Daniele Manin

Manin, Daniele 

Born May 13, 1804, in Venice; died Sept. 22, 1857, in Paris. Figure in the Italian Risorgimento.

Manin was a lawyer by profession. In 1846 and 1847, when Venice was under Austrian rule, Manin led the bourgeois liberal movement that called for Venetian autonomy within the Austrian Empire. During the Revolution of 1848-49, he directed the anti-Austrian rebellion in Venice. After the victory of the rebellion and the proclamation of a republic, he headed the republican governments. Manin was extremely popular among the Venetian poor. However, during the Austrian intervention, Manin failed to rely on the masses. He appealed to the governments of Great Britain, France, and Piedmont for assistance and rejected the demand of the left republicans for a shift to a policy of active defense. After the fall of the republic in August 1849, he emigrated. In 1854 he renounced his republican ideals and supported the struggle for the national independence and unity of Italy under the aegis of the Piedmont monarchy.