Battle of Aspromonte

The Battle of Aspromonte, also known as The Day of Aspromonte (in Italian: "La Giornata dell'Aspromonte"), was a battle that took place on 29 August 1862, and was an inconclusive episode of the Italian unification process. The battle is named after the mountain Aspromonte in southern Italy, which is near the place where the battle occurred. In the battle, the Royal Italian Army defeated Giuseppe Garibaldi's army of volunteers, who were marching from Sicily towards Rome, with the intent of annexing it into the Kingdom of Italy. In the battle, which took place a few kilometers from Gambarie, Garibaldi was wounded and taken as prisoner.

When Victor Emmanuel II became the King of Italy on 17 March 1861, the newly created Kingdom of Italy did not include Venice and Rome. These "unredeemed" cities, as they would be called a few decades later, were a constant cause of friction in Italian politics. The dispute concerning Rome, specifically known as the "Roman Question", had arisen after the Italian Parliament had declared Rome capital of the Kingdom on 27 March 1861. This conflicted with Pope Pius IX's intent to maintain his temporal control of the city.

Members of the government of the Kingdom of Italy had different perspectives on this issue, and the internal tensions that followed caused Prime Minister Bettino Ricasoli to resign in 1862. While his successor, Urbano Rattazzi, was known for his disrespectful attitude towards the Holy See, the Kingdom of Italy maintained a low profile on the Roman Question after Rattazzi's election.

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