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Why did Giuseppe Mazzini leave Rome after the French army intervened in 1849?
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Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini, detail of an oil painting by Luigi Zuccoli, 1865; in the Museo del Risorgimento, Milan.
Giuseppe Mazzini left Rome in 1849 because the Roman Republic he helped lead was crushed by French military intervention.1
After Pope Pius IX was driven from power, Mazzini served as a triumvir and the effective head of the revolutionary government. In response to the Pope's appeal for assistance, a French army—sent by Louis-Napoleon—landed in Italy to restore papal authority. Following a month-long siege and heroic resistance by Roman forces, the city fell to French troops in July 1849, forcing the collapse of the republic and Mazzini's departure.12