1805-1872. Italian nationalist. He was a
member of the revolutionary society, the
Carbonari, and founded in exile the
nationalist movement Giovane Italia (Young
Italy) 1832. Returning to Italy on the
outbreak of the 1848 revolution, he headed a
republican government established in Rome,
but was forced into exile again on its
overthrow 1849. He acted as a focus for the
movement for Italian unity (see
Risorgimento). Mazzini, born in Genoa,
studied law. For his subversive activity with
the Carbonari he was imprisoned 1830, then
went to France, founding in Marseille the
Young Italy movement, followed by an
international revolutionary organization,
Young Europe, 1834. For many years he lived
in exile in France, Switzerland, and the UK,
but returned to Italy (despite having been
condemned to death in his absence by the
Sardinian government) for the revolution of
1848. He conducted the defence of Rome
against French forces and when it failed he
refused to join in the capitulation and
returned to London, where he continued to
agitate until his death in Geneva,
Switzerland.