Giuseppe Garibaldi

Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807–82), Italian patriot and general. After fighting in a republican uprising in Genoa in 1834, he fled to South America, leading guerrilla revolutions in Brazil and Uruguay. In 1848 he returned to Italy to fight against Austrian, French, and Neapolitan armies in support of Mazzini's short-lived Roman Republic. On its collapse, Garibaldi fled to the United States. Returning to Italy in 1854, he led guerrilla campaigns (1859–62) against Austria and captured Sicily and Naples with a volunteer army, his famous “Red Shirts,” in the most decisive campaign of the Risorgimento. He surrendered the territories to King Victor Emmanuel, effectively unifying Italy. In 1862 and 1867 Garibaldi unsuccessfully tried to capture Rome from the pope. Subsequently he fought for the French against Prussia (1870). In 1874hewas elected to the Italian parliament.