Free Response

Contrast Mazzini and Garibaldi's revolutionary views with those of revolutionaries in France.


The revolutions that take place in during Italian unification and during the French Revolution are vastly different. The people of each place wanted something done for their country, but the ways that they went about it differed. Mazzini and Garibaldi's methods and views of revolution were much much more controlled than those of the French revolutionaries. Mazzini and Garibaldi had more authority that the revolutionaries of France did, and which is why they were able to have organized battles and negotiations, while the French had uprisings and were unable to control their people. 


Mazzini was one of the leading figures in the beginning of the Italian unification. He organized a group called 'Young Italy.' He did this because he believed that having the people of Italy grouped together and wanting the same thing would be very powerful. His Young Italy group promoted the unification of Italy to foreign powers that controlled Italian states and planned some revolts. Mazzini thought that if the unification of Italy was a popular idea among the people, they could make it happen. 


Garibaldi followed Mazzini as an authoritative figure in the Italian unification. He had similar views as Mazzini. After being summoned from his exile by Cavour, he jumped right in to action. He led his armies to defeat the French and other foreign powers that were dominating the Italian states. He defeated Austria and regained more of the Italian land. Throughout the battles and the revolutions, the Italian people became one, because they all wanted the same thing; an Italy that they could call their own. 


French Revolutionaries were not quite as organized as Mazzini and Garibaldi. While the French people all had the similar desire to break their country out of an absolutist rule, they were not quite as unified as the Italian people. Riots broke out in the streets, people spoke their own minds and did what they thought right with no authoritative figures like Garibaldi and Mazzini to lead them. The wealthier men who were members of the Estates General or who were a part of the Tennis Court Oath did not lead their people as armies to defeat the absolutist king. These wealthier men revolted in their own way, and the common people revolted in their own way. 


In the end, both goals of the French Revolution and the Italian Unification were accomplished. However, the French Revolution resulted in much more confusion, chaos, and bloodshed that did the Italian Unification because while the people wanted to become a whole, they did not work together.