50th Death Anniversary of Garibaldi (Cinquantenario Garibaldino).
Description: Series of 10 stamps with 8 subjects. Impression 161.000
Date of issue: April 6, 1932. Valid up to January 31, 1933.
Airmail series
Giuseppe Garibaldi was born in Nice on July 4th 1807.
I 1833 he joined Mazzini's revolutionary movement, while he served in the navy of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.
In 1834 after a failed uprising in Genoa he was arrested and sentenced to death.
He managed to escape to South-America, where he lived in exile to 1848.
In 1839 he married the Anna Maria Ribeiro da Silva (Anita), a Brazilian creole, who joined the revolutionary movement.
In South-America he was active in the Brazilian revolutionary movement and during the Eruguayan war of independence he commanded an Italion legion, called "Redshirts",
which gave him invaluable training in the techniques of guerrilla warfare.
After the outbreak of the war of independence, il Risorgimento, in 1848, he returned to Italy with 60 menbers of his Italian legion.
In 1948, after fights against the Austrians at the Lake of Como, he went to Rome, where he was elected a deputy in the Roman Assembly.
In 1949 he proclaimed the "Italian Republic". In April a French army arrived to restore papal government, and
Garibaldi was the chief inspiration of a spirited defence that repulsed a French attack on the Janiculum Hill.
In May he defeated a Neapolitan army at Palestrine and at Velletri, but after the surrender of the Rome he escaped to Northern Italy, where Anita died in Comachio.
In 1854, after a short exile in North-America, he bought an estate on the island of Caprera off the Sardinian coast, which remained his home for the rest of his life.
In 1860 he joined a rebellion in Sicily with a corps of 1000 men.
After a battle at Calatafimi against the regular soldiers of the king of Naples' army and the seizure of Palermo, he proclaimed himself dictator,
He now got support from Cavour, and after the battle of Milazzo, he gained controll over Sicily.
His next target was Naples. In september he entered Naples without any serious resistance, and he proclaimed himself "Dictator of the Two Sicilies".
After his victory he held plebiscites in Sicily and Naples, which allowed him to hand over the whole of
southern Italy to King Victor Emmanuel, whom he met at Teano on the 26th of october 1960.
He now retired to Caprera, but he was later engaged in the war against Austria in 1866 and the French German war in 1870 on the French side. He died in 1882.
Garibaldi made a great contribution to the unification of Italy under the house of Savoy.
He and also Anita became a symbol of the liberation fight and the patriotic movement.
Bottom panel "Cinquantenatrio 1882" and "Garibaldino 1932" and the arms of Savoy with fasces. Stamp 10 - 20 and 25 c have a sword and stamp 75c - 1,25 -1,75+25L a flame at the border panel.
Date created: 22/03/00 11:42:36