmont would be united with Tuscany, a truncated Papal State, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in an Italian Confederation.

In exchange Napoleon asked for Nice and Savoy to be ceded to France.

Cavour agreed and the so-called Second War of Italian Independence opened in April 1859, a decade after the close of the First.

In the decisive battles of Magenta, San Martino, and Solferino the French and Piedmontese armies defeated the Austrians, but Napoleon, without consulting his Piedmontese allies signed a separate armistice with the Austrian emperor, one that left Venice in Austrian hands.

Dismayed, Cavour resigned but returned to power in 1860 and signed another secret agreement with Napoleon again promising him Nice and Savoy to France, in return for French support for Piedmont's annexation of central Italy.

Cavour then approved Garibaldi's military expedition to Sicily which eventually led to the conquest of Naples which annexed to a

North under Piedmontese control became part of the new Italian state.

On March 17, Cavour had the Piedmontese parliament proclaim Victor Emanuel II, king of Italy.

Cavour also persuaded the parliament to proclaim the city of Rome the future capital of the kingdom, hoping to resolve the issue of the city's status through an agreement with the Catholic Church. However he died shortly thereafter, and never saw the Italian occupation of Rome in 1870.

Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878)

Victor Emmanuel was the first king (1861-1878) of united Italy and last king of Piedmont-Sardinia (1849-1861).

He succeeded his father Charles Albert to the throne of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1849, following the abdication of Charles Albert after two humiliating defeats by Austria.

Under Victor Emmanuel and his able Prime Minister Cavour, Piedmont forged an alliance with France that was to lead to success against Austria when hostilities began again in 1859.

Austria ceded Lombardy and when Garibaldi handed over to Victor Emmanuel the freshly conquered Sicily and Naples, the stage was set for the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on March 17, 1861 in Turin.

Victor Emmanuel took advantage of the Prussian victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War to capture Rome after the French who had acted as the pope's protectors withdrew. He entered Rome on 20 September 1870 and set up the new capital there on 2 July 1871.

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