Expedition of the Thousand in the context of "Giuseppe Mazzini"

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Italian: Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area in Italy before the Italian unification, comprising Sicily and most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno (southern Italy) and covering all of the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States.

The kingdom was formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples, which was officially also known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Since both kingdoms were named Sicily, they were collectively known as the "Two Sicilies" (Utraque Sicilia, literally "both Sicilies"), and the unified kingdom adopted this name. The king of the Two Sicilies was overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, after which the people voted in a plebiscite to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. The annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies completed the first phase of Italian unification, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861.

Apulia (/əˈpuːliə/ ə-POO-lee-ə), also known by its Italian name Puglia (Italian: [ˈpuʎʎa]), is a region of Italy, located in the southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Otranto and Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and has 3,874,166 inhabitants as of 2025. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and Basilicata to the southwest. The regional capital is Bari.

In ancient times, more precisely at the beginning of the first millennium BC, the region of Apulia was inhabited by the Iapygians, while during the 8th century BC its coastal areas were populated by ancient Greeks. Later, the region was conquered by the ancient Romans. It was then conquered by the Byzantines, followed by the Normans, the Aragonese and the Spanish. Subsequently, it became part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to then be annexed to the unified Kingdom of Italy after the Expedition of the Thousand.

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (Italian: [kaˈmillo ˈbɛnso]; 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as the Count of Cavour (/kəˈvʊər/ kə-VOOR; Italian: Conte di Cavour [ˈkonte di kaˈvur]) or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, statesman, businessman, economist, and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1852, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) until his death, throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office and did not live to see the Roman Question solved through the complete unification of the country after the Capture of Rome in 1870.

Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont, at that time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in his earlier years and founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento. After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of centre-left and centre-right politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, managing to manoeuvre Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power.

The Redshirts (Italian: Camicie rosse or Giubbe rosse), also called the Red Coats, are volunteers who followed the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaigns. The name derived from the colour of their shirts or loose-fitting blouses that the volunteers, usually called Garibaldini, wore in lieu of a uniform.

The force originated as the Italian Legion supporting the Colorado Party during the Uruguayan Civil War. The story is that Garibaldi was given red shirts destined for slaughterhouse workers. Later, during the wars of Italian unification, the Redshirts won several battles against the armies of the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and the Papal States. Most notably, Garibaldi led his Redshirts in the Expedition of the Thousand of 1860, which concluded with the annexation of Sicily, Southern Italy, Marche, and Umbria to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which led to the creation of a unified Kingdom of Italy. His military enterprises in South America and Europe made Garibaldi become known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds".

Quarto dei Mille is a residential district in the east of Genoa, Italy, overlooking the sea. Located between the Sturla and Quinto al Mare districts, it was originally called Quarto al Mare (Ligurian: Quarto a-o Mâ).

It is currently named after the 1860 Expedition of the Thousand (Garibaldi's volunteer force), who embarked for Sicily there. In 1926 it was integrated into the municipality of Genoa.

Marsala (Italian: [marˈsaːla], local Sicilian: [maɪsˈsaːla]; Latin: Lilybaeum) is a city and comune located in the Province of Trapani in the westernmost part of Sicily. With a population of 79,693, Marsala is the fifth largest city in Sicily.

The town is famous for the docking of Giuseppe Garibaldi on 11 May 1860 (the Expedition of the Thousand) and for its Marsala wine. A feature of the area is the Stagnone Lagoon Natural Reserve – a marine area with salt ponds.

The Southern Army (Italian: esercito meridionale) was the force of around 50,000 Italian and foreign volunteers which formed as a result of the Expedition of the Thousand. The name was coined by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Its officers wore red uniforms and so - like the Thousand - the force's rank and file became known as redshirts. It was dissolved before the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.

The Sicilian revolution of independence of 1848 which commenced on 12 January 1848 was the first of the numerous Revolutions of 1848 which swept across Europe. It was a popular rebellion against the rule of Ferdinand II of the House of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies. Three revolutions against the Bourbon ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies had previously occurred on the island of Sicily starting from 1800: this final one resulted in an independent state (the self-proclaimed Kingdom of Sicily) which survived for 16 months. The Sicilian Constitution of 1848 which survived the 16 months was advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unified Italian confederation of states. It was in effect a curtain-raiser to the end of the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies, finally completed by Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, the Siege of Gaeta of 1860–1861 and the proclamation of the unified Kingdom of Italy.