1.
Second Italian War of Independence
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The Piedmontese, following their defeat by Austria in the First Italian War of Independence, recognised their need for allies. In the peace conference at Paris following the Crimean War, Cavour attempted to bring attention to efforts for Italian unification, private talks between Napoleon III and Cavour after the conference identified Napoleon as the most likely, albeit still uncommitted, candidate for aiding Italy. On 14 January 1858, Felice Orsini, an Italian, led an attempt on Napoleon IIIs life, Cavour, being unable to get the French help unless the Austrians attacked first, provoked Vienna with a series of military manoeuvers close to the border. The French army for the Italian campaign had 170,000 soldiers,2,000 horsemen and 312 guns, the Imperial Guard was commanded by Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean dAngély. The Sardinian army had about 70,000 soldiers,4,000 horsemen and 90 guns and it was divided into five divisions, led by Castelbrugo, Manfredo Fanti, Giovanni Durando, Enrico Cialdini, and Domenico Cucchiari. Two volunteer formations, the Cacciatori delle Alpi and the Cacciatori degli Appennini, were also present, the commander in chief was Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, supported by Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora. The Austrian army fielded more men, it was composed of 220,000 soldiers,824 guns and 22,000 horsemen and was led by Field Marshal Ferenc Graf Gyulay. At the declaration of war, there were no French troops in Italy, the Austrian forces counted on a swift victory over the weaker Sardinian army before French forces could arrive in Piedmont. Unfortunately for him, very heavy rains began to fall as soon as he did this, allowing the Piedmontese to flood the fields in front of his advance. On 14 May Napoleon III arrived in Alessandria, taking the command of the operations, the initial clash of the war was at Montebello on 20 May, a battle between an Austrian Corps under Stadion and a single division of the French I Corps under Forey. The Austrian contingent was three times as large, but the French were victorious, making Gyulai still more cautious, in early June, Gyulai had advanced to the rail center of Magenta, leaving his army spread out. Napoleon III attacked the Ticino head on with part of his force while sending another large group of troops to the north to flank the Austrians. The plan worked, causing Gyulai to retreat east to the fortresses in Lombardy. Replacing Gyulai was Emperor Franz Josef I himself and he planned to defend the well-fortified Austrian territory behind the Mincio River. The Piedmontese-French army had taken Milan and slowly marched further east to finish off Austria in this war before Prussia could get involved, the Austrians found out that the French had halted at Brescia, and decided that they should counterattack along the river Chiese. The two armies met accidentally around Solferino, precipitating a series of battles. A French corps held off three Austrian corps all day at Medole, keeping them from joining the battle around Solferino, where, after a day-long battle. Ludwig von Benedek with the Austrian VIII Corps was separated from the main force and this they did successfully, but the entire Austrian army retreated after the breakthrough at Solferino, withdrawing back into the Quadrilateral
2.
Adolphe Yvon
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Adolphe Yvon was a French painter known for his paintings of the Napoleonic Wars. Yvon studied under Paul Delaroche, rose to fame during the Second Empire, shortly after the end of the Crimean War in September 1855, Yvon was commissioned by the French government to paint a large picture of the capture of the Malakoff at Sevastopol. He sailed for the Crimea on February 19,1856 where he spent six weeks compiling a portfolio of sketches, as well as visiting the battlefield of Inkerman. In 1857, the finished painting La Prise de la tour de Malakoff 8 septembre 1855 was shown at the Paris Salon, La Prise was a massive piece measuring 6 metres by 9 metres and represented the moment when the fortification was captured around midday. In the succeeding years, Emperor Napoleon III began to admire his battle scenes, Yvon became an officer of the Légion dhonneur in 1867, and painted Napoleon IIIs portrait the following year. Yvon was known as the teacher of drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts. A few Americans received instruction from him, including Christian Schussele, Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, William Sartain, the latter took Yvons afternoon life-drawing class starting in the fall of 1874. He was shoved to the base of Pompeys statue, which became bathed in his blood, alexander Stewart, the American collector, commissioned Yvon to paint The Reconciliation of the North and the South in 1870, as well as The Genius of America. His Portrait of President Carnot appeared at the Worlds Columbian Exposition, a Handbook of Modern French Painting. New York, Dodd, Mead and Co. p.284, thierry, A. Adolphe Yvon, Souvenirs dun peintre militaire, Revue des Deux Mondes 71, 844-873. Heiser, E. Adolphe Yvon, 1817–1893, et les siens, Adolphe Yvon, in From Monet to Cézanne, Late 19th Century French Artists
3.
Lombardy
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Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. Milan, Lombardys capital, is the second-largest city and the largest metropolitan area in Italy, the word Lombardy comes from Lombard, which in turn is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, Langobardus, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz, equivalent to long beard. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz, Lombardy referred during the early Middle Ages to the entire territory of Italy ruled by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe who conquered much of the Italian peninsula beginning in the 6th century. During the late Middle Ages, the term shifted meaning and was used to identify the whole of Northern Italy, with a surface of 23,861 km2, Lombardy is the 4th largest region of Italy. It is bordered by Switzerland and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, three distinct natural zones can be fairly easily distinguished in the Lombardy region, mountains, hills and plains – the latter being divided in Alta and Bassa. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above made is the subregion of Oltrepò Pavese, formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po River. The mighty Po river marks the border of the region for a length of about 210 km. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino River, the other streams which contribute to the great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio and the Mincio. The numerous lakes of Lombardy, all of glacial origin, lie in the northern highlands, from west to east these are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Idro, then Lake Garda, the largest in Italy. A minor mountainous area, the Oltrepò Pavese, lies south of the Po, in the plains, intensively cultivated for centuries, little of the original environment remains. The most commons trees are elm, alder, sycamore, poplar, willow, in the area of the foothills lakes, however, grow olive trees, cypresses and larches, as well as varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolias, azaleas, acacias. Numerous species of flora in the Prealpine area include some kinds of saxifrage, the Lombard garlic, groundsels bellflowers. The highlands are characterized by the vegetation of the whole range of the Italian Alps. At a lower levels oak woods or broadleafed trees grow, on the slopes beech trees grow at the lowest limits. Shrubs such as rhododendron, dwarf pine and juniper are native to the summital zone, Lombardy has a wide array of climates, due to local variances in elevation, proximity to inland water basins, and large metropolitan areas. In addition, there is a seasonal temperature variation. A peculiarity of the climate is the thick fog that covers the plains between October and February. In the Alpine foothills, characterised by an Oceanic climate, numerous lakes exercise a mitigating influence, in the hills and mountains, the climate is humid continental
4.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
7.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
8.
Kingdom of Sardinia
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The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Southern Europe which existed from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the state of todays Italy. When it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, however, the Savoyards united it with their possessions on the Italian mainland and, by the time of the Crimean War in 1853, had built the resulting kingdom into a strong power. The formal name of the entire Savoyard state was the States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia and its final capital was Turin, the capital of Savoy since the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia, in 1420 the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire, in 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. While in theory the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Congress of Vienna, which restructured Europe after Napoleons defeat, returned to Savoy its mainland possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from the Republic of Genoa. In 1847–48, in a fusion, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system, with the capital in Turin, and granted a constitution. There followed the annexation of Lombardy, the central Italian states and the Two Sicilies, Venetia, in 238 BC Sardinia became, along with Corsica, a province of the Roman Empire. The Romans ruled the island until the middle of the 5th century, when it was occupied by the Vandals, in 534 AD it was reconquered by the Romans, but now from the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. It remained a Byzantine province until the Arab conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, after that, communications with Constantinople became very difficult, and powerful families of the island assumed control of the land. Starting from 705–706, Saracens from north Africa harassed the population of the coastal cities, information about the Sardinian political situation in the following centuries is scarce. There is a record of another massive Saracen sea attack in 1015–16 from the Balearics, the Saracen attempt to invade the island was stopped by the Judicatus with the support of the fleets of the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa, free cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Benedict VIII also requested aid from the republics of Pisa. Even the title of Judices was a Byzantine reminder of the Greek church and state, of these sovereigns only two names are known, Turcoturiu and Salusiu, who probably ruled in the 10th century. The Archons still wrote in Greek or Latin, but one of the first documents of the Judex of Cagliari, their successor, was written in romance Sardinian language. The realm was divided into four kingdoms, the Judicati, perfectly organized as was the previous realm, but was now under the influence of the Pope. That was the cause of leading to a long war between the Judices, who regarded themselves as kings fighting against rebellious nobles
9.
Austrian Empire
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The Austrian Empire was an empire in Central Europe created out of the realms of the Habsburgs by proclamation in 1804. It was an empire and one of Europes great powers. Geographically it was the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire and it was also the third most populous after Russia and France, as well as the largest and strongest country in the German Confederation. Proclaimed in response to the First French Empire, it overlapped with the Holy Roman Empire until the dissolution in 1806. The Ausgleich of 1867 elevated Hungarys status and it became a separate entity from the Empire entirely, joining with it in the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Changes shaping the nature of the Holy Roman Empire took place during conferences in Rastatt, on 24 March 1803, the Imperial Recess was declared, which reduced the number of ecclesiastical states from 81 to only 3 and the free imperial cities from 51 to 6. This measure was aimed at replacing the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, taking this significant change into consideration, the German Emperor Francis II created the title Emperor of Austria, for himself and his successors. In 1804 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who was ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, to safeguard his dynastys imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria. Hungarys affairs remained administered by its own institutions as they had been beforehand, thus under the new arrangements no Imperial institutions were involved in its internal government. The fall and dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in the Empire in September 1805, on 20 October 1805, an Austrian army led by general Karl Mack von Leiberich was defeated by French armies near the town of Ulm. The French victory resulted in the capture of 20,000 Austrian soldiers, Napoleons army won another victory at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Francis was forced into negotiations with the French from 4 to 6 December 1805, the French victories encouraged rulers of certain imperial territories to assert their formal independence from the Empire. On 10 December 1805, the prince-elector Duke of Bavaria proclaimed himself King, finally, on 12 December, the Margrave of Baden was given the title of Grand Duke. In addition, each of these new countries signed a treaty with France, the Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria, signed in Pressburg on 26 December, enlarged the territory of Napoleons German allies at the expense of defeated Austria. Certain Austrian holdings in Germany were passed to French allies—the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg, Austrian claims on those German states were renounced without exception. On 12 July 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was established, comprising 16 sovereigns and this confederation, under French influence, put an end to the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, even Francis recognized the new state of things and proclaimed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, as he did not want Napoleon to succeed him
10.
Napoleon III
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Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and then Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
11.
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
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The Italians gave him the epithet Father of the Fatherland. Victor Emmanuel was born the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano and his father succeeded a distant cousin as King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1831. He lived for years of his youth in Florence and showed an early interest in politics, the military. In 1842, he married his cousin Adelaide of Austria and he was styled as the Duke of Savoy prior to becoming King of Sardinia-Piedmont. He took part in the First Italian War of Independence under his father King Charles Albert, fighting in the front line at the battles of Pastrengo, Santa Lucia, Goito and Custoza. He became King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1849 when his father abdicated the throne after a military defeat by the Austrians at the Battle of Novara. Victor Emmanuel was immediately able to obtain a rather favorable armistice at Vignale by the Austrian imperial army commander Radetzky, after new elections, the peace with Austria was accepted by the new Chamber of Deputies. In 1849 Victor Emmanuel also fiercely suppressed a revolt in Genoa, defining the rebels as a vile, in 1852, he appointed Count Camillo Benso of Cavour as Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia. This turned out to be a choice, since Cavour was a political mastermind. Victor Emmanuel II soon became the symbol of the Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement of the 1850s and he was especially popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont because of his respect for the new constitution and his liberal reforms. Following Victor Emmanuels advice, Cavour joined Britain and France in the Crimean War against Russia, Cavour was reluctant to go to war due to the power of Russia at the time and the expense of doing so. Victor Emmanuel, however, was convinced of the rewards to be gained from the alliance created with Britain and, more importantly, the Italo-French campaign against Austria in 1859 started successfully. After several quarrels about the outcome of the war, Cavour resigned, later that same year, Victor Emmanuel II sent his forces to fight the papal army at Castelfidardo and drove the Pope into Vatican City. His success at these goals led him to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church, then, Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and Naples, and Sardinia-Piedmont grew even larger. On 17 March 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was officially established, Victor Emmanuel supported Giuseppe Garibaldis Expedition of the Thousand, which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, the king halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, in 1860, through local plebiscites, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the battle of Castelfidardo over the Papal forces. The king subsequently met with Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy, another series of plebiscites in the occupied lands resulted in the proclamation of Victor Emmanuel as the first King of Italy by the new Parliament of unified Italy, on 17 March 1861
12.
Franz Joseph I of Austria
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Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and many others from 2 December 1848 until his death on 21 November 1916. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, in December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne at Olomouc as part of Ministerpräsident Felix zu Schwarzenbergs plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary. This allowed Ferdinands nephew Franz Joseph to accede to the throne, largely considered to be a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism during his entire reign and he concluded the Ausgleich of 1867, which granted greater autonomy to Hungary, hence transforming the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire under his dual monarchy. After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, the Bosnian crisis was a result of Franz Josephs annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin. On 28 June 1914, the assassination of his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungarys declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia and this activated a system of alliances which resulted in World War I. Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years and he was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles. His name in German was Franz Joseph I and I and his names in other languages were, Croatian and Bosnian, Franjo Josip I. Ukrainian, Фра́нц Йо́сиф I, Romanian, Francisc Iosif Slovene, serbian, Фрања Јосиф Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl, and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Franzl came to idolise his grandfather, der Gute Kaiser Franz, at the age of thirteen, Franzl started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. From that point onward, his fashion was dictated by army style, Franz Joseph was soon joined by three younger brothers, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke Karl Ludwig, and Archduke Ludwig Viktor, and a sister, Maria Anna, who died at the age of four. Instead, Franz was sent to the front in Italy, joining Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on 29 April, by all accounts he handled his first military experience calmly and with dignity. Around the same time, the Imperial Family was fleeing revolutionary Vienna for the setting of Innsbruck. Soon, the Archduke was called back from Italy, joining the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It was at Innsbruck at this time that Franz Joseph first met his cousin Elisabeth, his bride, then a girl of ten. Following victory over the Italians at Custoza in late July, the court felt safe to return to Vienna, but within a few months Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in September the court left again, this time for Olomouc in Moravia. By now, Prince Alfred I of Windisch-Grätz, the military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young Archduke soon put on the throne. By the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father, at this time he first became known by his second as well as his first Christian name
13.
Battle of Varese
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The Battle of Varese was fought on 26 May 1859 at Varese. It was an engagement of the Second Italian War of Independence, fought between the Italian volunteers formation of the Hunters of the Alps, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, against Austrian troops. The Austrian defeat allowed the movement of the Hunters towards Como, Garibaldi and his Hunters had moved and occupied Varese, in the night of 23 May. The Austrian commander in chief, Ferencz Gyulai, had sent the Urban division to settle the matter. In the meantime, on 25 May,500 Austrian riflemen,130 Ulans, on 26 May, at dawn, Urban arrived at Varese, where Garibaldi had already prepared the defence. The Italians were deployed as, one battalion on the right, the Austrians opened fire with the guns, then moved three columns against the enemy. Cosenzs battalion attacked the incoming Austrians, and routed them into the other columns, Urban, overestimating the enemy forces, retreated on Malnate. Medici and Ardoino attacked the retreating Austrians, causing more losses
14.
Battle of Palestro
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The Battle of Palestro was fought on 30/31 May 1859 between the Austrian Empire and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and France. It was fought just south to Palestro, a town in what is now the province of Pavia in northern Italy, part of the Piedmontese forces advanced to Robbio to cover the right flank of the allied army. On 30 May the Piedmontese crossed the Sesia river and, after a fight, managed to take control of Palestro, Vinzaglio. The following day, in order to test the enemys strength, the King of Sardinia-Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel II, was in Palestro and followed the early course of the battle from the towns bell tower. The Austrian attacked first the Piedmontese line at Palestro, but were pushed back to Robbio, the Piedmontese at Cascina San Pietro were also under heavy attack from Austrian troops from Rosasco. The situation was solved by the attack of the 3rd Zouaves Regiment under Colonel Chabron. The Zouaves were able to reach the artillery, defended by the 7th Tirolese Hunters Regiment. Then they launched an attack against the four infantry battalions of the 12th Regiment Archduke William. The positions conquered by the French units were reinforced by Italian troops, led personally by Victor Emmanuel. After the Franco-Piedmontese troops had strengthened their bridgehead over the Sesia river, Zobel, despite its numerical superiority and his decision was motivated by the fear that French units under general Canrobert, which had just reached the left bank of the Sesia, could cut in two his corps
15.
Battle of Magenta
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It took place near the town of Magenta in northern Italy on 4 June 1859. Napoleon IIIs army crossed the Ticino River and outflanked the Austrian right forcing the Austrian army under Gyulai to retreat, the confined nature of the country, a vast spread of orchards cut up by streams and irrigation canals, precluded elaborate manoeuvre. The Austrians turned every house into a miniature fortress, the brunt of the fighting was borne by 5,000 grenadiers of the French Imperial Guard, still mostly in First Empire style uniform. The battle of Magenta was not particularly large, but it was a victory for the French-Sardinian forces. Patrice Maurice de MacMahon was created Duke of Magenta for his role in this battle, the French-Piedmontese coalition comprised an overwhelming majority of French troops. Their victory can therefore be considered as substantially a French victory, a dye producing the colour magenta was discovered in 1859, and was named after this battle, as was the Boulevard de Magenta in Paris
16.
Battle of Leipzig
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The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813, at Leipzig, Saxony. Napoleons army also contained Polish and Italian troops, as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine, the battle was the culmination of the 1813 German campaign and involved nearly 600,000 soldiers, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I. Being decisively defeated for the first time in battle, Napoleon was compelled to return to France while the Coalition hurried to keep their momentum, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba in May 1814. However, the Russian Tsar refused to even as the French occupied the city. With this string of defeats, the armies of France were in retreat on all fronts across Europe, anti-French forces joined Russia as its troops pursued the remnants of the virtually destroyed Grande Armée across central Europe. He sought to regain the offensive by re-establishing his hold in Germany, the victories led to a brief armistice. He then won a victory at the Battle of Dresden on 27 August. This policy led to victories at Großbeeren, Kulm, Katzbach, after these defeats, the French emperor could not easily follow up on his victory at Dresden. With the intention of knocking Prussia out of the war as soon as possible, Oudinot was defeated at the Battle of Großbeeren, just south of the city. With the intact Prussian force threatening from the north, Napoleon was compelled to withdraw westward and he deployed his army around the city, but concentrated his force from Taucha through Stötteritz, where he placed his command. The Prussians advanced from Wartenburg, the Austrians and Russians from Dresden, the coalition had some 380,000 troops along with 1,500 guns, consisting of 145,000 Russians,115,000 Austrians,90,000 Prussians, and 30,000 Swedes. This made Leipzig the largest battle of the Napoleonic wars, surpassing Borodino, Wagram, Jena and Auerstadt, Ulm, Napoleon conscripted these men to be readied for an even larger campaign against the newly formed Sixth Coalition and its forces stationed in Germany. While he won several battles, his army was being steadily depleted as Coalition commanders, closely following the Trachenberg Plan. The Swedes also had under their command a company of the British Rocket Brigade armed with Congreve rockets, despite being outnumbered, Napoleon planned to take the offensive between the Pleisse and the Parthe rivers. The position at Leipzig held several advantages for his army and his battle strategy, the rivers that converged there split the surrounding terrain into many separate sectors. The northern front was defended by Marshals Michel Ney and Auguste de Marmont, the artillery reserve and parks, ambulances, and baggage stood near Leipzig, which Napoleon made his supply base for the battle. The bridges on the Pleisse and White Elster rivers were defended by infantry, the main battery stood in reserve, and during battle was to be deployed on the Gallows Height. This battery was to be commanded by the artillery expert Antoine Drouot, the western flank of the French positions at Wachau and Liebertwolkwitz was defended by Prince Joseph Poniatowski and Marshal Pierre Augereau and his young French conscripts
17.
Henry Dunant
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Henry Dunant, also known as Henri Dunant, was the founder of the Red Cross, and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunants ideas, in 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frédéric Passy, making Dunant the first Swiss Nobel laureate. Dunant was a Swiss businessman and social activist, during a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern-day Italy. He recorded his memories and experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino which inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, Dunant was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the first son of businessman Jean-Jacques Dunant and Antoinette Dunant-Colladon. His family was devoutly Calvinist and had significant influence in Geneva society and his parents stressed the value of social work, and his father was active helping orphans and parolees, while his mother worked with the sick and poor. His father worked in a prison and an orphanage, Dunant grew up during the period of religious awakening known as the Réveil, and at age 18 he joined the Geneva Society for Alms giving. On 30 November 1852, he founded the Geneva chapter of the YMCA, in 1849, at age 21, Dunant was forced to leave the Collège Calvin due to poor grades, and he began an apprenticeship with the money-changing firm Lullin et Sautter. After its successful conclusion, he remained as an employee of the bank, in 1853, Dunant visited Algeria, Tunisia, and Sicily, on assignment with a company devoted to the colonies of Setif. Despite little experience, he fulfilled the assignment. Inspired by the trip, he wrote his first book with the title An Account of the Regency in Tunis, however, the land and water rights were not clearly assigned, and the colonial authorities were not especially cooperative. As a result, Dunant decided to directly to French emperor Napoléon III. France was fighting on the side of Piedmont-Sardinia against Austria, who had occupied much of todays Italy, napoleons headquarters were located in the small city of Solferino. Dunant wrote a book full of praise for Napoleon III with the intention to present it to the emperor. Dunant arrived in Solferino on the evening of 24 June 1859, twenty-three thousand wounded, dying and dead remained on the battlefield, and there appeared to be little attempt to provide care. Shocked, Dunant himself took the initiative to organize the population, especially the women and girls, to provide assistance to the injured. They lacked sufficient materials and supplies, and Dunant himself organized the purchase of needed materials and he convinced the population to service the wounded without regard to their side in the conflict as per the slogan Tutti fratelli coined by the women of nearby city Castiglione delle Stiviere. He also succeeded in gaining the release of Austrian doctors captured by the French, after returning to Geneva early in July, Dunant decided to write a book about his experiences, which he titled Un Souvenir de Solferino. It was published in 1862 in an edition of 1,600 copies and was printed at Dunants own expense, within the book, he described the battle, its costs, and the chaotic circumstances afterwards
18.
Geneva Conventions
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The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment in war. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in whole or with reservations, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant went to visit wounded soldiers after the Battle of Solferino in 1859. He was shocked by the lack of facilities, personnel, as a result, he published his book, A Memory of Solferino, in 1862, on the horrors of war. The latter led to the 1864 Geneva Convention, the first codified international treaty that covered the sick, for both of these accomplishments, Henry Dunant became corecipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. The ten articles of this first treaty were initially adopted on 22 August 1864 by twelve nations, on 20 October 1868 the first, unsuccessful, attempt to expand the 1864 treaty was undertaken. With the Additional Articles relating to the Condition of the Wounded in War an attempt was undertaken to clarify some rules of the 1864 convention, the Articles were signed but never ratified by all parties. Only the Netherlands and the United States ratified the Articles, the Netherlands later withdrew their ratification. The protection of the victims of warfare would later be realized by the third Hague Convention of 1899. In 1906 thirty-five states attended a conference convened by the Swiss government and it remained into force until 1970 when Costa Rica acceded to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The 1929 conference yielded two conventions that were signed on July 27th 1929, one, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field, was the third version to replace the original convention of 1864. The other was adopted after experiences in World War I had shown the deficiencies in the protection of prisoners of war under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was not to replace these earlier conventions signed at The Hague, the Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea replaced the Hague Convention of 1907. It was the first Geneva Convention on the protection of the victims of warfare and mimicked the structure. The Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War replaced the 1929 Geneva Convention that dealt with prisoners of war. In addition to these three conventions, the conference added a new elaborate Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. It was the first Geneva Convention not to deal with combatants, the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions had already contained some provisions on the protection of civilians and occupied territory. Article 154 specifically provides that the Fourth Geneva Convention is supplementary to these provisions in the Hague Conventions, despite the length of these documents, they were found over time to be incomplete. In light of developments, two Protocols were adopted in 1977 that extended the terms of the 1949 Conventions with additional protections
19.
International Committee of the Red Cross
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The International Committee of the Red Cross is a humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland and a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts, such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants. The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and 190 National Societies. It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the Movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes in 1917,1944, and 1963. When he arrived in the town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June, he witnessed the Battle of Solferino. In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were wounded on the field. Henry Dunant was shocked by the aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers. He completely abandoned the original intent of his trip and for days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of assistance by motivating the local population to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published with his own money in 1862 and he sent copies of the book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe. In addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the neutrality and protection of wounded on the battlefield as well as medics. On 9 February 1863 in Geneva, Henry Dunant founded the Committee of the Five as a commission of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. Their aim was to examine the feasibility of Dunants ideas and to organize a conference about their possible implementation. Eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, in October 1863, the international conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on the battle field. The states and kingdoms represented by delegates were Baden, Bavaria, France, Britain, Hanover, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden. Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, and Württemberg
20.
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon
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The first part of Das Grosse Conversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände appeared in October 1839. In contrast to its contemporaries, it contained maps and illustrations with the text, there is no indication of the planned number of volumes or a time limit for this project, but little headway had been made by the otherwise dynamic Meyer. After six years,14 volumes had appeared, covering only one fifth of the alphabet, another six years passed before the last volume was published. Six supplementary volumes finally finished the work in 1855, ultimately numbering 52 volumes, Das Grosse Conversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände was the most comprehensive completed German encyclopedia of the 19th century, also called der Wunder-Meyer. The complete set was reprinted 1858-59, the son of Joseph Meyer, Hermann Julius, published the next edition, entitled Neues Conversations-Lexikon für alle Stände, 1857–60, that would only count 15 volumes. To avoid a long-time project, subscribers were promised it would be completed three years, and all volumes appearing later would be given free. Of course, it was finished right on time, the 2nd edition, Neues Konversations-Lexikon, ein Wörterbuch des allgemeinen Wissens, appeared 1861-67, the 3rd edition, now from Leipzig, was issued as Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. Eine Encyklopädie des allgemeinen Wissens 1874-78, both had 15 volumes, the 4th edition, consisting of 16 volumes, appeared in 1885-90, with 2 supplements of update pages, vol.17 and vol. The 5th edition had 17 volumes, Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, ein Nachschlagewerk des allgemeinen Wissens,1893 to 1897. This edition sold no less than 233,000 sets, the 6th edition, entitled Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, was published 1902-08. It had 20 volumes, and the largest sale of all Meyer editions, the First World War prevented an even bigger success. There was also the small 1908 edition, Meyers Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, the 7th and 8th editions were both briefly named Meyers Lexikon. The 7th edition counted only 12 volumes, due to the depression of the twenties. It came with a condensed single-volume version known as the Blitz-Lexikon, the 8th edition remained incomplete due to wartime circumstances, out of 12 planned volumes only volumes number 1 through 9 plus the atlas volume number 12 could be issued. The buildings of the company were destroyed by the bombing raids on Leipzig in 1943/44. In 1953 the place of business was moved to Mannheim in West Germany, the 9th edition, now from Mannheim, entitled Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon in 25 Bänden, appeared in 1971-79. Just like the very first, this final Mannheim edition was the most comprehensive German encyclopaedia of the century, from Leipzig came Meyers Neues Lexikon, embedded in the Marxist ideology. In 1984, the Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim amalgamated with its biggest competitor in field of reference books F. A. Brockhaus of Wiesbaden, in a so-called Elefantenhochzeit
21.
Italian unification
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The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The memory of the Risorgimento is central to both Italian politics and Italian historiography, for short period is one of the most contested. Italian nationalism was based among intellectuals and political activists, often operating from exile, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman province of Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was a foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state, as a result. This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and France. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League, in 1454, leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead in Italia Mia, Niccolò Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince, which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy to free her from the barbarians. I am an Italian, he explained, the French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleons choice of rulers, as Napoleons reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones further feeding nationalistic sentiments. After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under leadership of the Pope in his 1842 book, Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians. Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary, Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic. That proved too extreme for most nationalists, the middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont. One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari, a political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections, a void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle class professionals and business men and some intellectuals, the Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical, the Carbonari movement spread across Italy
22.
Desenzano del Garda
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Desenzano del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. It borders the communes of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Lonato, Padenghe sul Garda, during the Third Italian War of Independence, Desenzano was bombarded by the Austrian navy. It attracts myriad tourists from the area owing to its beautiful view of the Alps from the southern shore of Lake Garda. Desenzano is the heart of nightlife on the shore of Lake Garda, with several discos. In the summer, its squares, Piazza Malvezzi and Piazza Matteotti, are crowded all night with young and partying people. At the heart of the city is a series of interconnected piazze that house numerous open-air cafés, various shops, gelaterie, the city has a main port near the Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, from where several ferries operate. On the south-western outskirts of the city is a railway station, the Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione railway station. Desenzano also has its own exit from the A4 motorway, the road between Milan and Venice. It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements, which are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site, Desenzano is headed by a mayor assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale, and an executive body, the giunta comunale. Since 1994 the mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are directly elected together by resident citizens, the giunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessori. The offices of the comune are housed in a building called the municipio or palazzo comunale. Since 1994 the mayor of Desenzano is directly elected by citizens, originally every four, the current mayor is Rosa Leso, elected on 21 May 2012. Leso is the first female to held the office and this is a timeline of the direct-elected mayors of Desenzano since 1994, Left-wing, Right-wing Desenzano Tourism
23.
Lake Garda
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Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is a holiday location and is located in northern Italy. Glaciers formed this region at the end of the last Ice Age. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Verona, Brescia, and Trentino, the name Garda, which the lake has been seen referred to in documents dating to the eighth century, comes from the town of the same name. It is the evolution of the Germanic word warda, meaning place of guard or place of observation, the northern part of the lake is narrower, surrounded by mountains, the majority of which belong to the Gruppo del Baldo. The shape is typical of a valley, probably having been formed under the action of a Paleolithic glacier. Nearby to the south is Isola San Biagio, also known as the Isola dei Conigli, both are offshore of San Felice del Benaco, on the lakes western side. The three other islands are Isola dellOlivo, Isola di Sogno, and Isola di Trimelone. The main tributary is the Sarca River, others include the Ponale River, if the water level of the Adige river is too high, excess water is diverted to the lake through the Mori-Torbole tunnel. The particularly mild climate favours the growth of some Mediterranean plants, citrus trees can also be found, which are extremely rare at this latitude. This greatly favoured the development of tourism since the end of the world war. In ancient times, poets like Catullus wrote about Lacus Benacus with its mild climate vivified by the winds, the bottleneck formed by the lake basin affects the timing of the winds, many of which happen on a regular daily basis. The winds are all named, most in regional Italian dialect so a single wind may have different names, salmo carpio, also known as the carpione is a rare salmonid fish endemic to Lake Garda. It has been introduced to a number of lakes in Italy and elsewhere. The population in Lake Garda has been declining, and is considered critically endangered. The main threats are due to overfishing, pollution and possibly competition from introduced species such as Coregonus, adult lake trout outside the mating season are silvery with very few black spots on the body and almost none on the head. During the mating season males develop some a dark mottled body coloration, Garda lake trout reach a length of up to 50 centimeters. They live primarily in depths of 100 to 200 metres and they feed on zooplankton and bottom-dwelling crustaceans in summer
24.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
25.
Verona
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Verona is a city on the Adige river in Veneto, Italy, with approximately 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third largest in northeast Italy, the metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km2 and has a population of 714,274 inhabitants. Three of Shakespeares plays are set in Verona, Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and it is unknown if Shakespeare ever visited Verona or Italy at all, but his plays have lured many visitors to Verona and surrounding cities many times over. The city has been awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because of its structure and architecture. According to a theory that considers the geographical position of the city, Verona is short for Versus Romae which means In the direction of Rome because as italian people say All roads lead to Rome. The exclamation Vae Romae if understood in Latin means Alas Rome, in fact, to express distress or denounce a disgrace ancient Romans used the Latin interjection vae. So, you explain the famous poem by William Shakespeare There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture. Hence-banished is banishd from the world, And worlds exile is death, the writer would express a Roman concept through its character named Romeo, a name that invokes Rome, according to which the city of Verona was a boundary between the Roman world and barbaric one. Verona was a place of passage and to horses, for those who wanted to go and had walked the Via Claudia Augusta. So the expression Vae Romae Alas Rome would indicate spirit of the place, another theory is that it is connected to the river. Vera was a name of the river Adige before the adoption of the current name, as in many similar instances in Europe the name of the town is formed with the addition of suffix -ona which means settlement over. The city was sometimes known as Welsch-Bern in German. The precise details of Veronas early history remain a mystery, one theory is it was a city of the Euganei, who were obliged to give it up to the Cenomani. With the conquest of the Valley of the Po the Veronese territory became Roman, Verona became a Roman colonia in 89 BC, and then a municipium in 49 BC when its citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe Poblilia or Publicia. The city became important because it was at the intersection of several roads, stilicho defeated Alaric and his Visigoths here in 403. But, after Verona was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 489, theoderic the Great was said to have built a palace there. It remained under the power of the Goths throughout the Gothic War, except for a day in 541. The defections that took place among the Byzantine generals with regard to the booty made it possible for the Goths to regain possession of the city, in 552 Valerian vainly endeavored to enter the city, but it was only when they were fully overthrown that the Goths surrendered it
26.
Chiese (river)
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The river rises from the Adamello in Trentino and runs through the Val di Fumo and the Val di Daone, forming the reservoirs of Lago di Malga Bissina and Lago di Malga Boazzo. At Pieve di Bono it enters the valleys of Giudicarie. Further south it flows through the Lago dIdro near Baitoni before running down into Lombardy, after leaving the lake the river runs through the Val Sabbia as far as Roè Volciano. Like its twin the Sarca, the river is born of the glaciers of the Parco naturale provinciale dellAdamello-Brenta, within the highly restricted area of its drainage basin above Lago d’Idro there are at least four artificial lakes and three hydro-electric power stations. The lower course of the river in Lombardy is also used for this purpose
27.
Franz Graf von Wimpffen
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Franz Emil Lorenz Heeremann Graf von Wimpffen KSMOM was an Austrian General and Admiral who served as Administrative Head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1851 to 1854. He was the owner of Kainberg, Reitenau and Eichberg castles and estates in Austria and, on 5 October 1825 he married Maria Anna Cecilia Bernhardine Freiin von Eskeles, who converted from Judaism to Catholicism, in Hietzing, Austria. Promoted Generalmajor in 1838, he was given command of a brigade in Trieste, von Wimpffen was made commander of a division of II Army Corps in Italy in 1846 with the rank of Feldmarschall-leutnant. He distinguished himself in the 1848 campaign at Vicenza and Custoza, later, in the Papal States he compelled by bombardment the surrender of Bologna and Ancona. In October 1849 von Wimpffen was named Civil and Military Governor of Trieste and Governor of the Küstenland, upon the resignation of Hans Birch Dahlerup in August 1851, von Wimpffen was named his successor as Oberkommandant der Marine. During his tenure the development of the base of Pola was accelerated. In September 1854, von Wimpffen was dismissed as Oberkommandant der Marine by Emperor Franz Josef against the advice of his military advisers, von Wimpffen instead took command of I Army Corps. He was succeeded as Head of the Navy by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, however well he had performed as Administrative Head of the Navy, von Wimpffen was known in military circles as the General who had never won a battle. Gyulai was dismissed on 16 June by Franz Josef, who assumed command of the army with von Wimpffen in command of the Cavalry. At Solferino, von Wimpffen and his men fought valiantly, the carnage of the battle was so severe that it was soon followed by an armistice and then peace negotiations. In 1861 von Wimpffen was retired with the rank of Generalfeldzeugmeister and he died on 26 November 1870 at Görz, and was buried at the crypt of the Eichberg castle chapel, in Austria, together with his wife. Their son, Heinrich Emil Graf von Wimpffen, born 1 May 1827, Austro-Hungarian Navy http, //www. wimpffen. hu/ http, //www. wimpffen. dk/ http, //www. dresselgenealogy. us/a6. htm Haslip, Joan. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, the Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph. Regarding personal names, Graf is a German title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name
28.
Franz Schlik
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Franz Joseph von Schlik of Bassano and Weisskirchen was an Count and general in the Austrian Empire. He was one of the most successful Austrian generals during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, in 1808, he enrolled in the imperial army and fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He lost sight in his eye in the Battle of Leipzig on 19 October 1813. In 1848, as a Lieutenant general, he became regent of Kraków in Poland, on 11 December Schlik defeated Sándor Pulszky in the Battle of Budamér and occupied Eperjes and Kassa. Schlik waited two weeks before resuming the attack, by this time, György Klapka had reorganized the Upper Tisza legion and because of this, the Hungarians won the Battle of Tarcal on January 22 and the Battle of Bodrogkeresztúr the next day. On January 31st in the Battle of Tokaj Schlik and Windish-Grätz attacked Klapkas positions, richard Guyons victory in the Battle of Branyiszkó created the possibility that Schlik would be surrounded, but Henryk Dembiński would not change his plans. Schliks forces escaped and joined Windish-Grätz, the combined force won the Battle of Kápolna on 26 –27 February. Schlik took part in the Spring Campaign as the leader of the 3rd legion and he lost the battle against András Gáspár, the leader of the 7th Hungarian legion in the Battle of Hatvan on 2 April. He took part in the Battle of Isaszeg on 6 April and on 26 April in the First Battle of Komárom and later retreated in the direction of the River Rába. In the Summer Campaign he took part as a leader of the 1st legion and so was in command at the Battle of Győr on 28 June, julius Jacob von Haynau moved the Austrian legions in three parallel lines against the Hungarians at Szeged. Schlik was the leader of the line that was advancing towards Makó, in September 1849 Schlik was promoted to cavalry general and he received the Order of the Iron Crown and the Military Order of Maria Theresa for his victories. From 1854 he was Galicia and Bukovina commanding general, on 24 June 1859 he was made the commander of the 2nd Austrian army, which he led in the Battle of Solferino. After the Treaty of Villafranca he resigned his commission
29.
French conquest of Algeria
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The French conquest of Algeria took place between 1830 and 1847. Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in Kabylie and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under Abd al-Qādir enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remaining Ottoman threat, al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. He surrendered to French forces in 1847, the territory now known as Algeria was only partially under the Ottoman Empires control in 1830. The dey ruled the entire Regency of Algiers, but only exercised direct control in and around Algiers, with Beyliks established in a few outlying areas, including Oran and Constantine. The remainder of the territory, while nominally Ottoman, was effectively under the control of local Arab, the dey acted largely independently of the Ottoman Emperor, although he was supported by Turkish Janissary troops stationed in Algiers. The territory was bordered to the west by the Sultanate of Morocco, the western border, nominally the Tafna River, was particularly porous since there were shared tribal connections that crossed it. The Regency of Algiers, was one of the bases of the Barbary pirates and Barbary Slave Traders who attacked Christian ships and coastal settlements in the Mediterranean. Like the rest of the Barbary Coast, the Regency of Algiers lived from the trade of slaves or goods captured from Europe, America and sub-Saharan Africa. The European powers bombarded Algiers on different occasions in retaliation and the United States provoked the Barbary Wars in order to put an end to Algerine privateering against Christian shipping and he believed he would bolster patriotic sentiment and turn eyes away from his domestic policies. Algerine slave trade and piracy ceased when the French conquered Algiers. In 1795–96, the French Republic had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two Jewish merchants in Algiers, and Charles X was apparently uninterested in paying off the Republics debt. These merchants, who had debts to Hussein Dey, the Ottoman ruler of Algiers, devals nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône and La Calle against the terms of prior agreements. After a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide answers on 29 April 1827. Charles X used this slight against his diplomatic representative to first demand an apology from the dey, and then to initiate a blockade against the port of Algiers. The blockade lasted for three years, and was primarily to the detriment of French merchants who were unable to do business with Algiers, while Barbary pirates were still able to evade the blockade. When France in 1829 sent an ambassador to the dey with a proposal for negotiations, the French then determined that more forceful action was required. Polignac opened negotiations with Muhammad Ali of Egypt to essentially divide up North Africa, Ali, who was strongly under British influence, eventually rejected this idea
30.
Crimean War
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The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to March 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, the French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an agreement, Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to, when the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in October 1853. The war started in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, until then under Ottoman suzerainty and now part of modern Romania, led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli and they then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a skirmish at Köstence, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that there they are, the French doing nothing, after extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, a second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, Sevastopol fell after eleven months, and neutral countries began to join the Allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued and this was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, Russia was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent, Christians there were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways
31.
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant
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Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant, 1st Comte Vaillant, born in Dijon, was a Marshal of France. Vaillant entered the French army in 1809 in the corps of engineers and he served in the French invasion of Russia and the next year became a prisoner of war after the Battle of Kulm. During the Hundred Days Vaillant fought at Ligny and Waterloo, Vaillant commanded a battalion in the 1830 campaign against Algiers. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he served under Gérard in the expedition into Belgium in 1831, Vaillant commanded the fortress at Algiers from 1837 to 1838, recalled to France, he was made director of the École polytechnique. Promoted to lieutenant general, Vaillant was put in charge of the building of the Parisian fortifications in 1845 under the command of Dode de la Brunerie, in 1849, Vaillant was given command of the engineers in the French expeditionary corps to Rome. Promoted to Marshal of France in 1851, Vaillant served as Minister of War from 1854 to 1859, holding the position throughout the Crimean War. On the outbreak of the Franco-Austrian War he resigned as Minister of War in order to serve as Chief of Staff to Napoleon III, in 1860, Vaillant became minister responsible for the Imperial House and in 1864, he was made Grand Chancellor of the Legion dHonneur. After the fall of the Second French Empire in September 1870, Vaillant was banished from France but was allowed back and he died in Paris the next year
32.
Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora
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Alfonso Ferrero, Cavaliere La Marmora was an Italian general and statesman. His older brothers include soldier and naturalist Alberto della Marmora and Alessandro La Marmora, born in Turin, he entered the Sardinian army in 1823, and was a captain in March 1848, when he gained distinction and the rank of major at the siege of Peschiera. On 5 August 1848 he liberated Charles Albert of Sardinia from a mob in Milan. After suppressing the revolt of Genoa in 1849, he assumed in November 1849 the portfolio of war. He took part in the war of 1859 against Austria, in April 1866 La Marmora concluded an alliance with Prussia against Austria-Hungary, and, on the outbreak of the Third Italian War of Independence in June, took command of an army corps. He is largely credited of the hesitant conduct of the first phases of the Italian invasion and he died in Florence on 5 January 1878. La Marmoras writings include Un episodio di risorgimento italiano and Il segreto di stato nel governo costituzionale
33.
Mincio
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Mincio is a river in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The river is the outlet of the Lake Garda. It is a part of the Sarca-Mincio river system also includes the river Sarca. The river starts from the tip of the lake at the town of Peschiera del Garda and then flows from there for about 65 kilometres past Mantua. At Mantua the Mincio was widened in the late 12th century, the original settlement here, dating from about 2000 BC, was on an island in the Mincio. In 452 CE, Attila the Hun received an embassy sent by the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III near this river, the Roman delegation was led by Pope Leo I. After this meeting, Attila withdrew from Italy, rubis Zemella, La mia Polesella perduta, printed by his own and reprinted by A. V. I. S
34.
Guidizzolo
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Guidizzolo is a comune in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 110 kilometres east of Milan and about 25 kilometres northwest of Mantua. The bordering municipalities of Guidizzolo are Cavriana, Ceresara, Goito, Medole, the most ancient edifice is the Oratory of St. Lawrence, a small Romanesque devotional building dating from the 13th century. The road between Cerlongo and Guidizzolo, in the territory of Cavriana, was the location of Alfonso de Portagos fatal accident in the 1957 Mille Miglia. A memorial slab remembers the event along the road, media related to Guidizzolo at Wikimedia Commons Official website
35.
Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers
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Louis-Achille Baraguey dHilliers, 1st Comte Baraguey dHilliers was a Marshal of France and politician. Baraguey dHilliers was born in Paris, the son of the French revolutionary general Louis Baraguey dHilliers, promoted to captain in 1815, he fought at Quatre Bras. In 1823, he served in the campaign to restore Bourbon power in Spain and he distinguished himself under in Algeria, where he was promoted to colonel after the capture of Algiers in 1830. In 1834, Baraguey dHilliers was made vice-governor of the academy of Saint Cyr, promoted to général de brigade in 1836. Sent to Algeria in 1841, by 1843 he had promoted to général de division and was made commandant of Constantine. Put on the non active list in 1844, by 1847 he was reinstated, after the Revolution of 1848, he was sent as commanding general to Besançon. Elected to the House of Representatives, Baraguey dHilliers remained on active duty, in 1853, Baraguey dHilliers was sent to Constantinople as ambassador extraordinaire, and recalled in 1854. During the Crimean War he was given command of the force destined for the Baltic Sea. After capturing Bomarsund, Baraguey dHilliers was promoted to Marshal of France and he would later serve as vice-president of the French Senate. During the Italian campaign of 1859, Baraguey dHilliers commanded the I Corps with which he distinguished himself by capturing the town of Solferino during the Battle of Solferino, after the war he was given command of V Corps in Tours. Made governor of Paris in 1870, by his frankness he made himself unpopular with the Empress Eugénie, on 12 August he was replaced by Trochu. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Adolphe Thiers made him president of a commission investigating the causes of the French defeat and he died in 1878 in Amélie-les-Bains
36.
Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
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Marshal Marie Esme Patrice Maurice, Count de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, was a French general and politician, with the distinction of Marshal of France. He served as Chief of State of France from 1873 to 1875 and as the president of the Third Republic. MacMahon won national renown and the presidency on the basis of his actions in the war against the Germans. MacMahon was a devout conservative Catholic, a traditionalist who despised socialism and he took very seriously his duty as the neutral guardian of the Constitution and rejected suggestions of a monarchist coup détat. He also refused to meet with Gambetta, the leader of the Republicans and he moved for a parliamentary system in which the assembly selected the ruling government of the Third Republic, but he also insisted on an upper chamber. He later dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in public outrage, MacMahon soon resigned and retired to private life. Patrice de MacMahon was born in Sully, in the département of Saône-et-Loire and he was the 16th of 17 children of a family already in the French nobility. His ancestors were part of the Dál gCais and were Lords of Corcu Baiscind in Ireland and they applied for French citizenship in 1749. Patrice de MacMahon was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and at the Academy of St-Cyr, before commencing regimental duty MacMahon undertook two years of specialized training for the general staff from 1825 to 1827. He was then appointed as a sous-lieutenant to the 4th Hussars and he subsequently served In Algeria as a junior officer with the 20th Regiment of Line Infantry. MacMahon served as aide-de-camp to General Achard, and participated in the occupation of Algiers in 1830 and he stayed in Algeria from 1834–1854, and was wounded during an assault on Constantine in 1837. In December 1841 he was placed in command of a battalion of chasseurs à pied, designated regimental commander of the 2nd Foreign Regiment of the Foreign Legion in 1843, he was promoted to Divisional General in 1852. In the Crimean War, MacMahon distinguished himself in the Battle of Malakoff at Sevastopol, during which he uttered the famous quotation now attributed to him, Jy suis. He was offered the top French Army post after the war but declined, MacMahon was appointed to the French Senate in 1856. MacMahon fought in the Second Italian War of Independence as commander of the Second Corps and he secured the French victory at Magenta and rose to the rank of Maréchal de France while in the field. He was later created Duke of Magenta by Napoléon III as a result, in the Franco-Prussian War MacMahon commanded the I and V French Corps on the Army of the Rhines Southern line. On 4 August 1870 the Prussian 3rd Army attacked the Southern line and they quickly moved on to capture the city of Wörth two days later. After less than a week of fighting, the entire Army of the Rhine Southern line could not withstand the Prussian attacks and retreated west, MacMahon led the 120,000 strong remnants of the Army of the Rhine, reformed as the Army of Châlons, with Napoléon III
37.
Adolphe Niel
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Adolphe Niel was a French Army general and statesman, also Marshal of France. He was born at Muret, Haute-Garonne and entered the École Polytechnique in 1821, Niel entered the engineer school at Metz, became lieutenant in the Engineers Corps in 1827, and captain in 1833. At the storming of Constantine, Algeria, Niel led the detachment with one of the storming parties. Niel was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1840 and to colonel in 1846 and his next war service was as Chief of Staff to General Vaillant during the 1849 siege of Rome, after which he was made general of brigade and director of engineer services at headquarters. In 1851, Niel became a member of the Committee of Fortifications and he became a member of the council of state in 1852 and in 1853 was promoted to general of the division. In the first part of the Crimean War, Niel was employed in the expedition to the Baltic Sea, early in 1855 Niel was sent to the Crimea, where he succeeded General Bizot as chief of engineers. Niel managed to carry out this delicate and difficult task with as much success as could be expected and his reward was the grand cross of the Légion dhonneur. From 1855 to 1859 Niel was employed at headquarters and also served in the French Senate, in the war against the Austrians, Niel commanded the IV Corps and took part in the Battle of Magenta and the Battle of Solferino. Niel was made a marshal of France on the field at Solferino, after he served for some years in a home command, Niel became minister of war and held the position from 1867 to 1869. In this capacity he drafted and began to carry out a scheme of army reform, based on universal service. Under his system, those men who had purchased exemption from conscription into the army would nonetheless be called up into a new service and he also was able to rearm the whole of the army with the chassepot rifle, but not the Garde Mobile. He did not live to complete the development of his system, Niel died in Paris during an operation for a bladder stone, and a year later the Franco-Prussian War destroyed the old imperial army upon which the new formations were to have been grafted
38.
Joseph Vinoy
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Joseph Vinoy was a French soldier. He originally intended to join the Church, but, after years at a seminary, he decided upon a military career. As a sergeant in the 14th line infantry, he took part in the Algerian expedition of 1830 and he won his commission at the capture of Algiers and during the subsequent campaigns rose to the rank of Colonel. He returned to France in 1850, in the Crimean War, he served under François Certain Canrobert as general of brigade. For his brilliant conduct at the Battle of Malakoff in 1855 he was promoted to General of division and he later led a division of Adolphe Niels corps in the Battle of Solférino. Retired on account of his age in 1865, he was recalled to service on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. After the early reverses he was head of the XIII army corps. By a skilful retreat he brought his corps intact to Paris on September 7, during the Siege of Paris, Vinoy commanded the III army operating on the south side of the capital and took part in all the actions in that quarter. On Louis Jules Trochus resignation he was appointed to the supreme command, during the Paris Commune, he held important commands in the army of Versailles, occupying the burning Tuileries and the Louvre on May 23,1871. He was subsequently made a Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, Vinoy wrote several memoirs of the Franco-Prussian War, Operations de larmée pendant le siege de Paris, LArmistice et la commune, and LArmée française. The Municipality of Vinoy in Quebec, Canada, was named in his honour and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Anonymous
39.
Pierre Louis Charles de Failly
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Pierre-Louis Charles de Failly was a French general. He was born in Rozoy-sur-Serre, Aisne, the son of Count Charles-Louis de Failly and he was educated at the Saint-Cyr and entered the army in 1828. During the Crimean War he served in the siege of Sevastopol, during the Austro-Sardinian War he commanded the 2nd Infantry Division in the 4th Corps. In 1867 he led the French expeditionary corps sent to protect the Papal States with which he defeated Giuseppe Garibaldi at Mentana, back in France, he was made a senator for life. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Failly commanded the 5th Corps, Failly and his 5th Corps were routed at Beaumont on 30 August 1870 by two corps led by George of Saxony. In this battle the French were surprised in their cantonments and driven back upon Mouzon, the defeat closed the southern escape route and forced the French Army of Châlons towards the Belgian frontier and encirclement at Sedan. He was captured by the Prussians at Sedan on 2 September, the rest of his life was spent in retirement. He died at Compiègne, aged 82, opérations et marches du 5ème corps jusquau 31 août. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Failly
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