In Defense of the Roman Republic

Reading Garibaldi's Defense of the Roman Republic, 1848-9 by George Macaulay Trevelyan.

This is the first volume of a trilogy on Garibaldi, the hero of the modern Italian state. I knew very little about this period in European history, only remembering that Germany and Italy's unification came about quite late.

Trevelyan is writing in 1906, so there is a double layer to the history here as we are exposed to his distinctly pro-republican British values. The history is written as a swashbuckling adventure, following Garibaldi as he takes to the sea as a young man, ending up in Uruguay and Brazil fighting the Portuguese empire and defending republicanism with a band of expat legionnaires while keeping the political flame lit in his heart for the day he will fight for Italy.

That day comes in 1848 when the Pope has left Rome in the face of a republican revolution, losing his temporal power over central Italy and fleeing to King Ferdinand of Naples. Trevelyn charts the rise of Garibaldi's mythical status among the Roman people, and tries to make the Italian "emotions" ring in the cold spirits of his British readers, the "northern lords of the oceans."

The French, Austrians, Neopolitans, and Spanish (the Powers) all vie to be the first to destory the Roman Republic and restore the pope to Rome. Trevelyn argues that though the battle was lost before it began, the sacrifices made in the defense of Rome reignite the dormant spark of Roman pride and self-worth, and made Rome againt he heart of an Italian state that wouldnt rise until several decades later.