How Garibaldi's taste of region forged lasting link

TALY achieved nationhood later than other European powers, and the general and patriot who popularly led the successful campaign was Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82).

- Stephen Guy

Following the Napoleonic Wars, which had unified much of Europe under the French dictator, Italy was once again broken up into small states.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire again dominated the whole of Italy much as it had at the end of the 18th century.

The Austrian imperial house ruled areas such as Lombardy, Venetia, Tuscany, Parma and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Garibaldi and his patriot associates were determined to give Italy self-rule. This was completed, after a decade-long struggle, by 1870. Much of the action involved street fighting with patriots manning the barricades.