Jealousy is one of the most corrosive acts of the human heart; it can have destructive personal affects and sometimes national affects. Throughout history there have been many border and land changes. Some have been just plain bizarre. In 1860 the Italians, eager to unify the Papal States and their numerous city states, which had warred with each other for centuries decided to surrender the Province of Savoy and the city of Nizza (Nice) to France in return for support of their unification. The area of Nice was in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia at the time. Italian unification was led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his long time adversary, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. Click here to see a short summary of the history of Nice. One of the main reasons that the Italians decided to cede Nice to the French, was Cavour's jealousy of Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, and a native of Nice. The Italians also wanted French help in holding back any challenge from the Austrians.
Garibaldi had spent most of his life fighting wars of freedom and unification in South America, specifically Brazil and Uruguay. His most famous battle, however, was in Rome in 1849, where he was defeated by a large, 30,000 strong, French Army who had come to help Pope Pius IX retain the Papal States, against his people's will. The Pope was the absolute ruler and dictator of the Papal States. Garibaldi had a small band of seasoned fighters that he brought from Uruguay and a rag tag army of Roman volunteers. The French army had all the heavy weapons; Garibaldi had none. Garibaldi's men fought a brave, ferocious, battle but it was a lost cause. Their fate could be compared to the famous Greek Last Stand of the 300 at Thermopylae in 480BC. The French bombed Rome with impunity and killed over 2,000 Romans in the process. Despite the pleas of the French not to punish the rebels, Pius IX executed many people who had fought with Garibaldi, or supported the rebel cause. There were no trials or verification of what they were accused of; many were publicly executed in such places as Piazza del Popolo in Rome. The French Army remained in Rome to help the pope rule until 1870 when they had to return to France to fight the German invasion of France in what became known as the Franco-Prussian war of 1870; a war France lost. The French Army posted signs all over Rome stating that anyone caught with a weapon would be summarily executed.
Garibaldi was the best military commander of his day. He was enormously charismatic and popular wherever he went. After the end of the war in Uruguay, over 1,000 of his fighters followed him to Rome to help the people establish a free Italian state. they all willingly gave their lives for Garibaldi. One of those 1,000 was a brilliant black former Uruguayan slave and warrior, known as Andrea il Moro, Andrea Aguyar. This fierce fighter brought with him a tactic not known in Europe, the ability to lasso enemy cavalry, pull them off their horse and eliminate them. Aguyar was killed on the last day of the battle for Rome; his last words were “Long live the Republics of America and Rome!” Aguyar, was one of the best soldiers of his day. Garibaldi had appointed him as his aid-de-camp and his right hand man. Among the truly remarkable warriors of all time, Aguyar is certainly one. Click here for a short story about Aguyar. Garibaldi got an equestrian statue in Janiculum Hill in Rome, but not Aguyar; a shame.
One of the best biography of Garibaldi is a 1974 book by Jasper Ridley called "Garibaldi." For a fine history of Garibaldi's 1849 Battle of Rome, see a very fine book by Tim Parks called "The Hero's Way," published in 2021 by W.W. Norton & Company. This book brilliantly details the battle for Rome and the legendary retreat that followed.
To this day, we have regions in many countries who want to separate and become independent, such as Catalonia and the Basque Country in Spain. The Italian city-states are another example from past history. This experiment in local independence has been a complete failure throughout history, yet many still desire it.
A second bizarre land transfer, again, involves France and Italy with the transfer of Corsica to France in 1769. Corsica had been a part of the City state of Genoa. The Genoese sold the island to France two years earlier. Again, France got the better part of it.
At the end of World War II, Italy, again, was forced to cede territory in the north eastern border with Slovenia and Croatia; the area known as Istria. Italians living in this are were forced to abandon their property and vacate the land. One such famous person who was one of the evacuees was the auto race driver, Mario Andretti. Click here for a YouTube video documentary by Mario about how his family was forced to abandon their home in 1948. The Italian government never paid these people for the lost property. A very fine book, in Italian, called "Il Lungo Esodo" (2005) by Raoul Pupo, details the painful, and tragic events of this terrible exodus. This territory was then given to the communist dictator and tyrant, Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavs murdered many Italians in this area during this period. This, without doubt, was the most disgraceful surrender of national territory. Men have fought and died for far less than this. This will live in infamy in Italian history. Viva Garibaldi.
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