Expedition of the Thousand

Expedition of the Thousand, campaign undertaken in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi that overthrew the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples) and permitted the union of southern Italy and Sicily with the north. The expedition was one of the most dramatic events of the Risorgimento (movement for Italian unification) and was the archetype modern insurrection and popular war.

By 1860 Garibaldi had established a reputation as a successful military leader. He was totally committed to the cause of Italian unification, and, although sympathetic to democratic ideas, he was willing, for the sake of the nation, to work for Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Piedmont-Sardinia. But Garibaldi became impatient with the cautious, diplomatic tactics of Piedmont’s prime minister, Count Cavour, and was ready to act on his own initiative to help unite Italy. A revolt in Sicily, beginning on April 4, 1860, caused Garibaldi to make the decision to begin with an attack on the Bourbon kingdom in the south. On the night of May 5–6, he embarked from Quarto (a suburb of Genoa) with more than 1,000 men, mostly idealistic young northerners. Narrowly missing contact with the Bourbon Navy, the expedition landed at the western Sicilian port of Marsala on May 11.

Garibaldi was faced with the problem of defeating more than 20,000 Neapolitan troops of the Bourbon king Francis II in Sicily with an untrained force armed only with rusty rifles. After proclaiming himself dictator of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, he led his men across the island toward Palermo. He defeated a Neapolitan force at Calatafimi (May 15), and many Sicilians then joined him to help overthrow their hated Neapolitan rulers. Aided also by the incompetence of the Bourbon command, Garibaldi captured Palermo (June 6) and, with the Battle of Milazzo (July 20), won control of all Sicily except Messina.

Garibaldi now hoped to take Naples and even to complete Italy’s unification by a march on papal Rome. On August 20 he crossed the strait of Messina and landed in Calabria. His advance to Naples became a triumphal march as Bourbon rule totally collapsed; he was welcomed as a hero on entering Naples on September 7. The regrouped forces of King Francis made a final effort at the Volturno River (October 1–2) and, although Garibaldi defeated them, his march to Rome was checked. But Garibaldi was also blocked by political maneuvering. Cavour decided to take the initiative, fearful that the Risorgimento was being turned into a popular movement by the radical followers of Garibaldi and that France would intervene if Rome were attacked. To insure that Piedmont kept the leadership of the unification movement, Cavour ordered Piedmontese troops to invade the papal territories of Umbria and Marche and to join Garibaldi at Naples. Realizing that completion of unification was impossible in the existing situation, Garibaldi agreed to hold a plebiscite in the south, which resulted in an overwhelming victory for annexation under Piedmont (October 21). On October 26 Garibaldi met with Victor Emmanuel and relinquished his dictatorship over the south into the king’s hands.