Giuseppe Garibaldi seemed to have a nose for trouble. As a young man, he supported a form of Italian republicanism and joined his mentor Giuseppe Mazzini in calling for the unification of nation states across the historic borders of Italy. Some of his incentive to push for unification involved liberation from Austrian control, a resistance to outside influence that he preached throughout his life.
When he led a failed insurrection in the north, he was sentenced to death but fled to Marseille, and then on to South America. Not content with idling sitting out his exile, he joined the resistance in opposing Brazil’s claim to power. His marriage to Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva seemed to have tamed Garibaldi’s wanderlust, at least for a time, but he kept an eye on political struggles in
