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The exiles of the Risorgimento: Italian volunteers in the Portuguese Civil War (1832–34)

2009; Routledge; Volume: 14; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13545710903281904

1469-9583

Grégoire Bron,

Historical Education and Society

Abstract Abstract Between 1832 and 1834 during the civil war against the partisans of absolutism in Portugal about a hundred Italians fought as volunteers in the Portuguese liberal army. These Italians were motivated to participate by a Romantic culture of war that was strongly rooted in the liberal nationalism of the Italian Risorgimento, but above all, the decision to fight as a volunteer abroad was the result of an international movement of political solidarity with Portuguese liberalism in the early 1830s with which the Italian liberals came into contact during their political exile in France and in Belgium. For the Italian, fighting as volunteers in Portugal proved to be a decisive political experience which deeply shaped their own political ideas of the nation that the volunteers would subsequently draw on in their different political and professional roles in Italy where they became ministers, diplomats and generals of the Kingdom of Italy. Keywords: Risorgimentointernational liberalismpolitical RomanticismexilevolunteeringPortugalnationalism Notes 1 On the Mazzinian influence on the volunteers in Spain, see Della Peruta (1974 Della Peruta, Franco. 1974. Mazzini e i rivoluzionari italiani. Il 'partito d'azione', 1830–1845, Milan: Feltrinelli. [Google Scholar]: 278–311). On the volunteers in the relations between the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, see Mugnaini (1994 Mugnaini, Marco. 1994. Italia e Spagna nell'età contemporanea. Cultura, politica e diplomazia (1814–1870), Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso. [Google Scholar]), González Calleja (2004 González Calleja, Eduardo. 2004. 'España e Italia en el siglo XIX: percepciones mutuas, mitos políticos alternativos'. Spagna contemporanea, 26: 109–138. [Google Scholar]) and Pascual Sastre (2007 Sastre, Pascual and María, Isabel. 2007. "'La circolazione di miti politici tra Spagna e Italia (1820–80)'". In Storia d'Italia. 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Philippe Buonarroti et les révolutionnaires du XIXe siècle, [1951], Paris: Champ Libre. [Google Scholar]: 77–9). 10 A few Italians took part (see Sánchez Mantero 1973 Sánchez Mantero, Rafael. 1973. 'L'Espagne et la Révolution de 1830'. Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, 9: 567–579. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 576). 11 Le National, 8 December 1831, p. 2; 16 December 1831, p. 34 and January 1832. 12 Speech on 28 January 1832 in Lafayette (1838: 528). 13 See for example the launch of the subscription on behalf of the Italian liberals, introduced by the Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera! society in 1831, in AAVV (1974). 14 See the speech of Ramorino on the occasion of a banquet held by the opposition parliamentarians for the Polish refugees on 31 December 1831, in Le National, 1 January 1832. 15 On the revolutionary model of the pronunciamento, see Castells Oliván (1989 Castells Oliván, Irene. 1989. La utopía insurreccional del liberalismo. 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Don Pedro de Brazil, posible rey de España: una conspiración liberal, Porto Alegre: Edipucrs. [Google Scholar], 2004 Braz, Brancato and Aquino, Augusto. 2004. 'Don Pedro I do Brasil e IV de Portugal e o constitucionalismo ibérico'. Historia Constitucional (revue électronique), Available at: http://hc.rediris.es/05/Numero05.html [Google Scholar]). 18 See Pecchio (1822). The Parisian edition of 1830 was the work of Léonard Galloix and it included the commentaries of a former Portuguese magistrate as well as a military comment by General Pelet, who took part in the campaign in Portugal in 1809. 19 In July 1831 the French government sent a naval squadron to Lisbon to obtain reparations for the mistreatment suffered by French citizens in Portugal, suspected to be liberals by the partisans of D. Miguel. The French fleet seized the Portuguese military ships and obliged the Portuguese absolutist government to pay damages. 20 With the notable exception of Hyde de Neuville and Chateaubriand, friends of Almeida, who, even before the revolution of 1830, queried the government concerning its Portuguese policies and published their positions on the matter (Hyde de Neuville 1830). 21 The democratic leader Passos Manuel published his works there. 22 Le National, 18 January and 9 February 1832. 23 The recruitment of soldiers on English soil for a foreign army was illegal, but the Whig administration tolerated the recruitment of volunteers for the Portuguese liberal army. It was an occasion for the Tories to attack it. 24 He succeeded, for instance, in persuading the French government to let the Portuguese fleet use of the port of Belle-Isle as a point of departure, as well as providing the passports necessary for the travel, and closing an eye to the recruitment of French volunteers (Lavradio 1932–38: II, 375–8). 25 It is likely in this connection that the facilities offered on behalf of the transport of the volunteers corresponded to a political interest of the government, delighted to be able to move many opposition militants far from Paris. 26 Concerning Mendizábal, see García Tejedo (1858), Janke (1974 Janke, Peter. 1974. Mendizábal y la instauración de la monarquía constitucional en España (1790–1853), Madrid: Siglo XXI Editores. [Google Scholar]) and Pan-Montojo (2000 Pan-Montojo, Juan. 2000. "'Juan Álvarez y Mendizábal (1790–1853): el burgués revolucionario'". In Liberales, agitadores y conspiradores. Biografías heterodoxas del siglo XIX, Edited by: Burdiel, Isabel and Pérez Ledesma, Manuel. 155–182. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. [Google Scholar]). Mendizábal was a friend of Lafayette. He had worked with the French opposition to organize the expedition of the Spanish refugees against Spain in October 1830, for which he managed to obtain financing from the banker Ardoin. 27 Arquivo Histórico Militar (from here on AHM), Lisbon (AHML), Livros mestres B 56/1/1 and B 56/2/1. 28 AHML, Div. 1, section 19, cx 283, no 23 (Lima 1937 Lima, Henrique de Campos Ferreira. 1937. 'Uma companhia italiana no exercito libertador'. Boletim do Arquivo Histórico Militar, 7: 4–32. [Google Scholar]). 29 This was the case for instance of General Sercognani, of the Piedmontese émigré of 1821 Allemandi, and of the refugees from the camp of Mâcon, where a Portuguese exile suggested that they enlist (Lima 1946 Lima, Henrique de Campos Ferreira. 1946. 'Oferecimentos de estrangeiros para o Exército Liberal'. Boletim do Arquivo Histórico Militar, 16: 139–161. [Google Scholar]). These liberals did not serve in Portugal and it is likely that this was the result political disagreements with the Portuguese representative in Paris. See Arquivo Nacional da Torre de Tombo, MNE, Legação de París, cx 599, 1832. 30 One can see it from the insistence with which the Italians attempted in Spain (where they were fighting as volunteers after the end of the Portuguese war) to join the regular army and to have their regiment be admitted en masse. AHM of Segovia, Sección 2, div. 10, leg. 246. 31 See for example the letter from the volunteer Gaetano Delmastro, from Parma, who stated: 'I came to Portugal to serve and not to be demeaned to the status of mendicant. What I demand, therefore, insistently, is to be readmitted to the service.' AHML, Processo Individual, Gaetano Delmastro, cx 1772. 32 AHML, Div. 1, secção 19, cx 103, no 14, fol. 16–18. The Portuguese military authorities set aside the elections and assigned officers and non-commissioned officers for the company by command. 33 See Durando (1834: 1). The battle of Navarino was fought on the 20 October 1827 in Greece. The Anglo-Russo-French fleet defeated the egypto-ottoman fleet and the victory opened the way for Greek national independence. 34 All the quotations in Durando (1834: 1–3). 35 There are many studies on the popular Miguelism, name of the Portuguese absolutism. See in particular, Ferreira (2002 Ferreira, Fátima Sá e Melo. 2002. Rebeldes e insubmissos. Resistências populares ao liberalismo (1834–1844), Porto: Ediç[otilde]es Afrontamento. preface by Maurice Agulhon [Google Scholar]). Concerning the popular behavior during the civil war, see Cardoso (2007 Cardoso, António Monteiro. 2007. A Revolução liberal em Trás-os-Montes (1820–1834). O Povo e as Elites, Porto: Ediç[otilde]es Afrontamento. 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