Mazzini, Giuseppe 1805-72
Italian patriot and political leader

Born in Genoa, he was initiated into the Carbonari as a young man. He was arrested by the Piedmontese police and exiled to France, where in 1833 he founded his own movement, Young Italy. Expelled from France, he travelled widely in Europe, calling for republican insurrection. During the Revolution of 1848 he took part first in the Lombard revolt against Austrian rule and, subsequently, in the governing triumvirate of the Roman Republic established after Pius IX fled the city. A number of abortive Mazzinian insurrections during the 1850s (notably that of Pisacane) and a growing support for the moderate views embodied by the Italian National Society largely discredited him. In the final decade of his life he continued to preach republicanism and women's emancipation and played a small part in the establishment of the First International, but never managed to reconcile his ideas to those of socialism.