ITALY: A. D. 1859-1861.
The Treaty of Zurich and its practical negation.
Annexation of Central Italy to Sardinia by Plebiscite.
Revolution in Sicily and Naples.
Garibaldi's great campaign of liberation.
The Sardinian army in the Papal States.
The new Kingdom of Italy proclaimed.
"The treaty concluded at Zurich in November [1859] between the
ambassadors of France, Austria, and Sardinia substantially
ratified the preliminaries arranged at Villafranca. Lombardy
passed to the king of Sardinia; Venetia was retained by
Austria. The rulers of Modena and Parma were to be restored,
the papal power again established in the Legations, while the
various states of the peninsula, excepting Sardinia and the
Two Sicilies, were to form a confederation under the
leadership of the Pope. According to the terms of the treaty
Lombardy was the only state directly benefited by the war. …
The people of central Italy showed no inclination to resume
the old régime. They maintained their position firmly and
consistently, despite the decisions of the Zurich Congress,
the advice of the French emperor, and the threatening attitude
of Naples and Rome. … The year closed without definite
action, leaving the provisional governments in control. In
fact, matters were simply drifting, and it seemed imperative
to take some vigorous measures to terminate so abnormal a
condition of affairs. Finally the project of a European
congress was suggested. There was but one opinion as to who
should represent Italy in such an event. … Cavour …
returned to the head of affairs in January. This event was
simultaneous with the removal of M. Walewski at Paris and a
change in the policy of the French government. The emperor no
longer advised the central Italians to accept the return of
their rulers. His influence at Rome was exercised to induce
the Pope to allow his subjects in the Legations to have their
will. … The scheme of a European congress was abandoned.
With France at his back to neutralize Austria, Cavour had
nothing to fear. … He suggested to the emperor that the
central Italians be allowed to settle their fate by
plebiscite. This method was to a certain extent a craze with
the emperor, … and Cavour was not surprised at the
affirmative reply he received to his proposal. The elections
took place in March, and by an overwhelming majority the
people of Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Legations declared
for annexation to Sardinia. Austria protested, but could do no
more in the face of England and France. Naples followed the
Austrian example, while almost simultaneously with the news of
the elections there arrived at Turin the papal excommunication
for Victor Emmanuel and his subjects. On the 2d of April the
king opened the new parliament and addressed himself to the
representatives of 12,000,000 Italians. The natural enthusiasm
attending the session was seriously dampened by the royal
announcement that, subject to the approval of their citizens
and the ratification of parliament, Nice and Savoy were to be
returned to France. It was, in fact, the concluding
installment of the price arranged at Plombières to be paid for
the French troops in the campaign of the previous year. …
General Garibaldi, who sat in the parliament for Nice, was
especially prominent in the angry debates that followed. …
When the transfer had been ratified he withdrew to a humble
retreat in the island of Caprera. … But the excitement over
the loss of Nice and Savoy was soon diminished by the
startling intelligence which arrived of rebellion in the
Neapolitan dominions. Naples was mutinous, while in Sicily,
Palermo and Messina were in open revolt. Garibaldi's time had
come. Leaving Caprera, he made for Piedmont, and hastily
organized a band of volunteers to assist in the popular
movement. On the night of May 6, with about a thousand
enthusiastic spirits, he embarked from the coast near Genoa in
two steamers and sailed for Sicily. Cavour in the mean time
winked at this extraordinary performance. He dispatched
Admiral Persano with a squadron ostensibly to intercept the
expedition, but in reality 'to navigate between it and the
hostile Neapolitan fleet.' On the 11th Garibaldi landed safely
at Marsala under the sleepy guns of a Neapolitan man-of-war.
On the 14th he was at Salemi, where he issued the following
proclamation: 'Garibaldi, commander-in-chief of the national
forces in Sicily, on the invitation of the principal citizens,
and on the deliberation of the free communes of the island,
considering that in times of war it is necessary that the
civil and military powers should be united in one person,
assumes in the name of Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, the
Dictatorship in Sicily.'" On the 26th Garibaldi attacked
Palermo; on the 6th of June he was in possession of the city
and citadel; on the 25th of July Messina was surrendered to him.
{1866}
"Perhaps the excitement at Turin during these days was second
only to that which animated the great Sicilian cities. The
guns of Bomba's fleet at Palermo were no more active than the
diplomatic artillery which the courts of Central Europe
trained upon the government at Turin. … Cavour's position at
this time was a trying, delicate, and from some points of view
a questionable one. He had publicly expressed regret for
Garibaldi's expedition, while privately he encouraged it. …
Cavour's desire to see Garibaldi in Calabria was changed, a
little later. La Farina was at Palermo in behalf of the
Sardinian government, to induce Garibaldi to consent to the
immediate annexation of Sicily to the new Italian kingdom.
This Garibaldi declined to do, preferring to wait until he
could lay the entire Neapolitan realm and Rome as well at the
feet of Victor Emmanuel. This altered the aspect of affairs.
It was evident that Garibaldi was getting headstrong. It was
Cavour's constant solicitude to keep the Italian question in
such a shape as to allow no foreign power a pretext for
interference. Garibaldi's design against Rome garrisoned by
French troops would be almost certain to bring on foreign
complications and ruin the cause of Italian unity." On the
19th of August, Garibaldi crossed his army from Sicily to the
mainland and advanced on Naples. "On the evening of September
6 the king embarked on a Spanish ship, and leaving his
mutinous navy at anchor in the bay, quit forever those
beautiful shores which his race had too long defiled. On the
morning of September 7 Garibaldi was at Salerno; before night
he had reached Naples, and its teeming thousands had run mad.
… The Neapolitan fleet went over en masse to Garibaldi, and
by him was placed under the orders of the Sardinian admiral.
The Garibaldian troops came swarming into the city, some by
land and others by sea. … Francis II. had shut himself up in
the fortress of Gaeta with the remnants of his army, holding
the line of the Volturno. … At Turin the state of unrest
continued. Garibaldi's presence at Naples was attended with
grave perils. Of course his designs upon Rome formed the
principal danger, but his conspicuous inability as an
organizer was one of scarcely less gravity. … Sardinian
troops had become a necessity of the situation. … There was
no time to lose. There could be no difficulty in finding an
excuse to enter papal territory. The inhabitants of Umbria and
the Marches, who had never ceased to appeal for annexation to
the new kingdom, were suppressed by an army of foreign
mercenaries that the Pope had mustered beneath his banner. …
Cavour had interceded in vain with the Vatican to alter its
course toward its disaffected subjects. At last, on September
7, the day Garibaldi entered Naples, he sent the royal
ultimatum to Cardinal Antonelli at Rome. … On the 11th the
unfavorable reply of Antonelli was received, and the same day
the Sardinian troops crossed the papal frontier. … Every
European power except England, which expressed open
satisfaction, protested against this action. There was an
imposing flight of ambassadors from Turin, and an ominous
commotion all along the diplomatic horizon. Cavour had not
moved, however, without a secret understanding with Napoleon.
… The Sardinian army advanced rapidly in two columns.
General Fanti seized Perugia and Spoleto, while Cialdini on
the east of the Apennines utterly destroyed the main papal
army under the French general Lamoricière at Castelfidardo
[September 17]. Lamoricière with a few followers gained
Ancona, but finding that town covered by the guns of the
Sardinian fleet, he was compelled to surrender. 'The
pontifical mercenary corps' became a thing of the past, Cavour
could turn his whole attention to Naples. He had obtained from
parliament an enthusiastic permission to receive, if tendered,
the allegiance of the Two Sicilies. The army was ordered
across the Neapolitan frontier, and the king left for Ancona
to take command. In the mean time on October 1 Garibaldi had
inflicted another severe defeat to the royal Neapolitan army
on the Volturno. The Sardinian advance was wholly unimpeded.
… On November 7 the king entered Naples, and on the
following day was waited upon by a deputation to announce the
result of the election that Garibaldi had previously decreed.
'Sire,' said their spokesman, 'The Neapolitan people,
assembled in Comitia, by an immense majority have proclaimed
you their king.' … Then followed an event so sublime as to
be without parallel in these times of selfish ambition.
Garibaldi bade farewell to his faithful followers, and,
refusing all rewards, passed again to his quiet home in
Caprera. … The people of Umbria and the Marches followed the
lead of Naples in declaring themselves subjects of Victor
Emmanuel. Except for the patrimony of St. Peter surrounding
the city of Rome and the Austrian province of Venetia, Italy
was united under the tricolor. While Garibaldi returned to his
humble life, Cavour went to Turin to resume his labors. … On
the 18th of February, 1861, the first national parliament
representing the north and south met at Turin. Five days
before, the last stronghold of Francis II. had capitulated,
and the enthusiasm ran high. The kingdom of Italy was
proclaimed, and the king confirmed as 'Victor Emmanuel II., by
the grace of God and the will of the nation King of Italy.'
… The work was almost done. The scheme that a few years
before would have provoked a smile in any diplomatic circle in
Europe had been perfected almost to the capstone. But the man
who had conceived the plan and carried it through its darkest
days was, not destined to witness its final consummation.
Cavour was giving way. On May 29 he was stricken down with a
violent illness." On June 6 he died. "To Mazzini belongs the
credit of keeping alive the spirit of patriotism; Garibaldi is
entitled to the admiration of the world as the pure patriot
who fired men's souls; but Cavour was greater than either, and
Mazzini and Garibaldi were but humble instruments in his
magnificent plan of Italian regeneration."
H. Murdock,
The Reconstruction of Europe,
chapter 13.
ALSO IN:
C. de Mazade,
Life of Count Cavour,
chapters 5-7.
G. Garibaldi,
Autobiography,
3d period (volume 2).
E. Dicey,
Victor Emmanuel,
chapters 27-34.
E. About,
The Roman Question.
The Chevalier O'Clery,
The Making of Italy,
chapters 7-12.
{1867}
ITALY: A. D. 1862-1866.
The Roman question and the Venetian question.
Impatience of the nation.
Collision of Garibaldi with the government.
Alliance with Prussia.
War with Austria.
Liberation and annexation of Venetia.
"The new ministry was formed by Baron Ricasoli. … In the
month of July, Russia and Prussia followed the example of
England and France, and acknowledged Italian unity. … Baron
Ricasoli only held office about nine months; not feeling equal
to the difficulties he had to encounter, he resigned in March,
1862, and Signor Ratazzi was empowered to form a new ministry.
… The volunteer troops had become a source of serious
embarrassment to the government. … It was found disagreeable
and dangerous to have two standing armies under separate heads
and a separate discipline, and it was proposed to amalgamate
the Garibaldians with the royal troops. Endless disagreements
arose out of this question. … As soon as this question was
in a manner accommodated, a more serious one arose. The
central provinces lost all patience in waiting so long for a
peaceful solution of the Roman question. The leaders of the
Young Italy party became more warlike in their language, and
excited the peasantry to riotous proceedings, which the
government had to put down forcibly, and this disagreeable
fact helped to make the Ratazzi ministry unpopular.
Garibaldi's name had been used as an incentive to those
disturbances, and now the hot-headed general embarked for
Sicily, to take the command of a troop who were bound for the
Eternal City, resolved to cut with the sword the Gordian knot
of the Roman question. The government used energetic measures
to maintain its dignity, and not allow an irregular warfare to
be carried on without its sanction. The times were difficult,
no doubt, and the ministry had a hard road to tread. … The
Garibaldians were already in the field, and having crossed
from Sicily, were marching through Calabria with
ever-increasing forces and the cry of 'Rome or death' on their
lips. Victor Emmanuel had now no choice left him but to put
down rebellion by force of arms. General Cialdini's painful
duty it was to lead the royal troops on this occasion. He
encountered the Garibaldians at Aspromonte, in Calabria, and
on their refusing to surrender to the king, a fight ensued in
which the volunteers were of course defeated, and their
officers arrested. Garibaldi, with a ball in his foot, from
the effects of which he has never recovered, was carried a
state prisoner to Piedmont. … This unhappy episode was a
bitter grief to Victor Emmanuel. … Aspromonte gave a final
blow to the Ratazzi ministry. Never very popular, it was
utterly shaken by the reaction in favour of Garibaldi. …
After a good deal of worry and consultation, the king decided
to call Luigi Carlo Farini to office. … Unhappily his health
obliged him to retire very soon from public life, and he was
succeeded by Minghetti. On the whole this first year without
Cavour had been a very trying one to Victor Emmanuel. …
Meantime the Roman question remained in abeyance—to the great
detriment of the nation, for it kept Central and Southern
Italy in a state of fermentation which the government could
not long hold in check. The Bourbon intrigues at Rome,
encouraging brigandage in the Two Sicilies, destroyed all
security of life and property, and impeded foreigners from
visiting the country. The Emperor of the French, occupying the
false position of champion of Italian independence and
protector of the temporal power of the Pope, would not do
anything, nor let the Italian Government do anything, towards
settling the momentous question. … Victor Emmanuel, who had
his eye on Venice all the time, having a fixed impression that
if it could be recovered he would find less difficulty in
getting rid of the foreign occupation in Rome, now adopted
energetic measures to bring about a settlement of this
Venetian question, urging the English Government to use its
influence with Austria to induce her to accept some compromise
and surrender the Italian province peaceably. … Meantime the
Italian Government continued to invite the French to withdraw
their forces from the Roman States, and leave the Pope face to
face with his own subjects without the aid of foreign
bayonets. This the emperor, fearing to offend the papal party,
could not make up his mind to do. But to make the road to Rome
easier for the Italians, he proposed a transfer of the capital
from Turin to some more southern town, Florence or Naples—he
did not care which. The French minister, M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
said:—'Of course in the end you will go to Rome. But it is
important that between our evacuation and your going there,
such an interval of time and such a series of events should
elapse as to prevent people establishing any connection
between the two facts. France must not have any
responsibility.' … The king accepted the conditions, which
provided that the French were to evacuate Rome in two years,
and fixed on Florence as the residence of the court. … On
November 18, 1860, the first Parliament was opened in
Florence. … The quarrel between Austria and Prussia [see
GERMANY: A. D. 1861-1866] was growing all this time, and Italy
proposed an alliance defensive and offensive with the latter
power. … The treaty was concluded April 8, 1866. When this
fact became known, Austria, on the brink of war with Prussia,
began to think that she must rid herself in some way of the
worry of the Italians on her southern frontier, in order to be
free to combat her powerful northern enemy. The cabinet of
Vienna did not apply directly to the cabinet of Florence, but
to that arbiter of the destinies of nations, Napoleon III.,
proposing to cede Venetia on condition that the Italian
government should detach itself from the Prussian alliance.
… After an ineffectual attempt to accommodate matters by a
congress, war was declared against Austria, on June 20, 1866,
and La Marmora, having appointed Ricasoli as his deputy at the
head of the council, led the army northwards. … Victor
Emmanuel appointed his cousin regent, and carried his sons
along with him to the seat of war. … The forces of Austria
were led by the able and experienced commander, the Archduke
Albert, who had distinguished himself at Novara. On the
ill-omened field of Custozza, where the Italians had been
defeated in 1849, the opposing armies met [June 24]; and both
being in good condition, well disciplined and brave, there was
fought a prolonged and bloody battle, in which the Italians
were worsted, but not routed. … On July 20 the Italian navy
suffered an overwhelming defeat at Lissa in the Adriatic, and
these two great misfortunes plunged Victor Emmanuel into the
deepest grief. He felt disabled from continuing the war: all
the sacrifice of life had been in vain: national unity was as
far off as ever. … Meantime the Prussian arms were
everywhere victorious over Austria, and about ten days after
the battle of Custozza it was announced in the Moniteur that
Austria had asked the Emperor Napoleon's mediation, offering
to cede him Venice, and that he was making over that province
to the King of Italy.
{1868}
Italy could not accept it without the consent of her ally
Prussia; and while negotiations were going forward on the
subject, the brief seven weeks' campaign was brought to a
conclusion by the great victory of Sadowa, and on July 26 the
preliminaries of peace were signed by the Austrian and
Prussian plenipotentiaries. … Venice was restored to Italy
by the Emperor of France, with the approval of Prussia. There
was a sting in the thought that it was not wrung from the
talons of the Austrian eagle by the valour of Italian arms,
but by the force of diplomacy; still it was a delightful fact
that Venice was free, with the tricolour waving on St. Mark's.
The Italian soil was delivered from foreign occupation. … As
soon as the treaty was signed at Vienna, October 2, the
Venetian Assemblies unanimously elected Victor Emmanuel with
acclamations, and begged for immediate annexation to the
Kingdom of Italy. On November 4, in the city of Turin, Victor
Emmanuel received the deputation which came to proffer him the
homage of the inhabitants of Venetia. … On November 7 Victor
Emmanuel made a solemn entry into the most beautiful, and,
after Rome, the most interesting city of the Italian
peninsula. … Hot upon the settlement of the Venetian
question, came the discussion of that of Rome, which after the
evacuation of the French troops [November, 1866] seemed more
complicated than ever. The Catholic powers were now anxious to
accommodate the quarrel between Italy and the Pope, and they
offered to guarantee him his income and his independence if he
would reconcile himself to the national will. But Pius IX. was
immovable in his determination to oppose it to the last."
G. S. Godkin,
Life of Victor Emmanuel II.,
chapters 23-25 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
J. W. Probyn,
Italy from 1815 to 1890,
chapter 11.
G. Garibaldi,
Autobiography,
4th period, chapter 1 (volume 2),
and volume 3, chapter 8.
ITALY: A. D. 1867-1870.
Settlement of the Roman question.
Defeat of Garibaldi at Mentana.
Rome in the possession of the king of Italy.
Progress made by diplomacy in the settlement of the Roman
question "was too slow for Garibaldi. He had once more fallen
under the influence of the extreme republicans, and in 1867 he
declared that he would delay no longer in planting the
republican banner on the Vatican. Between these hot-headed and
fanatical republicans on the one side, the Italian
Ultramontanes on another, and the French Emperor on the third,
the position of Victor Emmanuel was anything but enviable. In
the autumn of 1867 Garibaldi was suddenly arrested by the
Government, but released on condition that he would remain
quietly at Caprera. But meanwhile the volunteers under Menotti
Garibaldi (the great chief's son) had advanced into the Papal
States. The old warrior was burning to be with them. On the
14th of October he effected his escape from Caprera, and
managed eventually to join his son in the Romagna. Together
they advanced on Rome, and won, after tremendous fighting, the
great victory at Monte Rotundo. Meanwhile an army of
occupation sent by the Government from Florence had crossed
the Roman frontier, and a French force had landed on the
coast. Garibaldi's position was already critical, but his
resolution was unbroken. 'The Government of Florence,' he
said, in a proclamation to the volunteers, 'has invaded the
Roman territory, already won by us with precious blood from
the enemies of Italy; we ought to receive our brothers in arms
with love, and aid them in driving out of Rome the mercenary
sustainers of tyranny; but if base deeds, the continuation of
the vile convention of September, in mean consort with
Jesuitism, shall urge us to lay down our arms in obedience to
the order of the 2d December, then will I let the world know
that I alone, a Roman general, with full power, elected by the
universal suffrage of the only legal Government in Rome, that
of the republic, have the right to maintain myself in arms in
this the territory subject to my jurisdiction; and then, if
any of these my volunteers, champions of liberty and Italian
unity, wish to have Rome as the capital of Italy, fulfilling
the vote of parliament and the nation, they must not put down
their arms until Italy shall have acquired liberty of
conscience and worship, built upon the ruin of Jesuitism, and
until the soldiers of tyrants shall be banished from our
land.' The position taken up by Garibaldi is perfectly
intelligible. Rome we must have, if possible, by legal
process, in conjunction with the royal arms'; but if they will
stand aside, even if they will oppose, none the less Rome must
be annexed to Italy. Unfortunately Garibaldi had left out of
account the French force despatched by Napoleon III. to defend
the Temporal dominions of the Pope, a force which even at this
moment was advancing to the attack. The two armies met near
the little village of Mentana, ill matched in every respect.
The volunteers, numerous indeed but ill disciplined and badly
armed, brought together, held together simply by the magic of
a name, the French, admirably disciplined, armed with the
fatal chassepots, fighting the battle of their ancient Church.
The Garibaldians were terribly defeated. Victor Emmanuel
grieved bitterly, like a true, warm-hearted father for the
fate of his misguided but generous-hearted sons. … To the
Emperor of the French he wrote an ardent appeal begging him to
break with the Clericals and put himself at the head of the
Liberal party in Europe, at the same time warning him that the
old feeling of gratitude towards the French in Italy had quite
disappeared. 'The late events have suffocated every
remembrance of gratitude in the heart of Italy. It is no
longer in the power of the Government to maintain the alliance
with France. The chassepot gun at Mentana has given it a
mortal blow.' At the same time the rebels were visited with
condign punishment. Garibaldi himself was arrested, but after
a brief imprisonment at Varignano was permitted to retire once
more to Caprera. A prisoner so big as Garibaldi is always an
embarrassment to gaolers. But the last act in the great drama
… was near at hand. In 1870 the Franco-German War broke out.
The contest, involving as it did the most momentous
consequences, was as brief as it was decisive. The French, of
course, could no longer maintain their position as champions
of the Temporal power. Once more, therefore, the King of Italy
attempted, with all the earnestness and with all the
tenderness at his command, to induce the Pope to come to terms
and accept the position, at once dignified and independent,
which the Italian Government was anxious to secure to him. …
{1869}
But the Pope still unflinchingly adhered to the position he
had taken up. … A feint of resistance was made, but on the
20th of September (1870) the royal troops entered Rome, and
the Tricolour was mounted on the palace of the Capitol. So
soon as might be a plebiscite was taken. The numbers are
significant—for the King, 40,788, for the Pope, 46. But
though the work was thus accomplished in the autumn of 1870,
it was not until 2d June 1871 that the King made his triumphal
entry into the capital of Italy."
J. A. R. Marriott,
The Makers of Modern Italy,
pages 72-76.
ALSO IN:
G. Garibaldi,
Autobiography,
volume 3, chapters 8-9.
G. S. Godkin,
Life of Victor Emmanuel,
chapter 32 (volume 2).
ITALY: A. D. 1870-1894.
The tasks and burdens of the United Nation.
Military and colonial ambitions.
The Triple Alliance.
"Italy now [In 1870] stood before the world as a nation of
twenty-five million inhabitants, her frontiers well defined,
her needs very evident. Nevertheless, if her national
existence was to be more than a name, she must have discipline
in self-government, and she must as quickly as possible
acquire the tools and methods of the civilization prevailing
among those nations into whose company her victories had
raised her. Two thirds of her people lagged behind the Western
world not only in material inventions, but in education and
civic training. Railroads and telegraphs, the wider
application of steam to industries, schools, courts, the
police, had all to be provided, and provided quickly.
Improvements which England and France had added gradually and
paid for gradually, Italy had to organize and pay for in a few
years. Hence a levying of heavy taxes, and exorbitant
borrowing from the future in the public debt. Not only this,
but ancient traditions, the memories of feuds between town and
town, had to be obliterated; the people had to be made truly
one people, so that Venetians, or Neapolitans, or Sicilians
should each feel that they were first of all Italians.
National uniformity must supplant provincial peculiarity;
there must be one language, one code of laws, one common
interest; in a word, the new nation must be Italianized. The
ease and rapidity with which the Italians have progressed in
all these respects have no parallel in modern times. Though
immense the undertaking, they have, in performing it, revealed
an adaptability to new conditions, a power of transformation
which are among the most remarkable characteristics of their
race, and the strongest proofs that ruin will not now engulf
them. Only a race incapable of readjusting itself need
despair. Happy had Italy been if, undistracted by temptation,
she had pursued the plain course before her; still happy, had
she resisted such temptation. But nations, like individuals,
are not made all of one piece: they, too, acknowledge the
better reason, but follow the worse; they, too, through pride
or vanity or passion, often forfeit the winnings from years of
toil. … Italy was recognized as a great power by her
neighbors, and she willingly persuaded herself that it was her
duty to do what they did. In this civilized age, the first
requisite of a great power is a large standing army. … A
large standing army being the first condition of ranking among
the great powers, Italy set about preparing one. … Perhaps
more than any other European nation she was excusable in
desiring to show that her citizens could become soldiers, for
she had been taunted time out of mind with her effeminacy, her
cowardice. It might be argued, too, that she received a larger
dividend in indirect compensation for her capital invested in
the army than her neighbors received from theirs. Uniform
military service helped to blot out provincial lines and to
Italianize all sections; it also furnished rudimentary
education to the vast body of illiterate conscripts. These
ends might have been reached at far less cost by direct and
natural means; but this fact should not lessen the credit due
to the Italian military system for furthering them. Tradition,
example, national sensitiveness, all conspired in this way to
persuade Italy to saddle an immense army on her back. … One
evidence of being a 'great power,' according to the political
standard of the time, consists in ability to establish
colonies, or at least a protectorate, in distant lands;
therefore Italian Jingoes goaded their government on to plant
the Italian flag in Africa. France was already mistress of
Algiers; Spain held a lien on Morocco; Italy could accordingly
do no less than spread her influence over Tunis. For a few
years Italy complacently imagined that she was as good as her
rivals in the possession of a foreign dependency. Then a
sudden recrudescence of Jingoism in France caused the French
to occupy Tunis. The Italians were very angry; but when they
sounded the situation, they realized that it would be folly to
go to war over it. … Not warned by this experience, Italy, a
few years later, plunged yet more deeply into the uncertain
policy of colonization. England and France having fallen out
over the control of Egypt, then England, having virtually made
the Khedive her vassal, suggested that it would be a very fine
thing for Italy to establish a colony far down on the coast of
the Red Sea, whence she could command the trade of Abyssinia.
Italian Jingoes jumped at the suggestion, and for ten years
the red-white-and-green flag has waved over Massaua. But the
good that Italy has derived from this acquisition has yet to
appear. … Equally slow have they been to learn that their
partnership in the Triple Alliance [see TRIPLE ALLIANCE] has
entailed upon them sacrifices out of all proportion to the
benefits. To associate on apparently even terms with Germany
and Austria was doubtless gratifying to national vanity, …
but who can show that Italy has been more secure from attack
since she entered that league than she was before? … For the
sake … of a delusive honor,—the honor of posing as the
partner of the arbiters of Europe,—Italy has, since 1882,
seen her army and her debt increase, and her resources
proportionately diminish. None of her ministers has had the
courage to suggest quitting a ruinous policy; on the contrary,
they have sought hither and thither to find means to
perpetuate it without actually breaking the country's back.
… Yet not on this account shall we despair of a country
which, in spite of folly, has achieved much against great
odds, and which has shown a wonderful capacity for sloughing
off her past. Hardship itself, though it be the penalty of
error, may, by restricting her ability to go astray, lead her
back to the path of reason."
W. R. Thayer,
Some Causes of the Italian Crisis
(Atlantic, April, 1894).
See, also, IRREDENTISTS.
{1670}
ITHACA.
One of the seven Ionian islands, small and unimportant, but
interesting as being the Homeric island-kingdom of
Ulysses—the principal scene of the story of the Odyssey. The
island has been more or less explored, with a view to
identifying the localities mentioned in the epic, by Sir
William Gell, by Colonel Leake, and by Dr. Schliemann. Some
account of the latter's work and its results is given in the
introduction to his "Ilios."
E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 3, note I (volume 1).
ITHOME.
See SPARTA: B. C. 743-510;
also, MESSENIAN WAR, THE THIRD.
ITOCOS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHIBCHAS.
ITONOMOS, The.
See BOLIVIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS;
also, AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.
ITURBIDE, Empire of.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1820-1826.
ITUZAINGO, Battle of (1827).
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.
IUKA, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: MISSISSIPPI).
IVAN I.,
Grand Prince of Moscow, A. D. 1328-1340.
Ivan II., Grand Prince of Moscow, 1352-1359.
Ivan III. (called The Great), the first Czar of Muscovy, of
Russia, 1462-1505.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1237-1480.
Ivan IV. (called The Terrible), Czar of Russia, 1533-1584.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1533-1682.
Ivan V., Czar of Russia, 1682-1689.
Ivan VI., Czar of Russia, 1740-1741.
IVERNI, The.
See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
IVRY, Battle of (1590).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1589-1590.
IVY LANE CLUB, The.
See CLUBS, DR. JOHNSON'S.
J.
JACK CADE'S REBELLION.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1450.
JACK'S LAND.
See NO MAN'S LAND (ENGLAND).
JACKSON, ANDREW.
Campaign against the Creek Indians.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1813-1814 (AUGUST-APRIL).
JACKSON, ANDREW.
Victory at New Orleans.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1815 (JANUARY).
JACKSON, ANDREW.
Campaign in Florida.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1816-1818.
JACKSON, ANDREW.
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828, to 1837.
JACKSON, STONEWALL (General Thomas J.)
At the first Battle of Bull Run.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY: VIRGINIA).
JACKSON, STONEWALL
First campaign in the Shenandoah.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861-1862 (DECEMBER-APRIL: VIRGINIA).
JACKSON, STONEWALL
Second campaign in the Shenandoah.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).
JACKSON, STONEWALL
Peninsular campaign.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).
JACKSON, STONEWALL
Last flank movement.
Death.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL-MAY: VIRGINIA).
JACKSON, Mississippi: A. D. 1863.
Capture and recapture by the Union forces.
Sack and ruin.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI);
and (JULY: MISSISSIPPI).
JACOBIN CLUBS.
JACOBINS, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1790, to 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).
JACOBITE CHURCH, The.
The great religious dispute of the 5th century, concerning the
single or the double nature of Christ, as God and as man,
left, in the end, two extreme parties, the Monophysites and
the Nestorians, exposed alike to the persecutions of the
orthodox church, as established in its faith by the Council of
Chalcedon, by the Roman Pope and by the emperors Justin and
Justinian. The Monophysite party, strongest in Syria, was
threatened with extinction; but a monk named James, or
Jacobus, Baradæus—"Al Baradai," "the man in rags,"—imparted
new life to it by his zeal and activity, and its members
acquired from him the name of Jacobites. Amida (now Diarbekir)
on the Tigris became the seat of the Jacobite patriarchs and
remains so to this day. Abulpharagius, the oriental historian
of the 13th century, was their most distinguished scholar, and
held the office of Mafrian or vice-patriarch, so to speak, of
the East. Their communities are mostly confined at present to
the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and number less
than 200,000 souls.
H. F. Tozer,
The Church and the Eastern Empire,
chapter 5.
See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.
JACOBITES.
After the revolution of 1688 in England, which expelled James
II. from the throne, his partisans, who wished to restore him,
were called Jacobites, an appellation derived from the Latin
form of his name—Jacobus. The name adhered after James' death
to the party which maintained the rights of his son and
grandson, James Stuart and Charles Edward, the "Old
Pretender" and the "Young Pretender," as they were
respectively called.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1707-1708.
The Jacobites rose twice in rebellion.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1715;
and 1745-1746.
JACQUERIE, The Insurrection of the.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1358.
----------JAFFA: Start--------
JAFFA (ANCIENT JOPPA): A. D. 1196-1197.
Taken and retaken by the German Crusaders.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1196-1197.
JAFFA: A. D. 1799.
Capture by Bonaparte.
Massacre of prisoners.
Reported poisoning of the sick.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-AUGUST).
----------JAFFA: End--------
JAGELLONS, The dynasty of the.
See POLAND: A. D. 1333-1572.
JAGIR.
"A jagir [in India] is, literally, land given by a government
as a reward for services rendered."
G. B. Malleson,
Lord Clive,
page 123, foot-note.
JAHANGIR (Salim),
Moghul Emperor or Padischah of India, A. D. 1605-1627.
JAINISM.
JAINS.
See INDIA: B. C. 312
JAITCHE, DEFENSE OF (1527).
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
9TH-16TH CENTURIES (BOSNIA, ETC.).
JALALÆAN ERA.
See TURKS (THE SELJUK): A. D. 1073-1092.
{1871}
JALULA, Battle of.
One of the battles in which the Arabs, under the first
successors of Mahomet, conquered the Persian empire. Fought A.
D. 637.
G. Rawlinson,
Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy,
chapter 26.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-651.
----------JAMAICA: Start--------
JAMAICA: A. D. 1494.
Discovery by Columbus.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1493-1496.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1509.
Granted to Ojeda and Nicuesa.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1509-1511.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1655
The English conquest and colonization.
In the spring of 1655, having determined upon an alliance with
France and war with Spain, Cromwell fitted out an expedition
under admirals Venables and Pen, secretly commissioned to
attack Cuba and St. Domingo. Frustrated in an attempt against
the latter island, the expedition made a descent on the island
of Jamaica with better success. "This great gain was yet held
insufficient to balance the first defeat; and on the return of
Pen and Venables they were both committed to the Tower. I may
pause for an instant here to notice a sound example of
Cromwell's far-seeing sagacity. Though men scouted in that day
the acquisition of Jamaica, he saw its value in itself, and
its importance in relation to future attempts on the continent
of America. Exerting the inhuman power of a
despot—occasionally, as hurricanes and other horrors,
necessary for the purification of the world—he ordered his
son Henry to seize on 1,000 young girls in Ireland and send
them over to Jamaica, for the purpose of increasing population
there. A year later, and while the Italian Sagredo was in
London, he issued an order that all females of disorderly
lives should be arrested and shipped for Barbadoes for the
like purpose. Twelve hundred were accordingly sent in three
ships."
J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Cromwell.
ALSO IN:
G. Penn,
Memorials of Sir Wm. Penn, Admiral,
volume 2, page 124, and appendix H.
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1655-1658.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1655-1796.
Development of the British colony.
The Buccaneers.
The Maroon wars.
"Cromwell set himself to maintain and develop his new
conquest. He issued a proclamation encouraging trade and
settlement in the island by exemption from taxes. In order to
'people and plant' it, he ordered an equal number of young men
and women to be sent over from Ireland, he instructed the
Scotch government to apprehend and transport the idle and
vagrant, and he sent agents to the New England colonies and
the other West Indian islands in order to attract settlers.
After the first three or four years this policy of encouraging
emigration, continued in spite of the Protector's death, bore
due fruit, and Jamaica became to a singular extent a
receptacle for the most varied types of settlers, for freemen
as well as for political offenders or criminals from Newgate,
and for immigrants from the colonies as well as from the
mother country. … The death of Cromwell brought over
adherents of the Parliamentary party, ill content with the
restoration of the Stuarts; the evacuation of Surinam in
favour of the Dutch brought in a contingent of planters in
1675; the survivors of the ill-fated Scotch colony at Darien
came over in 1699; and the Rye House Plot, Sedgmoor, and the
risings of 1715 and 1745 all contributed to the population of
the island. Most of all, however, the buccaneers made Jamaica
great and prosperous. … Situated as the island was, well
inside the ring of the Spanish possessions, the English
occupation of Jamaica was a godsend to the buccaneers, while
their privateering trade was exactly suited to the restless
soldiers who formed the large bulk of the early colonists. So
Port Royal became in a few years a great emporium of
ill-gotten wealth, and the man who sacked Panama became Sir
Henry Morgan, Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. … In 1661
Charles II. sanctioned the beginnings of civil government. …
Municipal institutions were introduced, judges and magistrates
were appointed, land grants were issued, and the island began
to take the form and substance of an English colony. The
constitution thenceforward consisted of a Governor, a
nominated Council, and an elected Assembly; and the first
Assembly, consisting of 30 persons, met in January, 1664. …
It was not long before the representative body began to assert
its independence by opposition to the Crown, and in 1678 the
Home government invited conflict by trying to apply to Jamaica
the system which had been introduced into Ireland by the
notorious Poynings' law. Under this system no Assembly could
be summoned for legislative purposes except under special
directions from home, and its functions would have been
limited to registering consent to laws which had already been
put into approved shape in England." Conflict over this,
attempt to deal with Jamaica as "a conquered and tributary
dependency" did not end until 1728, when the colonists bought
relief from it by settling on the Crown an "irrevocable
revenue" of £8,000 per annum. "About the time when the
constitutional difficulty was settled, the Maroon question was
pressing itself more and more upon the attention of the
colonial government. The penalty which Jamaica paid for being
a large and mountainous island was, that it harboured in its
forests and ravines a body of men who, throughout its history
down to the present century, were a source of anxiety and
danger. The original Maroons, or mountaineers, for that is the
real meaning of the term, were … the slaves of Spaniards who
retreated into the interior when the English took the island,
and sallied out from time to time to harass the invaders and
cut off stragglers and detached parties. … Maroon or Maron
is an abbreviation of Cimaron, and is derived from the Spanish
or Portuguese 'Cima,' or mountain top. Skeat points out that
the word is probably of Portuguese origin, the 'C' having been
pronounced as 'S.' Benzoni (edited by the Hakluyt Society),
who wrote about 1565, speaks of 'Cimaroui' as being the
Spanish name for outlawed slaves in Hispaniola. … It is
probable that the danger would have been greater if the
outlaws had been a united band, but there were divisions of
race and origin among them. The Maroons proper, the slaves of
the Spaniards and their descendants, were mainly in the east
of the island among the Blue Mountains, while the mountains of
the central district were the refuge of runaways from English
masters, including Africans of different races, as well as
Madagascars or Malays. Towards the end of the seventeenth
century the newer fugitives had found in a negro named Cudjoe
an able and determined leader, and thenceforward the
resistance to the government became more organised and
systematic. …
{1872}
Finally, in 1738, Governor Trelawny made overtures of peace to
the rebels, which were accepted. … By this treaty the
freedom of the negroes was guaranteed, special reserves were
assigned to them, they were left under the rule of their own
captains assisted by white superintendents, but were bound
over to help the government against foreign invasion from
without and slave rebellions from within. A similar treaty was
made with the eastern Maroons, and the whole of these blacks,
some 600 in number, were established in five settlements. …
Under these conditions the Maroons gave little trouble till
the end of the 18th century. … The last Maroon war occurred
in 1795." When the insurgent Maroons surrendered, the next
year, they were, in violation of the terms made with them,
transported to Nova Scotia, and afterwards to the warmer
climate of Sierra Leone. "Thus ended the last Maroon
rebellion; but … it affected only one section of these negro
freemen, and even their descendants returned in many cases to
Jamaica at a later date."
C. P. Lucas,
Historical Geography of the British Colonies,
volume 2, section 2, chapter 3, with foot-note.
ALSO IN:
G. W. Bridges,
Annals of Jamaica,
volume 1, and volume 2, chapters 1-16.
R. C. Dallas,
History of the Maroons.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1689-1762.
The English slave trade.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1698-1776.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1692.
Destructive Earthquake.
"An earthquake of terrible violence laid waste in less than
three minutes the flourishing colony of Jamaica. Whole
plantations changed their place. Whole villages were swallowed
up. Port Royal, the fairest and wealthiest city which the
English had yet built in the New World, renowned for its
quays, for its warehouses, and for its stately streets, which
were said to rival Cheapside, was turned into a mass of ruins.
Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants were buried under their own
dwellings."
Lord Macaulay,
History of England,
chapter 19 (volume 4).
JAMAICA: A. D. 1834-1838.
Emancipation of Slaves.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1834-1838.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1865.
Governor Eyre's suppression of Insurrection.
In October, 1865, there occurred an insurrection among the
colored people of one district of Jamaica, the suppression of
which throws "a not altogether pleasant light upon English
methods, when applied to the government of a subject race. …
The disturbances were confined to the district and parish of
St. Thomas in the East. There were local grievances arising
from a dispute between Mr. Gordon, a native [colored]
proprietor, and Baron Ketelholdt, the custos of the parish.
Mr. Gordon, a dissenter, and apparently a reformer of abuses
and unpopular among his fellows, had been deprived of his
place among the magistrates, and prevented from filling the
office of churchwarden to which he was elected. The expenses
of the suits against him had been defrayed from the public
purse. The native Baptists, the sect to which he belonged,
were angry with what they regarded as at once an act of
persecution and a misappropriation of the public money.
Indignation meetings had been held. … Behind this quarrel,
which would not of itself have produced much result, there lay
more general grievances. … There was a real grievance in the
difficulty of obtaining redress through law administered
entirely by landlords; and as a natural consequence there had
grown up a strong mistrust of the law itself, and a complete
alienation between the employer and the employed. To this was
added a feeling on the part of the class above the ordinary
labourer, known as the free settlers, that they were unduly
rented, and obliged to pay rent for land which they should
have held free; and there was a very general though vague
expectation that in some way or other the occupiers would be
freed from the payment of rent. The insurrection broke out in
October;" a small riot, at first, at Morant Bay, in which a
policeman was beaten; then an attempt to arrest one of the
alleged rioters, a colored preacher, Paul Bogle by name, and a
formidable resistance to the attempt by 400 of his friends.
"On the next day, when the Magistrates and Vestry were
assembled in the Court-House at Morant Bay, a crowd of
insurgents made their appearance, the volunteers were called
out, and the Riot Act read; and after a skirmish the
Court-House was taken and burnt, 18 of the defenders killed
and 30 wounded. The jail was broken open and several stores
sacked. There was some evidence that the rising was
premeditated, and that a good deal of drilling had been going
on among the blacks under the command of Bogle. From Morant
Bay armed parties of the insurgents passed inland through the
country attacking the plantations, driving the inhabitants to
take refuge in the bush, and putting some of the whites to
death. The Governor of the Island at the time was Mr. Eyre
[former explorer of Australia]. He at once summoned his Privy
Council, and with their advice declared martial law over the
county of Surrey, With the exception of the town of Kingston.
Bodies of troops were also at once despatched to surround the
insurgent district. … 439 persons fell victims to summary
punishment, and not less than 1,000 dwellings were burnt;
besides which, it would appear that at least 600 men and women
were subjected to flogging, in some instances with
circumstances of unusual cruelty. But the event which chiefly
fixed the attention of the public in England was the summary
conviction and execution of Mr. Gordon. He was undoubtedly a
troublesome person, and there were circumstances raising a
suspicion that he possessed a guilty knowledge of the intended
insurrection. They were however far too slight to have secured
his conviction before a Court of Law. But Governor Eyre caused
him to be arrested in Kingston, where martial law did not
exist, hurried on board ship and carried to Morant Bay, within
the proclaimed district. He was there tried by a
court-martial, consisting of three young officers," was
sentenced to death, and immediately hanged.
J. F. Bright,
History of England: period 4,
pages 413-415.
"When the story reached England, in clear and trustworthy
form, two antagonistic parties were instantly formed. The
extreme on the one side glorified Governor Eyre, and held that
by his prompt action he had saved the white population of
Jamaica from all the horrors of triumphant negro insurrection.
The extreme on the other side denounced him as a mere fiend.
The majority on both sides were more reasonable; but the
difference between them was only less wide. An association
called the Jamaica Committee was formed for the avowed purpose
of seeing that justice was done. It comprised some of the most
illustrious Englishmen. …
{1873}