Five Days of Milan

Five Days of Milan
Part of the First Italian War of Independence
Episode from the Five Days, by Baldassare Verazzi (1819–1886)
Date 18–22 March 1848 Location Milan, Lombardy–Venetia Result Milanese victory Radetzky retreats from Milan
Belligerents
Milanese rebels	Austrian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Carlo Cattaneo Count Luigi Torelli Augusto Anfossi † Luciano Manara	Joseph Radetzky von Radetz Ludwig von Wohlgemuth Eduard Clam-Gallas Count Ferencz Gyulai
Strength
1,700 Barricades Milanese armament: 600–650 Firearms Stones, Bottles, Clubs, Pikes and Swords	12,000–13,000 Garrison
Casualties and losses
409–424 Killed Including 43 Women and Children 600+ Wounded	181 Killed Including 5 Officers 235 Wounded Including 4 Officers 150–180 Captured

Provisional Government of Milan
Governo provvisorio di Milano (Italian)
1848
Flag
Capital		Milan
Languages		Italian
Government		Republic
Podestà		Gabrio Casati
Historical era		Revolutions of 1848
•	Congress of Vienna grants Lombardy-Venetia to the Austrian Empire	9 June 1815
•	Insurrection against Habsburg rule	18 March 1848
•	Radetzky withdraws to Quadrilatero	22 March 1848
•	Battle of Solferino wins Lombardy for Italy	24 June 1859
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia Kingdom of Sardinia

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The Five Days of Milan (Italian: Cinque giornate di Milano) were a major event in the Revolutionary Year of 1848 and the start of the First Italian War of Independence. On 18 March a rebellion arose in the city of Milan, and in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city.

In 1848, the Milanese launched an anti-Austrian campaign as early as the first of January. On New Years Day the Milanese started to boycott gambling and tobacco products, which were government monopolies that brought in over 5 million lire a year. The boycott culminated in a bloody street battle on the third of January, when Austrian soldiers, in batches of three, were being insulted and pelted with stones by an angry crowd. The soldiers then gathered together in groups of a dozen and charged the crowd with swords and bayonets, killing 5 and wounding another 59. Radetzky confined his troops to barracks for five days. The protests were over, but two months later, when news reached Milan of the uprising in Vienna and the fall of Metternich, the Milanese took to the streets again, on 18 March.

Almost simultaneous with the popular uprisings of 1848 in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, on 18 March that year, the city of Milan also rose. This was the first evidence of how effective popular initiative, guided by those in the Risorgimento, was able to influence Charles Albert of Sardinia.

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