FRQ

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


       The unification of Italy involved many skilled tactics from people who worked towards change. This was not dissimilar from the basis of the French Revolution. In each case, the lowest class in the area was the focal point. However, there ideas of what the lower class's purpose was were different. In the French Revolution, the main issue was that the lowest class could function on their own and were, in their own right, the superior class. Garibaldi and Mazzini did not think that southern Italy was more important than northern Italy, but they did want to have equal rights. The French Revolution and the unification of Italy, while similar in some respects, did not have similar views concerning the lowest class in their area. 
       The French Revolution was started because the upper classes locked the lower class out of a meeting. The lower class held their own meeting on a tennis court. Pamphlets had been written and passed around explaining how the lowest class could be self-sufficient and did not need the other classes in order to be successful. This thought was integral to the formation of the French Revolution. The people in lower classes exploded out into the streets to try and get everyone to see their views. This came to be known as the Terror, with many lower class people murdering the people that were in higher classes than them. They were trying to get all of the people who were opposed to their views out of their country. The French Revolution was caused by revolutionaries who wanted the lower class to be the only class left in France. 
       The unification of Italy played out in a much different way than the French Revolution. There were revolutionaries who worked towards rallying the lower class of Italy, which was similar to the beginnings of the French Revolution. However, the ideas behind the congregation of the lower classes were different. Garibaldi acted as a missionary for Cavour in the south. Cavour did not particularly like Garibaldi, so he sent him to the south to do unification work there. Garibaldi, having grown up in the poor and agricultural south, immediately knew how the unification of Italy could benefit the lower class living there. He saw the need for basic things that the industrialized north took for granted. Many of these ideas, such as the right to vote, were ideas that were a part of democracy. Garibaldi understood that the lower class would never be as important as the north, but he wanted to give them the basic rights that they deserved. 
       The unification of Italy and the French Revolution had different ideas that related to the lower class. In the case of the French Revolution, many of the revolutionists were also a part of the lower class. People such as Garibaldi and Mazzini were no longer members of the lower class, but they did understand their woes. Mazzini collected a group of lower class citizens and formed them into a unit known as the red shirts in an effort to forcibly gain rights, but this was soon crushed by the superior powers of Cavour and Prussia. This uprising was similar to the Terror, but much less effective. Italian lower class citizens would not be able to rebel against the suppression forced upon them by their government as easily as the French had. They had to try different tactics and form new ideas in order to be successful. The lower classes in France and Italy were hardly the same. 
         The French Revolution and the unification of Italy were both spurred by the lower class. In many areas, the lower class was the catalyst that brought about change. This was more so in the French Revolution than in the unification of Italy. The poor people in both areas had different demands and brought about change in different ways.