WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 Okay, so let's get into this. We're talking about 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:06.259 a man today who is, well, he's basically a global 00:00:06.259 --> 00:00:09.080 phenomenon from the 19th century. He really is. 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:11.919 Usually when we do these deep dives, the figure 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:14.560 is famous in, you know, one country or maybe 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.219 one field. Right, like a scientist or a politician. 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:20.570 But this guy. His name is everywhere. I mean, 00:00:20.589 --> 00:00:22.289 you walk through any Italian town, you're going 00:00:22.289 --> 00:00:25.149 to find a Via Garibaldi or a Piazza Garibaldi. 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:27.269 Absolutely. And statues of him are in squares 00:00:27.269 --> 00:00:29.870 from New York City to Buenos Aires. Yeah. It's 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:31.969 incredible. And for our listeners in the UK, 00:00:32.109 --> 00:00:34.070 yes, there is that popular biscuit named after 00:00:34.070 --> 00:00:36.570 him, which is, you know, a very specific kind 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:38.789 of fame. And let's not forget the Garibaldi fish, 00:00:38.990 --> 00:00:42.640 bright orange state fish of California. Very 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:44.899 territorial, apparently. A biscuit and a fish. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:47.979 We are, of course, talking about Giuseppe Garibaldi. 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.460 And the mission for this deep dive is, I think, 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:52.899 pretty clear. We've got this pile of sources, 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:55.880 biographies, letters, historical accounts. And 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:57.939 we really want to figure out how one man manages 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:01.659 to be a sailor, a candle maker on Staten Island. 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:04.200 Yeah, that part is wild. A guerrilla fighter 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.319 in Brazil. And then, almost like a side project, 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:10.599 unifies the entire nation of Italy with a volunteer 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.879 army. It is a staggering resume. I think the 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:17.000 real mystery we need to unpack is the gap between 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.340 the legend and the man. You know, you see a big 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.980 marble statue of a general on a horse and you 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:23.819 just assume he was part of the establishment. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.019 You assume he was an aristocrat, went to all 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:28.819 the right military schools. Exactly. A rigid. 00:01:29.209 --> 00:01:33.069 formal military guy. But Garibaldi was the complete 00:01:33.069 --> 00:01:35.709 opposite of that. He was a revolutionary, an 00:01:35.709 --> 00:01:37.829 outsider, a pirate in the eyes of some governments. 00:01:38.030 --> 00:01:41.590 He was, in a way, a global citizen before that 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:43.569 was even really a concept. He's often called 00:01:43.569 --> 00:01:46.129 the hero of the two worlds. That's the one. And 00:01:46.129 --> 00:01:48.989 it's not just some clever marketing slogan. It's 00:01:48.989 --> 00:01:51.090 literally true. He was a major figure in both 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.750 South America and Europe and the people who admired 00:01:53.750 --> 00:01:55.769 him. I mean, you have Abraham Lincoln on one 00:01:55.769 --> 00:01:58.590 side and Che Guevara on the other. Wow. That 00:01:58.590 --> 00:02:01.010 is a very, very wide spectrum of admiration. 00:02:01.450 --> 00:02:03.250 It's almost impossible to think of anyone else 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:05.390 who bridges that kind of gap. So let's go all 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:07.030 the way back. Where does a character like this 00:02:07.030 --> 00:02:09.669 even come from? Because like you said, he just 00:02:09.669 --> 00:02:12.129 doesn't fit the mold of a 19th century European 00:02:12.129 --> 00:02:15.830 leader. He really doesn't. He was born in 1807 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:18.870 in Nice. And right there, from the very start, 00:02:19.009 --> 00:02:20.810 you have this identity question that I think 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:23.169 explains a lot about him. How so? Well, when 00:02:23.169 --> 00:02:26.610 he was born, Nice was under French control. Napoleon 00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:29.520 was running Europe. But the people there, their 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:33.120 culture, their language, it was Italian, specifically 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:36.360 Ligurian from that coastal region. So he's born 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:38.860 on this cultural fault line between France and 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:41.259 Italy. Precisely. And he wasn't born into money 00:02:41.259 --> 00:02:43.879 or power. His family was in the coastal trade. 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.960 His father was a merchant sailor. So the sea 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.560 was in his blood from day one. He didn't go to 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.199 a fancy military academy. His school was the 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.620 Mediterranean Sea. So his early 20s are spent 00:02:54.620 --> 00:02:58.099 on... Yeah, sailing to places like Istanbul, 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:01.060 to Tunis, to Taganrog in Russia on the Sea of 00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:03.659 Azov. He's a working class sea captain. It sounds 00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:05.659 romantic, but I'm guessing the reality was pretty 00:03:05.659 --> 00:03:08.439 gritty. Extremely. But it gave him a worldview 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:10.960 that was much bigger than just his small corner 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.599 of Europe. And the really pivotal moment happens 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:17.439 in 1833. He's in Taganrog, of all places, and 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:20.780 he meets this political exile who introduces 00:03:20.780 --> 00:03:24.280 him to the ideas of Giuseppe Mazzini. And Mazzini 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:26.219 is the guy you can't avoid in this story. He's 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:28.560 sort of the intellectual engine of Italian unification. 00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:31.259 He's the soul of it. Mazzini was the prophet, 00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:34.300 the dreamer. He founded this secret society called 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:37.879 Young Italy. And his vision was for a unified 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:41.879 Republican Italy. No kings, no popes, no Austrian 00:03:41.879 --> 00:03:44.780 emperors running the north. Just a single nation 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:46.560 of the people. And this must have been electrifying 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.120 for a young guy like Garibaldi who was looking 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:50.900 for a purpose. It was exactly what he was looking 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:53.219 for. A cause bigger than hauling cargo. He meets 00:03:53.219 --> 00:03:55.020 Mazzini in person in Marseille. He takes the 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:57.460 oath, joins young Italy, and he just jumps in 00:03:57.460 --> 00:03:59.930 with both feet. And by jumps in, we mean he immediately 00:03:59.930 --> 00:04:02.189 gets involved in what the authorities would call 00:04:02.189 --> 00:04:05.830 treason. I treason, yeah. A year later, in 1834, 00:04:06.189 --> 00:04:09.590 he takes part in a Mazinian plot to start a mutiny 00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:11.469 in the navy of Piedmont, Sardinia. And how did 00:04:11.469 --> 00:04:14.129 that go? It was a complete disaster. The plot 00:04:14.129 --> 00:04:16.310 was discovered before it even really got started. 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:19.689 Garibaldi had to flee for his life. He disguised 00:04:19.689 --> 00:04:21.829 himself as a peasant, snuck out of the city, 00:04:21.930 --> 00:04:24.790 and a court in Genoa sentenced him to death in 00:04:24.790 --> 00:04:28.060 absentia. So he's 27 years old and he's a fugitive 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:31.339 with a death sentence. It's a tough start to 00:04:31.339 --> 00:04:34.180 a revolutionary career. It is. It means you can't 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:37.699 go home. You are an outlaw. So he does what a 00:04:37.699 --> 00:04:40.959 lot of desperate, idealistic Europeans with death 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:43.920 sentences did back then. He gets on a ship and 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.279 sails for South America. And this starts what 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:48.639 the outline calls his training round. It's his 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:51.819 14 -year exile. And I really want to stress this. 00:04:51.899 --> 00:04:54.079 This wasn't him just... you know, lying low and 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.120 waiting for things to blow over. This was his 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:58.720 boot camp. This is where Giuseppe Garibaldi, 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.139 the sailor, becomes Garibaldi, the general. He 00:05:01.139 --> 00:05:03.319 gets there and almost immediately finds a war 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:05.579 to join. Of course he does. He ends up in Brazil 00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:08.120 and he gets involved in the Ragamuffin War. The 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:09.779 Ragamuffin War. That sounds like something from 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:12.459 a children's book. The name is deceptive. It 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:16.199 was a vicious 10 -year separatist war. The province 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:19.050 of Rio Grande do Sul. was trying to break away 00:05:19.050 --> 00:05:21.230 from the Brazilian empire and form its own republic. 00:05:21.689 --> 00:05:24.129 The rebels were called ragamuffins, basically 00:05:24.129 --> 00:05:26.370 because they were poor ranchers and cowboys. 00:05:26.509 --> 00:05:28.810 And Garibaldi joins them. Why? What's in it for 00:05:28.810 --> 00:05:31.750 him? Because they were Republicans. They were 00:05:31.750 --> 00:05:34.149 fighting an empire. For him, it was the same 00:05:34.149 --> 00:05:36.370 fight as in Italy, just on a different continent. 00:05:36.889 --> 00:05:39.149 And this is where he learns the very specific 00:05:39.149 --> 00:05:41.550 style of fighting that will make him a legend. 00:05:42.110 --> 00:05:44.790 Which is what exactly? Because he's not commanding 00:05:44.790 --> 00:05:47.509 a traditional army with lines of infantry. It's 00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:49.550 asymmetrical warfare. It's guerrilla tactics. 00:05:49.750 --> 00:05:51.810 He's leading small bands of men on horseback 00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:54.930 across the Pampas, the huge plains. He learns 00:05:54.930 --> 00:05:57.149 how to fight when you're outnumbered and outgunned. 00:05:57.290 --> 00:05:59.790 He learns how to use the terrain for ambushes, 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:02.149 how to move fast, how to strike, and then just 00:06:02.149 --> 00:06:04.829 vanish. It's a completely different skill set 00:06:04.829 --> 00:06:06.990 from European warfare at the time. A whole different 00:06:06.990 --> 00:06:09.209 ballgame. Yeah. And maybe the most important 00:06:09.209 --> 00:06:12.240 thing he learns is how to lead volunteers. These 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.480 men aren't paid soldiers. They aren't conscripts. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:16.819 They follow him out of sheer loyalty. Because 00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:19.399 he's charismatic. Partly, but it's more than 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:22.259 that. It's because he suffers with them. If they're 00:06:22.259 --> 00:06:24.660 sleeping on the wet ground, so is he. If they're 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:27.000 hungry, he's hungry. He leads from the front, 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:30.259 always. That creates a bond that no amount of 00:06:30.259 --> 00:06:32.220 money can buy. Now, during this time in Brazil, 00:06:32.379 --> 00:06:35.399 he meets someone who becomes central to his entire 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.759 life story. We have to talk about Amida. We absolutely 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:42.589 do. Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro. Anita. In so 00:06:42.589 --> 00:06:44.769 many historical biographies, the wife is just 00:06:44.769 --> 00:06:47.410 sort of a background character. Anita Garibaldi 00:06:47.410 --> 00:06:49.290 was a co -star. Okay, tell us about her. How 00:06:49.290 --> 00:06:52.069 did they meet? He first saw her from his ship 00:06:52.069 --> 00:06:55.259 in the Port of Laguna in 1839. According to his 00:06:55.259 --> 00:06:57.439 memoirs, it was just, you know, love at first 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.480 sight. He saw her through his telescope and just 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.540 knew. She was a local woman, fierce, independent. 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:06.060 She was actually unhappily married to someone 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:07.920 else at the time, but she just left everything 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:10.360 to be with him and joined the cause. When I say 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:12.420 join, I mean it. She didn't just stay behind 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:14.040 and wait for him. The notes say she actually 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.819 fought. She fought. She was on his ship, the 00:07:16.819 --> 00:07:19.740 Rio Pardo, during battles. She would carry ammunition 00:07:19.740 --> 00:07:22.449 to the cannons while under fire. She was captured 00:07:22.449 --> 00:07:24.829 once and escaped by stealing a horse and riding 00:07:24.829 --> 00:07:26.769 through the wilderness for days to find him. 00:07:27.370 --> 00:07:30.050 That's the stuff of movies. It really is. She 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:32.089 was an incredible horsewoman, and she actually 00:07:32.089 --> 00:07:34.610 taught Garibaldi about the culture of the gauchos, 00:07:34.610 --> 00:07:37.209 the South American cowboys. Wait a minute. So 00:07:37.209 --> 00:07:39.930 the iconic image we have of Garibaldi, the poncho, 00:07:40.029 --> 00:07:41.889 the loose -fitting shirt, the neckerchief, that 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:44.230 whole look? That's the gaucho look. That's pure 00:07:44.230 --> 00:07:47.850 South America. Anita introduced him to that world, 00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:50.829 to that way of life. He adopted that style of 00:07:50.829 --> 00:07:53.730 dress and kept it for the rest of his life. That's 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:55.949 fascinating. So he's consciously creating an 00:07:55.949 --> 00:07:59.629 image. Yes. It was his brand. It's a visual signal 00:07:59.629 --> 00:08:01.889 to everyone that said, I am not one of those 00:08:01.889 --> 00:08:04.769 stiff European generals in a tight uniform. I 00:08:04.769 --> 00:08:07.269 am a man of the people, a man of action. So the 00:08:07.269 --> 00:08:09.589 rebellion in Brazil eventually fails and they 00:08:09.589 --> 00:08:12.790 have to move on. Right. They move to Uruguay, 00:08:12.790 --> 00:08:14.829 to Montevideo. They finally get married there 00:08:14.829 --> 00:08:20.370 in 1842. But of course. Peace doesn't last. Uruguay 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:23.329 was in the middle of a brutal civil war, fighting 00:08:23.329 --> 00:08:25.870 against an Argentine dictator, Rosas, who was 00:08:25.870 --> 00:08:27.850 trying to take over. And Garibaldi gets a new 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.990 job. He takes command of the tiny Uruguayan fleet. 00:08:31.189 --> 00:08:34.250 And more importantly, he raises a new volunteer 00:08:34.250 --> 00:08:37.610 force made up of Italian exiles living in Montevideo. 00:08:37.730 --> 00:08:40.649 He calls it the Italian Legion. And this is the 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:43.350 origin story of the famous red shirts. I love 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:45.470 this detail because I always assumed it was something 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:48.110 deeply symbolic, red for the blood of martyrs, 00:08:48.110 --> 00:08:50.029 that sort of thing. The reality is so much better. 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:51.750 It's just a story of supply chain logistics. 00:08:53.289 --> 00:08:55.710 Garibaldi needed to find uniforms for his legion, 00:08:55.710 --> 00:08:58.139 but he had no money. They were broke. So what 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:00.100 did they do? They found a textile factory in 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:02.399 Montevideo that had a massive unsold shipment 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.019 of red wool smocks. And who were these smocks 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:07.159 originally for? They were intended for the slaughterhouse 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:09.820 workers in Argentina. You're kidding. Nope. They 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:12.480 were dyed bright red to hide the bloodstains 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:14.539 from butchering cattle. That is unbelievably 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:18.620 grim and amazing. It is. But Garibaldi took them 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:20.200 because they were available and they were cheap. 00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:23.899 And then, as so often happens with him, the practical 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:27.299 choice becomes this iconic symbol. Those slaughterhouse 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:30.340 shirts became the uniform of liberty. And they 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:32.299 were highly visible on the battlefield. Which 00:09:32.299 --> 00:09:34.340 was part of their power. It was a bold statement. 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:37.639 It said, we are here. We are not hiding. Come 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:39.899 and get us. The Legion also had a flag, right? 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.419 A black flag. Yes, a black flag with a volcano 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:45.360 in the center. The symbolism there was that Italy 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:48.600 was in mourning. under oppression, but with this 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:52.460 dormant power, this volcano ready to erupt. So 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:54.580 his legend is growing in South America. There's 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:56.600 a great anecdote in the notes about an enemy 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:59.460 admiral, an Irishman named William Brown. Yes, 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:01.639 Admiral William Brown, who was commanding the 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:03.720 Argentine fleet. He was Garibaldi's opponent. 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:07.059 In one naval engagement, he had Garibaldi's ship 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:09.639 totally outgunned and cornered. So he could have 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.500 just destroyed him. Easily. But Garibaldi fought 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:15.600 with such insane bravery and skill that Brown, 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.179 instead of finishing him off, intentionally let 00:10:18.179 --> 00:10:20.559 him slip away. Why on earth would he do that? 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.980 Professional respect. Brown reportedly told his 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:27.580 officers, let him escape. That gringo is a brave 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:29.840 man. When the enemy commander starts rooting 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:31.919 for you, you know you're doing something right. 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.039 OK, so by 1848, he's a living legend in South 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:38.159 America. But back in Europe, the political situation 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:41.279 is exploding. The whole continent is on fire. 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:45.399 Yeah. 1848 is the year of revolutions. There 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:49.019 are uprisings in France, Austria, Germany, Hungary 00:10:49.019 --> 00:10:52.179 and all across Italy. It's the moment everyone 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:54.259 has been waiting for. And Garibaldi hears the 00:10:54.259 --> 00:10:56.259 news. He hears the news and he knows it's time 00:10:56.259 --> 00:10:58.980 to go home. He gathers about 60 veterans from 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:01.120 his Italian legion, packs up the red shirts, 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:03.840 puts Anita and their children on a boat, and 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.559 sails back to Nice. This brings us to part two, 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.779 the return and the romantic defeat. So he arrives 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:12.039 back in Italy. You would think the leaders of 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:13.639 the Italian independence movement would just 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:15.700 roll out the red carpet. You'd think they'd be 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:18.559 thrilled. Here he is, our experienced guerrilla 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:21.039 general. Please take command. But that's not 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:23.360 what happened. Not at all. Politics is never 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.960 that simple. The main force fighting the Austrians 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:28.399 in the north is the kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia, 00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:30.879 led by King Charles Albert. And the king does 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.600 not trust Garibaldi. He's terrified of him. Garibaldi's 00:11:34.600 --> 00:11:37.019 a radical. He's a known Republican. He's a friend 00:11:37.019 --> 00:11:39.799 of Mazzini. The king isn't fighting for a democracy. 00:11:40.059 --> 00:11:43.259 He's fighting to expand his own kingdom. So Garibaldi, 00:11:43.299 --> 00:11:46.659 to him, is a dangerous loose cannon. So when 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.519 Garibaldi offers his services... The king treats 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:52.299 him with what's described as coolness and distrust. 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:54.679 He basically gives him a minor insignificant 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:56.980 command to keep him out of the way. Which for 00:11:56.980 --> 00:11:59.340 a man like Garibaldi must have been infuriating. 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:01.980 Deeply. So he just ignores the king and goes 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:03.700 off to fight for the provisional government in 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:07.080 Milan. But the real, the main event of this period 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:10.379 happens the next year in 1849 in the city of 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:12.320 Rome. The Roman Republic. This is one of the 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.340 great tragic episodes of Italian history. It's 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:17.519 the defining moment of this whole revolutionary 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:21.360 wave. The Pope, Pius IX, is forced to flee Rome. 00:12:21.690 --> 00:12:24.409 In his absence, a radical republic is declared. 00:12:25.029 --> 00:12:27.110 Mazzini arrives and becomes one of its leaders. 00:12:27.389 --> 00:12:29.990 And Garibaldi is asked to organize the city's 00:12:29.990 --> 00:12:31.710 defense. But who are they defending against? 00:12:31.929 --> 00:12:34.269 Not the Austrians this time. No, against the 00:12:34.269 --> 00:12:37.230 French, which is deeply ironic. France was a 00:12:37.230 --> 00:12:39.909 republic then too, right? It was. But its new 00:12:39.909 --> 00:12:42.210 president, Louis Napoleon, the future emperor 00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:44.850 Napoleon III, needed to win the support of French 00:12:44.850 --> 00:12:48.750 Catholics. So, as a cynical political move, he 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:51.590 sends a massive French army to crush the Roman 00:12:51.590 --> 00:12:54.029 Republic and restore the Pope to power. So it's 00:12:54.029 --> 00:12:56.009 one republic sending an army to destroy another. 00:12:56.309 --> 00:12:58.409 Exactly. And it sets up this epic showdown. You 00:12:58.409 --> 00:13:00.870 have a professional, well -equipped French army 00:13:00.870 --> 00:13:03.509 against Garibaldi's force, which is this motley 00:13:03.509 --> 00:13:06.049 collection of volunteers, students, artists, 00:13:06.309 --> 00:13:09.730 and veterans. But on April 30th, 1849, the impossible 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:12.950 happens. A miracle. The French army attacks the 00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:15.409 walls of Rome at the Port of San Pancrazio, expecting 00:13:15.409 --> 00:13:18.279 to just walk right in. And Garibaldi... using 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:21.200 his guerrilla instincts, launches a surprise 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:24.820 bayonet charge. He uses the terrain, flanks them, 00:13:24.980 --> 00:13:28.340 and completely routes them. He drives a superior 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:31.799 French army back in humiliation. It was a stunning 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:34.279 victory. But the French are a major power. They're 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:36.500 not just going to pack up and go home. No, they 00:13:36.500 --> 00:13:38.779 just send more troops, tens of thousands more. 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:42.039 They lay siege to the city. And for a month, 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:44.840 Garibaldi and his men hold them off in some of 00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:47.399 the most brutal fighting in the century. It was 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:49.820 hand -to -hand combat in the villas and gardens 00:13:49.820 --> 00:13:52.820 on the edge of the city. But they were just outnumbered 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:55.379 and outgunned. Overwhelmingly. By the end of 00:13:55.379 --> 00:13:57.960 June, the French have breached the walls. The 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.240 city is about to fall. And this leads to this 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.039 incredible scene in the Roman assembly. The politicians 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:05.539 are all debating whether to surrender or fight 00:14:05.539 --> 00:14:07.580 to the death in the streets. And in the middle 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:10.179 of this debate, the doors swing open and Garibaldi 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:12.759 walks in. Imagine the scene. He's covered in 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:14.899 blood and dust and sweat. His sword is bent. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.809 His poncho is torn. He walks into the middle 00:14:17.809 --> 00:14:19.730 of the chamber and he tells him there is a third 00:14:19.730 --> 00:14:23.029 option. We do not surrender. We leave. And he 00:14:23.029 --> 00:14:25.090 delivers this absolutely iconic line. He says, 00:14:25.190 --> 00:14:31.870 wherever we will go, that will be Rome. Wow. 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:34.590 He's saying that Rome isn't a place, it's an 00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:36.970 idea. It's the people who carry the flame of 00:14:36.970 --> 00:14:39.370 the republic. Exactly. It's one of the most powerful 00:14:39.370 --> 00:14:42.350 ideas in the history of nationalism. Yeah. But 00:14:42.350 --> 00:14:44.730 the reality of that retreat was an absolute nightmare. 00:14:44.889 --> 00:14:48.220 This is... The epic retreat. He leaves the city 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:50.620 with about 4 ,000 volunteers, heading north, 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:53.659 hoping to spark a rebellion elsewhere. But they 00:14:53.659 --> 00:14:56.320 are being hunted, not by one army, but by four. 00:14:56.919 --> 00:14:59.519 The French, the Austrians, the Spanish, and the 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:01.779 Neapolitans are all closing in on him. It's a 00:15:01.779 --> 00:15:04.629 death march, basically. It is. They're crossing 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:06.809 the Apennine Mountains in the brutal summer heat. 00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:09.789 They have no food, no water. Men are deserting 00:15:09.789 --> 00:15:12.409 or dying every day. And this is where the personal 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:14.730 tragedy for Garibaldi becomes almost unbearable. 00:15:14.870 --> 00:15:17.210 Anita was with him. Anita was with him. She was 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:19.070 pregnant with their fifth child. She was desperately 00:15:19.070 --> 00:15:21.850 ill, probably with malaria, but she had refused 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:24.070 to leave his side. And the retreat was just too 00:15:24.070 --> 00:15:27.210 much for her. It was too much. Near the coast, 00:15:27.389 --> 00:15:30.830 around the Kamaki Lagoons, her condition worsened 00:15:30.830 --> 00:15:34.019 catastrophically. She died in his arms in a farmhouse. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.419 He couldn't even give her a proper burial. He 00:15:36.419 --> 00:15:39.179 couldn't. The Austrian patrols were minutes away. 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:42.100 He and a friend had to hastily bury her in a 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:44.840 shallow grave in the sand and just keep running 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:48.080 to save the handful of men he had left. I can't 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:50.379 even imagine. He wrote later that he felt a part 00:15:50.379 --> 00:15:52.639 of his soul died there. He eventually managed 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:55.080 to escape Italy on a fishing boat, but he was 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.580 a broken man. He'd lost Rome, he'd lost his army, 00:15:57.700 --> 00:16:00.120 now he'd lost his wife. For most people, that 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:02.990 would be the end of the story. Disappear, give 00:16:02.990 --> 00:16:05.490 up. Which is what makes what happens next so 00:16:05.490 --> 00:16:08.389 remarkable. This brings us to part three of our 00:16:08.389 --> 00:16:11.269 story, the blue -collar interlude. Because he 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:14.269 doesn't retire. He goes into exile again. But 00:16:14.269 --> 00:16:16.289 he doesn't go live in a fancy villa in London. 00:16:16.490 --> 00:16:18.909 He goes to Staten Island, New York. This is the 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:20.590 part of the story that always just blows my mind. 00:16:20.730 --> 00:16:23.269 The hero of two worlds, the defender of Rome, 00:16:23.330 --> 00:16:25.970 is living in New York City. Arrived in 1850. 00:16:26.529 --> 00:16:29.129 And he needed a job. So he moved in with an Italian 00:16:29.129 --> 00:16:32.820 inventor, Antonio Mucci. Mucci, the man who many 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:35.419 people say invented the telephone before Alexander 00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:38.059 Graham Bell. That's the one. And Mucci owned 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:40.860 a candle factory on Staten Island. And Giuseppe 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:43.379 Garibaldi went to work for him. So if you were 00:16:43.379 --> 00:16:45.519 a New Yorker in 1850 and you bought a candle, 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.059 it might have been hand -dipped by the most famous 00:16:48.059 --> 00:16:50.820 revolutionary general in the world. It's entirely 00:16:50.820 --> 00:16:54.340 possible. He lived very simply. He wore regular 00:16:54.340 --> 00:16:57.269 work clothes. He'd go fishing. He took the ferry 00:16:57.269 --> 00:16:59.669 over to Manhattan to meet with other exiles and 00:16:59.669 --> 00:17:02.649 visit Masonic lodges, but he refused all charity. 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:05.710 He insisted on earning his own keep. That humility 00:17:05.710 --> 00:17:08.549 is such a core part of his character, isn't it? 00:17:08.589 --> 00:17:10.670 It's what makes him so different. He wasn't addicted 00:17:10.670 --> 00:17:13.069 to the power or the fame. He was addicted to 00:17:13.069 --> 00:17:16.009 the cause. And when the cause was on hold, he 00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:18.690 was just Giuseppe, the candle maker. But he couldn't 00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:21.470 sit still for long. The sea was calling him back. 00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:24.990 He was too restless. In 1851, he leaves New York 00:17:24.990 --> 00:17:26.869 and decides to go back to his first profession. 00:17:27.309 --> 00:17:31.029 He travels to Central America using alias Giuseppe 00:17:31.029 --> 00:17:34.109 Payne. Joseph Bread. I know. It's so humble. 00:17:34.230 --> 00:17:36.730 It's amazing. And he gets a job as a merchant 00:17:36.730 --> 00:17:39.809 captain. He takes command of a ship called the 00:17:39.809 --> 00:17:43.890 Carmen in Peru and his cargo for this grand voyage, 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:48.410 guano, bird droppings for fertilizer. He sails 00:17:48.410 --> 00:17:50.910 a ship full of bird droppings from Peru across 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:54.200 the Pacific to China. This is a man who had commanded 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:56.779 armies. Exactly. From China, he goes to Manila. 00:17:56.839 --> 00:17:58.880 Then he sails around Australia and New Zealand. 00:17:59.019 --> 00:18:01.900 He basically circumnavigates the globe as a cargo 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:03.660 ship captain. And there's a great story about 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:06.559 a stop he made in England, in Newcastle. Yes, 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.599 on Tyneside. On a later voyage, he sails a ship 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:12.319 called the Commonwealth, carrying coal into Newcastle. 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:15.359 By this point, his fame is spread and the reception 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.180 he gets is just wild. Who comes to greet him? 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:20.460 The working men of the city. the coal miners, 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:22.579 the shipbuilders. They saw him as one of them, 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:24.700 a working class hero. They collected money among 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:26.579 themselves and presented him with this beautiful 00:18:26.579 --> 00:18:30.259 inscribed sword as a gift. But he shuns the official 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:33.680 welcome, right? Completely. The local dignitaries, 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:36.220 the mayor, the wealthy merchants, they invited 00:18:36.220 --> 00:18:39.380 him to a grand banquet in his honor. And Garibaldi 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:41.680 politely declined. He said he would rather stay 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:43.500 and share a meal with the workers who had welcomed 00:18:43.500 --> 00:18:46.420 him. That's just quintessential Garibaldi, class 00:18:46.420 --> 00:18:48.980 solidarity. He knew who his people were. Always. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.240 So after years of wandering, he finally returns 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:54.339 to Italy in 1854. He's saved up a bit of money, 00:18:54.420 --> 00:18:58.079 and he buys half of a small, rocky, remote island 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:01.019 off the coast of Sardinia, the island of Caprera. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.259 And he becomes a farmer. He thinks he's finally 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:07.079 done. But history has other plans for him. The 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.079 1850s are drawing to a close, and the stage is 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.460 being set for the main event. We are approaching 00:19:12.460 --> 00:19:15.799 1860, the miracle year. But to really understand 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.140 what happens in 1860, we have to talk about a 00:19:18.140 --> 00:19:20.000 deep political betrayal that happened a year 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.920 earlier in 1859. And this involves the prime 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:24.920 minister of Piedmont, Sardinia, Count Cavour. 00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:28.079 Mila Benso, Count of Cavour, the political mastermind 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.779 of Italian unification. He's the pragmatist, 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:33.460 the schemer. While Garibaldi is the sword and 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:36.019 Mazzini is the soul, Cavour is the brain. And 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:37.799 Cavour makes a deal with the devil, so to speak. 00:19:38.019 --> 00:19:40.200 He makes a deal with Napoleon III of France. 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:43.700 Cavour needs French military help to drive the 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:46.599 Austrians out of northern Italy. In a secret 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.099 deal, he promises that in exchange for that help, 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:52.660 he will give France two territories, Savoy and 00:19:52.660 --> 00:19:56.140 Patas. Nice. Garibaldi's hometown. City where 00:19:56.140 --> 00:19:58.839 he was born. Imagine fighting your whole life 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:00.980 for the unification of your country, only to 00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:03.000 find out that the prime minister has traded your 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.859 hometown to a foreign power like a poker chip. 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:08.279 He must have been incandescent with rage. He 00:20:08.279 --> 00:20:10.660 was beyond furious. He stood up in the parliament 00:20:10.660 --> 00:20:12.900 and attacked Cavour, saying, you have made me 00:20:12.900 --> 00:20:15.759 a foreigner in my own land. It created a lifelong 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.440 grudge. But ironically, this betrayal actually 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:21.740 freed Garibaldi to act. How so? Well, Cavour 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:23.480 and the king couldn't really give him orders 00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:25.640 anymore. He wasn't technically their subject. 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.400 He was a man without a country, a free agent. 00:20:28.579 --> 00:20:30.799 And that freedom is what allowed him to launch 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:33.279 the single most daring and famous exploit of 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:35.799 his entire life, the Expedition of the Thousand. 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:37.559 This is the big one, the climax of the action 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:41.160 movie. It's May 1860. Set the scene for us. A 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:43.650 revolt has broken out in Sicily. against the 00:20:43.650 --> 00:20:46.089 Bourbon king of the two Sicilies, who rules the 00:20:46.089 --> 00:20:48.950 entire south of Italy from Naples. Garibaldi 00:20:48.950 --> 00:20:50.930 decides he has to go and help them. But Cavour 00:20:50.930 --> 00:20:53.269 is against this, right? He thinks it's too risky. 00:20:53.569 --> 00:20:56.130 Cavour is officially against it, but he kind 00:20:56.130 --> 00:20:58.470 of unofficially lets it happen. It's very complicated. 00:20:59.309 --> 00:21:01.970 Garibaldi gathers volunteers in Genoa. He gets 00:21:01.970 --> 00:21:04.019 about a thousand of them. And who are these 1 00:21:04.019 --> 00:21:06.900 ,000? Are they elite soldiers? Not at all. It's 00:21:06.900 --> 00:21:09.920 a real motley crew. They're students, doctors, 00:21:10.180 --> 00:21:13.859 lawyers, artists, a few old veterans from 1849. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.279 Most of them have never fired a gun in their 00:21:16.279 --> 00:21:18.319 lives. They're wearing their red shirts. They 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:20.579 have old rusty muskets. And they need to get 00:21:20.579 --> 00:21:23.299 to Sicily, so they need ships. So they basically 00:21:23.299 --> 00:21:26.039 hijack with a lot of winking and nodding from 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:28.319 the shipping company. Two old paddle steamers, 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:31.279 the Piemonte and the Lombardo. And in the middle 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:33.559 of the night, they sail south. The odds here 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:35.880 just seem insane. He's got a thousand amateurs. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:38.200 The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies has a professional 00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:40.779 army of over 100 ,000 men and a proper navy. 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:43.720 On paper, it is a suicide mission. It should 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:46.660 not have worked. They manage to dodge the Neapolitan 00:21:46.660 --> 00:21:49.200 navy and land at Marsala on the western coast 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:52.019 of Sicily. They march inland and meet the enemy 00:21:52.019 --> 00:21:55.200 army on a hill called Calatafimi. The Battle 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:57.700 of Calatafimi. This is the moment where everything 00:21:57.700 --> 00:21:59.779 could have gone wrong. It's the turning point 00:21:59.779 --> 00:22:03.700 of Italian history. Garibaldi has maybe 800 effective 00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:07.319 fighters left. He is facing 1 ,500 Neapolitan 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:09.640 regular troops who are dug in on the high ground. 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:12.460 They are better armed, better trained. They have 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:15.119 cannons. And what does Garibaldi do? He orders 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:17.660 an uphill bayonet charge. That's madness. Seems 00:22:17.660 --> 00:22:19.859 like it. But he knew their only chance was to 00:22:19.859 --> 00:22:22.680 close the distance. Their old muskets were useless 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:25.220 in a firefight. And he used the terrain with 00:22:25.220 --> 00:22:28.279 genius. The hill was terraced for farming with 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:30.740 these little stone walls. So his men would charge 00:22:30.740 --> 00:22:33.200 up one terrace, duck behind the wall to catch 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:35.500 their breath and reload, and then charge up to 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:37.279 the next one. There's a famous quote from this 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:41.220 battle, isn't there? Yes. At one point, the fighting 00:22:41.220 --> 00:22:44.339 is so intense, his second -in -command, Nino 00:22:44.339 --> 00:22:47.319 Bixio, says they should retreat. And Garibaldi 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:52.859 looks at him and says, Here we either make Italy 00:22:52.859 --> 00:22:55.279 or we die. And they made Italy. They took the 00:22:55.279 --> 00:22:57.799 hill. Yeah. The Neapolitan troops, who weren't 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:00.039 expecting this kind of ferocious, almost suicidal 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:03.380 attack, just panicked and broke. And once Garibaldi 00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:05.700 won that first battle, the psychological dam 00:23:05.700 --> 00:23:08.769 just burst. Sicilians started to believe that 00:23:08.769 --> 00:23:11.710 the king's army could actually be beaten. Exactly. 00:23:12.430 --> 00:23:14.690 Volunteers started flocking to join him. His 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:17.769 army swelled. He captures the capital, Palermo. 00:23:17.809 --> 00:23:20.349 After three days of street fighting, he crosses 00:23:20.349 --> 00:23:22.609 the strait to the mainland. He marches north 00:23:22.609 --> 00:23:24.710 towards Naples. And this is where the story becomes 00:23:24.710 --> 00:23:27.390 almost unbelievable. He takes the enemy capital, 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:30.519 Naples, not with an army. but by taking a train. 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:32.579 It feels like something out of a myth, but it's 00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:35.019 true. He was so confident he left his main army 00:23:35.019 --> 00:23:37.640 behind and just got on a public train into the 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.000 city with a handful of his staff officers. And 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.240 the Neapolitan army didn't stop him. The forts 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.960 were still manned. The artillery was aimed at 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:46.619 the train station. They could have obliterated 00:23:46.619 --> 00:23:49.319 him. But the soldiers and the population were 00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:52.200 so completely awestruck by his legend and his 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:55.680 audacity that no one fired a shot. He got off 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:58.369 the train. walked into the city square, and the 00:23:58.369 --> 00:24:00.789 entire city just erupted in celebration. The 00:24:00.789 --> 00:24:03.089 king of Naples had already fled. So in just a 00:24:03.089 --> 00:24:05.450 few months, he's done it. He has conquered the 00:24:05.450 --> 00:24:08.190 entire southern half of Italy. He is, for all 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:10.750 intents and purposes, the dictator of the kingdom 00:24:10.750 --> 00:24:12.950 of the two Sicilies. He is, and this creates 00:24:12.950 --> 00:24:16.130 a massive philosophical crisis. Carabaldi is 00:24:16.130 --> 00:24:18.940 a Republican. He hates monarchy. But he has just 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:20.759 conquered half a country in the name of King 00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:22.940 Victor Emmanuel II. And now he has to decide 00:24:22.940 --> 00:24:24.819 what to do next. This is the moment of truth. 00:24:25.099 --> 00:24:27.220 Mazzini is begging him, declare a republic in 00:24:27.220 --> 00:24:30.440 the south, march on Rome. But Cavour and the 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:32.400 king are marching down from the north with the 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.640 Piedmontese army because they are terrified that 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:36.380 Garibaldi is going to start a war with France 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:38.839 over Rome and bring all of Europe down on them. 00:24:39.019 --> 00:24:42.039 So Garibaldi is caught in the middle. He has 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:45.589 a choice. He can fight the Piedmontese army and 00:24:45.589 --> 00:24:47.890 start a civil war for his Republican ideals, 00:24:48.170 --> 00:24:51.049 or he can surrender his conquests to a king he 00:24:51.049 --> 00:24:53.970 doesn't like in the name of unity. And he chooses 00:24:53.970 --> 00:24:57.849 unity. On October 26, 1860, he rides out to meet 00:24:57.849 --> 00:25:00.369 the king near the town of Tiano. It's this famous 00:25:00.369 --> 00:25:02.450 scene, the handshake at Tiano. Describe it for 00:25:02.450 --> 00:25:05.269 us. It's a misty morning. Garibaldi and his red 00:25:05.269 --> 00:25:07.890 -shirted volunteers ride up to the king and his 00:25:07.890 --> 00:25:10.730 uniformed professional army. Garibaldi takes 00:25:10.730 --> 00:25:13.250 off his hat and he shouts, Saluto il primo re 00:25:13.250 --> 00:25:15.829 d 'Italia. I salute the first king of Italy. 00:25:16.009 --> 00:25:18.390 In that one moment, he gives it all away. He 00:25:18.390 --> 00:25:21.089 hands over half a country. It is one of the most 00:25:21.089 --> 00:25:23.690 remarkable acts of selflessness in modern history. 00:25:23.990 --> 00:25:25.690 Think of how many conquerors would have done 00:25:25.690 --> 00:25:28.750 that. Caesar didn't. Napoleon didn't. Garibaldi 00:25:28.750 --> 00:25:31.130 handed over absolute power. And how did the king 00:25:31.130 --> 00:25:34.369 reward him? The king was polite, but cold. He 00:25:34.369 --> 00:25:36.390 basically said, thank you very much. We'll take 00:25:36.390 --> 00:25:38.569 it from here. He sidelined Garibaldi almost immediately. 00:25:38.829 --> 00:25:40.890 He held a review of Garibaldi's volunteer army 00:25:40.890 --> 00:25:43.269 and then just disbanded most of them without 00:25:43.269 --> 00:25:45.029 incorporating them into the new Italian army. 00:25:45.230 --> 00:25:47.509 That has to have been a slap in the face. It 00:25:47.509 --> 00:25:49.930 was a deep, deep wound for Garibaldi and his 00:25:49.930 --> 00:25:52.109 men. The establishment had used them and was 00:25:52.109 --> 00:25:55.299 now discarding them. Garibaldi refused all rewards. 00:25:55.740 --> 00:25:58.420 They offered him titles, estates, a huge pension. 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:01.019 He turned it all down. So what did he take? He 00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:03.119 asked for a year's supply of macaroni and a bag 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:05.880 of seed corn for his farm. He got on a boat and 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:08.539 sailed back to his rocky island of Caprera. He 00:26:08.539 --> 00:26:11.119 went home to plant his crops after creating a 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.220 nation. It's what cements the legend of Cincinnatus, 00:26:14.380 --> 00:26:16.660 the Roman general who saved the Republic and 00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:19.220 then went back to his plow. But, and this is 00:26:19.220 --> 00:26:21.579 a recurring theme with him, he still wasn't done. 00:26:21.950 --> 00:26:24.769 Which brings us to part five, post -unification. 00:26:25.250 --> 00:26:28.069 Because Italy was unified, but the map still 00:26:28.069 --> 00:26:30.630 had a big hole in the middle. Rome. The city 00:26:30.630 --> 00:26:32.789 was still ruled by the Pope and protected by 00:26:32.789 --> 00:26:35.390 a garrison of French troops. And for Garibaldi, 00:26:35.410 --> 00:26:39.130 an Italy without Rome wasn't Italy. But before 00:26:39.130 --> 00:26:41.480 he turns his attention back to Rome... There's 00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:43.559 this fascinating detour involving the American 00:26:43.559 --> 00:26:46.579 Civil War. Right, 1861. The Civil War breaks 00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:48.859 out in the United States. The Union is desperate 00:26:48.859 --> 00:26:52.319 for experienced military commanders. And Garibaldi 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:54.599 is the most famous freedom fighter in the world. 00:26:55.400 --> 00:26:57.819 So President Lincoln, through his Secretary of 00:26:57.819 --> 00:27:00.539 State William Seward, officially offers Garibaldi 00:27:00.539 --> 00:27:03.119 a command in the Union Army, the rank of Major 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:06.160 General. An incredible offer. Why didn't he accept? 00:27:06.359 --> 00:27:09.539 He had conditions. And they were pure Garibaldi. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.019 First, he said he would only accept if he was 00:27:12.019 --> 00:27:14.299 made commander in chief of the entire Union Army. 00:27:14.440 --> 00:27:17.140 Wow. OK, that's bold opening did. I'll help you 00:27:17.140 --> 00:27:18.519 out, but I have to be in charge of everything. 00:27:18.740 --> 00:27:21.640 It's audacious. But the second condition is the 00:27:21.640 --> 00:27:23.119 really important one, the one that tells you 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:26.619 everything about his ideology. He demanded that 00:27:26.619 --> 00:27:29.400 Lincoln make the immediate and total abolition 00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:33.119 of slavery the explicit primary war aim. And 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.019 in 1861, Lincoln wasn't ready to do that. Not 00:27:36.019 --> 00:27:38.740 yet. Politically, he couldn't. At that point, 00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:40.960 the war was officially about preserving the Union, 00:27:41.140 --> 00:27:44.140 not ending slavery. So the negotiations fell 00:27:44.140 --> 00:27:46.640 through. Garibaldi declined. And he kept watching. 00:27:46.819 --> 00:27:49.240 He watched very closely. And when Lincoln did 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:51.599 issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, 00:27:52.019 --> 00:27:54.859 Garibaldi wrote him this beautiful letter praising 00:27:54.859 --> 00:27:57.400 him and calling him the heir of the cause of 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.500 Christ. He saw the fight against slavery as the 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:02.859 exact same struggle as the fight for national 00:28:02.859 --> 00:28:05.410 liberation in Italy. So back in Italy, he gets 00:28:05.410 --> 00:28:06.970 restless again. He can't let the Roman question 00:28:06.970 --> 00:28:09.769 go. He can't. He raises a new army of volunteers 00:28:09.769 --> 00:28:13.349 with the terrifyingly simple slogan, Roma o morte, 00:28:13.589 --> 00:28:16.609 Rome or death. And this leads to one of the most 00:28:16.609 --> 00:28:19.829 tragic and ironic episodes of his life, Aspermonte 00:28:19.829 --> 00:28:23.130 in 1862. He starts marching north towards Rome. 00:28:23.710 --> 00:28:25.990 But the new Italian government, the very government 00:28:25.990 --> 00:28:28.690 he created, is terrified of a war with France. 00:28:29.150 --> 00:28:31.390 So they do the unthinkable. They send the new 00:28:31.390 --> 00:28:34.109 Italian army to stop him. The king sends his 00:28:34.109 --> 00:28:35.990 army to stop the man who gave him the kingdom. 00:28:36.210 --> 00:28:38.329 It's a heartbreaking betrayal. The two armies 00:28:38.329 --> 00:28:40.170 meet in the mountains of Aspermonte in the south. 00:28:40.450 --> 00:28:42.849 The regular army opens fire on the volunteers. 00:28:43.109 --> 00:28:45.549 And what does Garibaldi do? He stands up on a 00:28:45.549 --> 00:28:47.849 rock in the line of fire and yells at his men, 00:28:47.950 --> 00:28:51.210 Don't shoot! They are our brothers! He forbids 00:28:51.210 --> 00:28:53.549 them from returning fire on other Italians. And 00:28:53.549 --> 00:28:55.710 he gets shot. He takes a bullet in the foot. 00:28:56.750 --> 00:28:59.970 Garibaldi fu ferito. Garibaldi was wounded. became 00:28:59.970 --> 00:29:02.329 a famous nursery rhyme. He's arrested by the 00:29:02.329 --> 00:29:04.029 government he founded and briefly imprisoned. 00:29:04.509 --> 00:29:07.630 It was a national humiliation, but it also proved 00:29:07.630 --> 00:29:09.829 his ultimate integrity. He would rather be shot 00:29:09.829 --> 00:29:12.109 himself than be the cause of a civil war. He 00:29:12.109 --> 00:29:14.250 eventually gets pardoned, goes back to his farm, 00:29:14.349 --> 00:29:16.869 but he tries again for Rome, doesn't he? He does 00:29:16.869 --> 00:29:19.789 in 1867, another failed attempt that stopped 00:29:19.789 --> 00:29:21.869 by Papal and French troops at the Battle of Montana. 00:29:22.490 --> 00:29:25.309 There's also his famous one -word telegram during 00:29:25.309 --> 00:29:28.799 the Third War of Independence in 1866. He was 00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:31.039 winning in the Trentino region, and the government 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:33.380 ordered him to stop his advance. He just replied 00:29:33.380 --> 00:29:37.180 with a single word, I'll be disco. I obey. Loyalty 00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:39.339 to the nation, even when he disagreed with its 00:29:39.339 --> 00:29:42.259 leaders. Exactly. Yeah. But then we get to 1870, 00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:45.200 the Franco -Prussian War. This one always confused 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.700 me. France has been the main antagonist in this 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:50.359 story for 20 years. They took Nice, they defended 00:29:50.359 --> 00:29:52.940 the Pope in Rome. So why does he suddenly go 00:29:52.940 --> 00:29:55.910 to fight for France? Because the situation changed. 00:29:56.109 --> 00:29:59.170 In 1870, Napoleon III is defeated and captured 00:29:59.170 --> 00:30:02.109 by the Prussians. His empire collapses and France 00:30:02.109 --> 00:30:04.950 declares itself a republic. The Third Republic. 00:30:05.269 --> 00:30:08.490 And for Garibaldi, principle always trumps a 00:30:08.490 --> 00:30:11.289 personal grudge. Always. He saw a new sister 00:30:11.289 --> 00:30:13.390 republic being attacked by the Prussian monarchy. 00:30:13.630 --> 00:30:16.569 So the old man, he's in his 60s now, crippled 00:30:16.569 --> 00:30:19.029 by arthritis and old wounds, he often has to 00:30:19.029 --> 00:30:20.779 be carried on a stretcher. He goes to France 00:30:20.779 --> 00:30:22.900 with his sons and volunteers. And he's still 00:30:22.900 --> 00:30:25.200 an effective commander. Incredibly. He's given 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:27.220 command of a makeshift army called the Army of 00:30:27.220 --> 00:30:29.700 the Vosges. And in a war that was a total disaster 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:31.880 for France, Garibaldi's army is one of the only 00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:33.880 French forces to win any significant tactical 00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:36.640 victories against the Prussians. Even in old 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:38.940 age, he was unstoppable. That's just an unbelievable 00:30:38.940 --> 00:30:41.660 level of consistency in his character. It is. 00:30:42.170 --> 00:30:45.009 And in his final years back on Caprera, his political 00:30:45.009 --> 00:30:48.029 views just got more radical. He openly supported 00:30:48.029 --> 00:30:50.549 the Paris Commune. He declared himself a socialist 00:30:50.549 --> 00:30:53.240 and supported the First International. And he 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:56.819 was, throughout all this, intensely anti -clerical. 00:30:57.059 --> 00:30:59.660 Fiercely. He called the papacy the most harmful 00:30:59.660 --> 00:31:02.539 of all secret societies and the pope the genius 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:04.859 of evil for Italy. He was a deeply spiritual 00:31:04.859 --> 00:31:07.039 man in his own way. He believed in a kind of 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:10.059 universal God, but he absolutely despised the 00:31:10.059 --> 00:31:12.299 institution of the Catholic Church, which he 00:31:12.299 --> 00:31:14.539 believed had kept Italy backward and divided 00:31:14.539 --> 00:31:16.819 for centuries. Which brings us to his death in 00:31:16.819 --> 00:31:20.549 1882. And even in death, there's a final sad 00:31:20.549 --> 00:31:23.710 irony. He left very clear, very specific instructions 00:31:23.710 --> 00:31:25.930 in his will. He wanted a simple cremation on 00:31:25.930 --> 00:31:28.390 his farm on Caprera, on an open -air pyre built 00:31:28.390 --> 00:31:30.769 of aromatic woods. He wanted his ashes to be 00:31:30.769 --> 00:31:33.849 scattered. A very simple, almost pagan farewell. 00:31:34.130 --> 00:31:36.930 And the Italian state had other ideas. The state 00:31:36.930 --> 00:31:39.170 said, absolutely not. This man is a national 00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:40.910 monument. We can't just burn him on a bonfire. 00:31:41.089 --> 00:31:43.289 So they ignored his will. They gave him a massive 00:31:43.289 --> 00:31:45.490 pompous state funeral. And they entombed him 00:31:45.490 --> 00:31:47.980 in a heavy granite sarcophagus on Caprera. It 00:31:47.980 --> 00:31:50.740 was the exact opposite of what he wanted. Exactly 00:31:50.740 --> 00:31:53.099 what he would have hated. He wanted to be free 00:31:53.099 --> 00:31:55.259 and return to nature, and they trapped him under 00:31:55.259 --> 00:31:57.619 tons of stone to turn him into a tourist attraction. 00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:01.599 A final, frustrating irony for a man who valued 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:05.500 simplicity so much. It really is. I suppose that's 00:32:05.500 --> 00:32:07.599 the price you pay for becoming a father of the 00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:09.720 fatherland. You don't really belong to yourself 00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:12.279 anymore. You belong to the nation and its myths. 00:32:12.900 --> 00:32:15.839 So, if we try to pull all these threads together... 00:32:16.170 --> 00:32:18.809 The great British historian A .J .P. Taylor wrote 00:32:18.809 --> 00:32:22.230 that Garibaldi was the only wholly admirable 00:32:22.230 --> 00:32:25.369 figure in modern history. That is incredibly 00:32:25.369 --> 00:32:28.089 high praise, especially from a cynical historian 00:32:28.089 --> 00:32:30.750 like Taylor. It's astounding praise. And I think 00:32:30.750 --> 00:32:33.009 it comes down to that unique combination of qualities. 00:32:33.210 --> 00:32:36.380 In battle, he was a lion. He was brave. He was 00:32:36.380 --> 00:32:38.380 tactically brilliant. He was terrifying to his 00:32:38.380 --> 00:32:41.160 enemies. But in his personal life, he was a lamb. 00:32:41.339 --> 00:32:43.339 He was humble. He was gentle. He was completely 00:32:43.339 --> 00:32:45.839 uncorrupted by money or by power. And you almost 00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:47.619 never see those two things in the same person. 00:32:47.859 --> 00:32:50.900 Almost never. The person who is brilliant at 00:32:50.900 --> 00:32:53.720 conquering things is usually also brilliant at 00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:56.839 holding on to power for themselves. Garibaldi 00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:59.799 just broke the mold. He was the essential bridge 00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:03.470 between the intellectual dreamer, Mazzini, and 00:33:03.470 --> 00:33:06.490 the cold pragmatic politician cavour without 00:33:06.490 --> 00:33:09.390 him nothing happens without garibaldi to actually 00:33:09.390 --> 00:33:12.329 get on a boat and lead a charge up a hill mavini's 00:33:12.329 --> 00:33:14.869 ideas would have just stayed as essays and pamphlets 00:33:14.869 --> 00:33:17.490 and cavour's clever diplomacy would have just 00:33:17.490 --> 00:33:20.319 been notes in a file Garibaldi made it real. 00:33:20.500 --> 00:33:23.059 Which leaves us with a really provocative final 00:33:23.059 --> 00:33:25.220 thought, I think. We live in an age where we 00:33:25.220 --> 00:33:27.539 often demand our heroes be completely pure. You 00:33:27.539 --> 00:33:29.160 know, we scrutinize their every contradiction. 00:33:29.819 --> 00:33:32.240 Garibaldi was a walking contradiction. Absolutely. 00:33:32.660 --> 00:33:35.000 The man who hated kings created a king of Italy. 00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.079 The man who late in life became a pacifist, spent 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:40.549 most of his life at war. The man who dreamed 00:33:40.549 --> 00:33:42.829 of a republic settled for creating a monarchy. 00:33:42.930 --> 00:33:44.630 So that's the question for you to think about. 00:33:44.750 --> 00:33:46.890 Was that pragmatism his greatest strength? That 00:33:46.890 --> 00:33:48.930 willingness to compromise to get the job done? 00:33:49.109 --> 00:33:51.329 Or was it a tragedy? Did he sacrifice too much 00:33:51.329 --> 00:33:53.369 of his own ideal world in order to create the 00:33:53.369 --> 00:33:55.789 real one? Because the Italy he helped create 00:33:55.789 --> 00:33:59.690 was deeply flawed. It was a monarchy. It was 00:33:59.690 --> 00:34:02.650 poor. It was unequal. It was not the utopia he 00:34:02.650 --> 00:34:04.809 and Mazzini had dreamed of, but it was united. 00:34:05.450 --> 00:34:07.670 And maybe at the end of the day, for the sailor 00:34:07.670 --> 00:34:10.010 from Nice, that was enough. It's a fascinating 00:34:10.010 --> 00:34:13.710 lesson. Sometimes maybe being a hero means compromising 00:34:13.710 --> 00:34:15.849 on almost everything except for the one single 00:34:15.849 --> 00:34:18.329 thing that matters most. Well said. We will leave 00:34:18.329 --> 00:34:20.710 you with that thought to mull over. Thanks for 00:34:20.710 --> 00:34:23.489 diving deep with us into the wild, improbable, 00:34:23.489 --> 00:34:26.590 and inspiring life of Giuseppe Garibaldi. We'll 00:34:26.590 --> 00:34:28.650 catch you on the next deep dive. See you then.