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Expedition of the Thousand

Expedition of the Thousand
Part of the wars of Italian Unification
Partenza da Quarto.jpg
The beginning of the expedition, to Sicily, at Quarto dei Mille, Genoa, northern Italy
Date 1860–1861
Location Sicily and Southern Italy
Result

Unification victory;
Collapse of the Two Sicilies;
Papal States reduced to Latium;


Kingdom of Italy created;
(est. 17 March 1861)
Territorial
changes
Sicily, Southern Italy, Marche and Umbria ceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia
Belligerents
Flag of Italy.svg Giuseppe Garibaldi
Red Shirts

Kingdom of Sardinia Sardinia
 Two Sicilies
 Papal States
Commanders and leaders
Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Flag of Italy.svg
Victor Emmanuel II
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Enrico Cialdini
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Francis II
Giosuè Ritucci
Lukas von Mechel
Flag of the Papal States (1808-1870).svg Pio Nono.svg
Pius IX
Juchault de Lamoricière

Unification victory;
Collapse of the Two Sicilies;
Papal States reduced to Latium;

The Expedition of the Thousand (Italian Spedizione dei Mille) was an event of the Italian Risorgimento that took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Bourbons.

The project was an ambitious and risky venture aiming to conquer, with a thousand men, a kingdom with a larger regular army and a more powerful navy. The expedition was a success and concluded with a plebiscite that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the last territorial conquest before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861.

The sea venture was the only desired action that was jointly decided by the "four fathers of the nation" Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II, and Camillo Cavour, pursuing divergent goals. However, the Expedition was instigated by Francesco Crispi, who utilized his political influence to bolster the Italian unification project.

The various groups participated in the expedition for a variety of reasons: for Garibaldi, it was to achieve a united Italy; to the Sicilian bourgeoisie, an independent Sicily as part of the kingdom of Italy, and for the mass farmers, land distribution and the end of oppression.

The events of the Expedition took place within the overall process of the unification of Italy, which was largely orchestrated by Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister of Sardinia-Piedmont, as his life's work. After the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchies of Modena and Parma and the Romagna to Piedmont in March 1860, Italian nationalists set their sights on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which comprised all of southern mainland Italy and Sicily, as the next step toward their dream of unification of all Italian lands.


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