Garibaldi, Giuseppe

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Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807–82) Italian patriot and guerrilla leader who helped to bring about Italian unification. Influenced by Mazzini, he participated in a republican rising in 1834, subsequently fleeing to South America. Garibaldi returned to fight against the Austrians in the Revolutions of 1848, and in the unsuccessful defence of Rome against the French. In 1860, he led his 1000-strong band of ‘Red Shirts’ against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a dramatic episode in the Risorgimento. He handed his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel II in order to be incorporated into the new kingdom of Italy.

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