Giuseppe Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805 - 1872) was an Italian writer and politician, a native of Genoa.

He became a member of the Carbonari in 1830, a secret association with political purposes.

His activity in revolutionary movements caused him soon after to be proscribed, and in 1831 he sought Marseilles, where he organized a new political society called Giovane Italia Young Italy, whose watchword was God and the People and whose basic principle was the union of the several states and kingdoms of the peninsula into one nation, as the only true foundation of Italian liberty.

This purpose he avowed in his writings and pursued through exile and adversity with inflexible constancy, and it is largely due to the work of this earnest patriot that Italy today is a single nation and a unique state, instead of a medley of separate states.

He failed however in his purpose of establishing a republic, and Italy was unified under the monarchy of the king of Sardinia.

The political movement he led, was called the Republican party (still active now, even if only formally). Some authors said besides that he was too modern for his times, and that the unification of the state was already a huge achievement to consent a discussion about the form of the state, at least for the period.

He was however a senator in the kingdom of Sardinia (later, of Italy), and in several speeches he described the many diseases of the island of Sardinia, starting a political debate that contains still modern concepts of economic and social issues.

After the unification of the Italian state, his attention turned to the project of unifying Europe, and his political society became Giovane Europa (Young Europe).